Going to Frankfurt Germany and other Europe suggestions

[k&b05]

We found a great flight direct to Frankfurt. My DH has TONS of miles, so we'll get to upgrade to business classs.

I've never been to Europe before. He's been a couple times. So, if we fly in to Frankfurt, where should I look for things to do? Websites? I was thinking we could do some driving around the Alps. We're going the week of Thanksgiving (US Thanksgiving), so I don't know if weather will be a huge issue with snow on the highways, etc.

I'm really quite terrible with my European geography, but I know that France, Switzerland and Austria are all nearby countries. I'd love to go to Paris, but I'm not sure we'll have enough time. We're planning to be in Europe for 6 days (this excludes travel days).

Any tips or things I need to take into consideration when planning our vacation? This is sort of a last minute trip, but seeing the good fare deals out there we decided what they hey. :)

Thanks!

[emmjay]

One possible itinerary would be to go down to Munich and then around the Bavarian Alps. Some nice towns to visit would be Garmisch (ski town) or Berchtesgaden, which is near the Austrian border. You could go to Salzburg, Austria from there as well. That would be doable in 6 days if you rent a car. You wouldn't be able to spend a whole ton of time in each place, but they are all fairly close together and the scenery is beautiful. I know Switzerland is very nice so hopefully someone can give you some suggestions for there as well.

If you want to go to Paris you could try finding a connecting flight through there. As long as your connection is less than 24 hours, you shouldn't have to use extra miles (I don't think - you don't have to pay extra to do that, so you shouldn't have to use extra miles). DH and I did that once - we were flying to Portugal so we went through Paris, arrived in the evening and went to the opera, then did some quick sightseeing the next morning/early afternoon before flying to Lisbon that night. Kind of a whirlwind, but I had always wanted to visit Paris too so I thought it was worth it!

[Jazz]

Would you consider traveling by train? Emmjay's list is great, and I'd throw in Stuttgart either at the beginning or end (it's a short (1 hr?) train ride from Frankfurt), and maybe Bern in Switzerland ... perhaps check out Stuttgart your first jet-lagged day/night, and then head out from there.

I think I'd skip Paris, unless you can find a cheap air ticket. Well, one-way fares are pretty easy to come by in Europe, so you could take the train and head south, fly to Paris, fly back to Frankfurt, and head home. That might not waste too much travel time.

To narrow it down to exactly what you want to see, I'd suggest going to your library and getting travel books on Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, and see what grabs your attention. (There are a lot of nice castles to see in southern Germany, so if that's something you like, that might tip the scales towards driving rather than flying.)

Also, it's worth thinking whether you might be back to Europe in 1-2 yrs. vs. another 10 years. If this is a once-in-a-decade trip, then maybe you'd be happier hitting the big cities (Munich, Salzburg, Paris) vs. spending less time traveling / more time seeing the sights of southern Germany / northern Austria / Switzerland ...

[k&b05]

Thanks!! DH just emailed me and told me about the Christmas markets. It looks like we'll be there during a time when the markets will be open, so I think we'll definitely hit those for a day. I actually would be totally okay just staying in Germany. I think it would be beautiful to see some castles and stuff like that. I've never ever been to Europe, so I have a bit of that feeling like a kid in a candy store right now. I may be stopping by the bookstore soon to pick up a book or two on the area.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm open to more! :)

[Rosebud]

Websites where you can find lots of helpful info on the area & itinerary suggestions:

http://www.fodors.com (be sure to check out the message boards here!)
http://www.frommers.com

Cheap airline tickets within Europe:

http://www.ryanair.com
http://www.easyjet.com

Have fun! :)

[tlew12778]

Take a look in the Europe thread for a list of cheap airlines. Skyscanner.net will do a contemporaneous search of all of them for you.

6 days... I would either stay around Germany or fly out to some other major city. You would need to use more miles however. When I upgrade using miles, it is only valid on my transatlantic portion (the most important part obviously). If I want to upgrade on the intra-EU part, it's like a US-domestic upgrade.

What cities do you dream of seeing? That is where I would head. I would not do more than 2 major cities. You could also fly down to Pisa and do the Tuscan countryside for 4-5 days.

[Patience]

I recently returned from a trip to Germany and Switzerland. We flew out of Frankfurt, but didn't really tour the city because we had less than a day there. Heidelberg and Rothenburg is relatively close to Frankfurt (1-2 hours each way). As mentioned, Munich is a 3 hour train ride from Frankfurt. What are you hoping to do or see? Munich is a relatively big city with cool shopping and great food. But there's still things to see (Residenz, Schloss Nymphenburg, museums, churches). Schloss Neuschwanstein is about 1-2 hours drive outside of Munich (this is the inspiration for Disney's Sleeping Beauty Castle). Heidelberg is a much smaller town, but hip because of the university there. I would recommend going to Rothenburg because it's so different than the other cities mentioned. It's supposed to be the most preserved medieval city in Germany.

If you have more questions, I would be happy to answer them for you.