Germany -- To avoid or no? - TravelPUNK Backpacker College Student Budget Travel Message Boards!

medsoc · 06-07-2006, 01:07 PM

First post... yikes!
As a short intro, I'm a 23 yo Canadian male thinking of traveling some of Europe for roughly two months this summer (tentatively June 22-August 22).

My questions is this:
What are people's opinions about traveling in Germany during the World Cup? Is it going to be so busy that it might be worth skipping this time around?

I will likely be flying into Paris, but don't really have a set itinerary of any kind. I'm kind of on a wing for the whole idea of the trip!
Places I would like to visit for sure are: Paris, Italy, Netherlands, Slovenia & Croatia.
Possibilities: Germany, an international student meeting in Serbia (Zlatibor August 1-7), after that... endless into Eastern Europe if I get that far.

I'm considering purchasing a Eurail select pass for Benelux, France, Italy, S&C, and I guess possibly Germany.. the reason for the question!

Cheers,

M

**bluepea** · 06-07-2006, 01:13 PM

Welcome to the boards. I love your list of countries. I absolutely LOVE Germany. I would definitely say go. If you're worried about the World Cup, just avoid major cities and make sure to prebook your accomadations. Perhaps its the food, or that I understand some of the language, or my ancestory, but Germany is always a must stop in my opinion!

The selectpass seems like it would be a good idea for you, since you plan on doing a lot of travel outside of Western Europe.

Welcome to the boards!

**space virgin** · 06-07-2006, 01:16 PM

Welcome to the boards!

Germany would certainly be worth it.

Just try to avoid whichever city is having a match and you should be ok.

On the other hand, if Germany isn't a huge focus on your trip, you could save it for the next one if you're really worried about it.

Have fun!

**expatben** · 06-07-2006, 01:19 PM

Welcome to the boards! Yeah man Germany is awesome the food, the langauge the gorgeous scenery I like Germany a lot. So definatly go to Germany. Berlin is cool if your worried find out where in Germany the matches are (they wont all be in Berlin) and avoid them.

medsoc · 06-07-2006, 10:06 PM

Thanks guys!

I guess that's my problem, I don't have much focus! Which doesn't much work with a Selectpass does it? (Or at least, comes at a fancier cost when I decide to randomly jet off to some cool sounding destination that a couple fellow backpackers are going to!)
At any rate, I'm definitely not at the point where I can definitely set some dates in Germany to book some hostels.

I like castles and such, can I find this in Germany? (Or I guess the better question is, where are the coolest castles in Europe?)

Egad, only two more days to decide to go for sure or not. My reserved flight into Paris is on hold! Cheers, back to reading.

**indierock05** · 06-07-2006, 11:24 PM

Germany shouldn't be bad for you. I agree with the virgin, since the world cup travels around, just try to work around the games, sucks much but you shouldn't miss the country, especially if you think you won't ever return as a backpacker...good luck on the trains

P.S. Berlin is the best city ever...enjoy

**tumblezweedz** · 06-08-2006, 12:44 AM

I don't know where the "best" castles in Europe are, but in Germany there sure are a LOT of them! Even the tiny little village up the road from us has it's burg (where some great king was born - I want to say Charlemange, but that just CAN'T be right...) and some of them are absolutely breathtaking, both in form and location.

The "Romantic Road" in Germany, which basically meanders along the Rhine, is a good gateway to a lot of these castles - they're castles, not palaces in general, plus it's beautiful and has great wine.

**freakypete** · 06-08-2006, 05:14 AM

Hmm feel like im about to contradict what i just wrote in the other thread, but its maybe best to wait til after the world cup finishes to come to Germany... even when there arent matches going on in a certain city there will still be a lot of fans around. Berlin in particular will be heaving with people the whole time, egal whether theres a match there or not

Germany is definitely worth it, like others have already said, but it will be really busy, and finding accomodation will be very difficult. if you are here til mid august then it would make sense to do germany at the end of the trip?