German holiday with Teenager!

Millerz

Hi...first time to post! Can anyone give me help with a weeks holiday in Germany end July with a teenager who loves German and would like to go there. Not beach type sun-worshippers or mad into activities. Maybe near a theme park or a decently priced river cruise? Anyone done this before and can help me. Thanks!

Ziphius

Cologne perhaps?

There are many cruises along the Rhine and the city is very close to the amusement park Phantasia Land . You also have Germany's most popular tourist attraction: Cologne Cathedral.

You can get very reasonable flights with Aer Lingus to Dusseldorf which is about 30 minutes away by train.

Millerz

Thanks very much for your help!

random_guy

Europa Park maybe?
Freiburg is pretty close by, really nice. The Rhine on your doorstep.

http://www.europapark.de/lang-en/Startseite/c1174.html

Ziphius

No problem.

I'd also recommend looking into Munich and Berlin. Both great cities, though I don't know If they are close to theme parks/ river cruises.

coylemj

Is the teenager into science and technology? The Deutches Museum in Munich will keep him entertained for the week, best science museum outside the Smithsonian in Washington D.C.

http://www.deutsches-museum.de/en

Millerz

Thanks everyone for all ur help here. Research to be done!

munchkin_utd

coylemj wrote: »

Is the teenager into science and technology? The Deutches Museum in Munich will keep him entertained for the week, best science museum outside the Smithsonian in Washington D.C.
http://www.deutsches-museum.de/en

in addition to that Legoland Germany is only an hour from Munich www.legoland.de/en/

Also an hour from Munich is the Skyline park with roller coasters and whatnot http://www.skylinepark.de/

A half hour away from Munich is the Erding Therme which has the largest water park in europe with 20 water slides.
http://www.therme-erding.de/de/100683/100888/english.html
Theres a whole load of different areas in there and the basic price includes all the waterslides and pools, the extras then mentioned on the website are for the saunas and other fancy grown up stuff. You can also get a combi train and entry ticket which is described here:
http://www.mvv-muenchen.de/de/unterwegs-im-mvv/touristen-freizeitaktive/mvv-thermenwelt-ticket/index.html

Still, during the summer theres a half dozen open air pools in Munich with a few slides which are only 3 euro to get into and you can spend the hottest part of the day cooling off in there.

Munich is also a great city to just wander about on the bike, you can go for miles along the river or just criss cross the city itself.
If your teenager is 16+ then they could even learn a healthy respect for beer and stop off for an hour or 2 in one of Munichs leafy beergardens. Heck, even if they arent going to have a beer and are going to enjoy a mineral or ice cream its still an experience to be sitting with 5000 other people in the shade of say the Chinese Tower listening to the traditional german brass band playing their tunes.

Historywise you can take a daytrip to Nürnberg to see where the Nazi trials happened (saturday only) or the marching grounds which has a large very informative free documentation centre on the general background and more specific details of what happened there.
Berchtesgaden also has a documentation centre on what was practically the second seat of the Nazi government in the picturesque alps, with bunker complex and Hitlers Holiday house on top of a mountain the "Eagles Nest". The Königsee (lake) is also nearby which you can take a very relaxing boat trip on.

Actually, theres 3 other very large lakes just a stones throw from Munich which you can also take a trip on.
And if you fancy a river trip, Passau is only a couple of hours away and is a lovely town and its cathedral has the largest organ in the world. But its also on the Danube and theres trips every few hours up and down the river including one ran by a boat which is decorated to the hilt inside with Swarovski crystals!!

Theres loads of other stuff to do around Munich or nearby.
Neuschwanstein (inspiration for Disneyland castle), Salzburg which is lovely, Regensburg which is has 1000+ unesco listed buildings, Rothernburg ob der Tauber which is a walled medieval town that almost in a timewarp from 600 years ago.
Oh, the alps also are quite picturesque and you could get a cable car up and admire the views. Garmisch Partenkirchen is a good place to go from Munich, or a little further and you are in Austria.

jjbrien

random_guy wrote: »

Europa Park maybe?
Freiburg is pretty close by, really nice. The Rhine on your doorstep.

http://www.europapark.de/lang-en/Startseite/c1174.html

+1 on Freiburg its a nice city and you have Basel in Switzerland not far away and Stuttgart too. Also only an hour from the French Boarder too lots of stuff on your door step.

I went to Europa Park as a teen and loved it. Lots of rollar coasters etc there

munchkin_utd

Millerz wrote: »

Hi...first time to post! Can anyone give me help with a weeks holiday in Germany end July with a teenager who loves German and would like to go there. Not beach type sun-worshippers or mad into activities. Maybe near a theme park or a decently priced river cruise? Anyone done this before and can help me. Thanks!

river cruises arent really that cheap but then again you have food, travel and accomodation so that has to be factored in.

Heres the website for Viking Cruises who are one of, if not the biggest inland operator
http://www.viking-flusskreuzfahrten.de/regions/index.aspx

you'd need to search about to see if theres something that suits your schedule and pocket. Its all in german unfortunately, but if you use google chrome browser it'll offer to translate it as you go.

CelticRambler

There's a "Grimm's Fairy Tales" trail relatively recently opened in northern Germany that explores the real towns and characters behind the stories which might provide a quick-and-easy introduction to German literature (easier than Goethe and the like, anyway). You'll have to Google it, I've lost mislaid my references.

And of course there are all the WW2 locations to visit, if history is on the agenda. Over near Munich you'll find the Dachau concentration camp that my son visited on a school trip (he thought it more moving and "authentic" than the Auschwitz-Birkenau tourist attraction we also visited last year).