Germany is one of those countries that many of us think we know rather well. We may have visited Berlin or Munich, travelled through the country on the way to Austria or Italy, enjoyed a Christmas market or perhaps spent a weekend in one of its great cities.
I realised some years ago that I was guilty of exactly that. I’d visited Germany on city breaks and travelled through it on several occasions, including those long family journeys towards Yugoslavia back in the 1970s, but I’d never really considered Germany as the destination for a longer holiday in its own right.
Travel professional Gabriele Scholes made me think again.
Gabriele knows Germany extremely well and originally contributed this article to Just One For The Road to highlight some of the places visitors often miss. What particularly appealed to me was that her Germany wasn’t simply Berlin, beer halls and Christmas markets. It was vineyards beside the Moselle, Baltic beaches, medieval towns, Alpine landscapes, river valleys and parts of southern Germany that rarely feature on the average British holiday itinerary.
Germany, as Gabriele was keen to point out, is about considerably more than sausages and sauerkraut.
Planning a trip to Germany? Take a look at my Germany Travel Guide for more ideas, city guides and inspiration for exploring the country.
A Country Made for Exploring
One of Germany’s great strengths is its variety. In the north there are beaches and seaside towns along the North Sea and Baltic coasts, while the south eventually rises towards the Bavarian Alps. Between them lie forests, vineyards, river valleys, medieval towns, modern cities and an extraordinary amount of history and culture.
Germany’s official tourism organisation highlights more than 10,000 towns and cities between the North Sea and the Alps, which gives some idea of just how much there is to explore beyond the obvious names.
It is also a country particularly well suited to travelling around. Railways connect cities and regions, while a road trip gives you the freedom to explore smaller towns and rural areas. Cycling and walking are equally important parts of the German outdoor lifestyle, with routes following rivers, crossing countryside and winding through some of the country’s most beautiful landscapes.
Then there is the food. Sausages, schnitzel, pretzels and sauerkraut certainly haven’t disappeared, nor would I want them to, but Germany’s regional cuisine is far more varied than those familiar stereotypes suggest. Add excellent beer, wine regions and a growing contemporary food scene and eating your way around the country can become an attraction in itself.
Germany’s North Sea and Baltic Coast
Beaches are probably not the first thing most British travellers associate with Germany, but the country’s northern coastline provides an entirely different type of holiday.
The North Sea and Baltic coasts are dotted with seaside towns, islands and long stretches of sand. Germany’s tourism organisation continues to promote destinations such as Kiel, Rostock and Lübeck alongside the country’s wider coastal regions, where historic towns can be combined with beaches and maritime landscapes.
Islands including Sylt, Norderney and Rügen have long been popular domestic holiday destinations, while Usedom sits on the German-Polish border and provides the rather unusual opportunity to walk along the Baltic coast from one country into another.
For anyone who has only experienced Germany through its cities, the coast is probably one of the country’s biggest surprises. There are elegant seaside resorts, dunes, cycling routes and those distinctive hooded German beach chairs known as Strandkörbe, which seem to appear everywhere once you reach the sea.
It isn’t the Germany most international visitors imagine, which is precisely why it is worth considering.
The Moselle Valley from Koblenz to Trier
Gabriele’s favourite way to experience Germany is considerably slower paced: walking beside its rivers with vineyards rising steeply on either side.
The Moselle Valley between Koblenz and Trier is particularly beautiful. Vineyards cling to slopes above the river, castles appear amongst the hills and attractive towns and villages provide plenty of excuses to stop.
Wine is inevitably part of the experience. The Moselle is particularly famous for Riesling, and wineries and wine taverns can be found throughout the valley.
You don’t need to explore by car either. Walking and cycling routes follow the river, trains connect many of the towns and boats provide another wonderfully leisurely way of seeing the landscape.
This is perhaps the sort of Germany I find increasingly appealing. Rather than racing between major attractions, you can spend a few days walking, tasting local wine and allowing the river to determine the pace of the journey.
Germany Tip: If you enjoy wine, don’t think of Germany purely as beer country. The Moselle and Rhine valleys are amongst Europe’s great wine regions and are particularly enjoyable when explored slowly.
Following the Rhine
Then there is the Rhine, one of Europe’s great rivers and another natural route through Germany.
The river passes some of the country’s best-known cities and historic towns, including Cologne, Bonn, Koblenz and the wider Rhineland, while castles, vineyards and villages line some of its most scenic stretches.
The Rhine is understandably popular with river cruises, but there are plenty of other ways to explore it. Rail routes follow significant sections of the river, cycling paths allow you to travel at a much slower pace and individual towns can easily be incorporated into a longer German itinerary.
For Gabriele, Germany’s rivers are about much more than simply getting from one place to another. They provide a way of experiencing the landscape, food and wine of each region, particularly when you have enough time to stop rather than simply pass through.
Bavaria and the German Alps
At the opposite end of the country, Bavaria provides many of the images international visitors most readily associate with Germany: mountains, traditional villages, beer, castles and Alpine scenery.
The Bavarian Alps along the Austrian border are a year-round destination. Winter brings skiing and other snow-based activities, while the warmer months open up walking and hiking routes through the mountains.
This is also castle country, with Neuschwanstein providing the fairy-tale image that appears on countless postcards and travel brochures.
One of the classic ways to reach it is along Germany’s Romantic Road, which runs through Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg between Würzburg and Füssen. The route passes attractive towns and countryside, with Rothenburg ob der Tauber among its best-known stops before reaching the Alpine landscapes further south.
It is easy to understand why this part of Germany receives so much attention, but Gabriele’s travels also introduced me to areas nearby that are considerably less familiar.
Discovering Baden-Württemberg
To the west of Bavaria lies Baden-Württemberg, an area Gabriele knows particularly well and one she believes deserves far more attention from international visitors.
She often bases herself in Ulm, which sits conveniently between Stuttgart and Munich and provides a good starting point for exploring the surrounding region. The city’s enormous Münster dominates the skyline, while the historic Fishermen’s Quarter provides a very different atmosphere beside the River Danube.
From Ulm, Gabriele enjoys exploring towns including Tübingen, Biberach and Ravensburg, along with monasteries, castles and smaller communities scattered across the countryside.
Tübingen is particularly attractive, with its historic university, colourful old town and riverside setting on the Neckar. Traditional punts glide along the river beneath the old town, giving parts of the city an almost timeless feel.
Nearby Bebenhausen is known for its medieval monastery and historic village, while the wider region offers countryside, nature reserves and easy access towards Lake Constance, Switzerland and Austria.
These are exactly the sorts of places I enjoy discovering through somebody else’s travel story. They may not have the international recognition of Berlin or Munich, but they can provide a much more personal introduction to a country.
The Black Forest and Lake Constance
Continue west towards the French border and another famous German landscape appears: the Black Forest.
Yes, this is the home of cuckoo clocks and the cake that bears its name, but there is considerably more to the region than either. Forested mountains, lakes, attractive towns and extensive walking and cycling routes make this one of Germany’s great outdoor destinations.
Freiburg provides an excellent base for exploring the region, while places such as Titisee introduce the lakes and wooded landscapes for which the Black Forest is famous. Germany’s tourism organisation continues to highlight the Black Forest amongst its nature-focused and sustainable destinations.
Further south, Lake Constance, or Bodensee, sits alongside Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Historic towns including Meersburg line the shore, while boats, cycling routes, vineyards and views towards the Alps make this another region where the journey is as important as any individual attraction.
For a touring holiday, combining the Black Forest with Lake Constance would give you a wonderfully varied introduction to southern Germany.
Germany’s Cities and Festivals
Of course, Germany’s cities shouldn’t be ignored simply because this article is about looking beyond them.
Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Dresden and Düsseldorf are all very different city-break destinations, while smaller historic cities can be every bit as rewarding. Germany’s cultural offering ranges from museums and galleries to architecture, music and an enormous calendar of festivals.
Christmas markets remain one of the country’s great seasonal attractions, but Gabriele also recommends experiencing German Karneval, particularly in the Rhineland.
The celebrations reach their peak in the days before Ash Wednesday, with Cologne, Düsseldorf and other cities hosting parades, costumes, music and festivities. Rosenmontag, or Rose Monday, brings some of the biggest processions.
It is another side of Germany that visitors from abroad don’t always experience and a reminder that the country changes considerably depending on the season.
More Than Sausages and Sauerkraut
What I like about Gabriele’s view of Germany is that it challenges the idea that the country is primarily somewhere for a weekend city break or a place you drive through on the way to somewhere else.
You could spend a summer holiday beside the Baltic, follow the Moselle through wine country, drive the Romantic Road towards the Alps or base yourself somewhere like Ulm and explore the smaller towns of southern Germany.
Then there are the Black Forest, Lake Constance, the Rhine, Germany’s national parks and the seemingly endless choice of walking and cycling routes.
Germany is also remarkably accessible from the UK, particularly if you want to make the journey part of the holiday rather than simply flying from one city to another. Rail travel through northern Europe opens up plenty of possibilities, while driving gives you the freedom to explore the smaller places that inspired Gabriele’s original article.
Perhaps the biggest lesson for me was recognising that I’d spent years travelling through Germany without really travelling around Germany.
There is quite a difference.
And when you start looking beyond the familiar city breaks, it becomes increasingly difficult to understand why Germany isn’t higher on more British travellers’ holiday lists.
About This Germany Experience
This article was originally contributed by travel professional Gabriele Scholes, who shared some of her favourite German regions and experiences with Just One For The Road.
Her original contribution has been updated to remove the temporary travel information surrounding its publication in 2021 while retaining her personal recommendations, particularly the Moselle Valley, Baden-Württemberg and the lesser-known Germany she knows and loves.
