Germany in September

kellyj77

Hi,

Myself and 6 friends are travelling to Germany for a week in September. We are flying into Munich (going to Okboberfest) and will be flying home from Frankfurt. We are hoping to get another city in somewhere in between these two cities on the wednesday of our trip.

Can anyone recommend a city which could potentially have a decent night-life or have decent touristy things to do on a wednesday? Potential cities we have identified are Nuremberg, Stuttgart, Wurzeberg, Bamberg and, Heidleberg. Other cities would be considered however they should be convenient and cheap(ish) to get to from both Munich and Frankfurt.

Thanks for any help

Eponymous

Any city with a student population would have decent nightlife during the week. Heidleberg definitely has a large university population, but I'm not entirely sure they go nuts in the same fashion as students do here. In any event, Heidleberg is lively enough anyway. There's one street in the old town, Untere strasse, that runs parallel to the Hauptstrasse which has loads of small bars to suit all tastes and a couple of larger venues too.

Only drawback is it's very close to Frankfurt, so it's a bit of a trek from Munich. That said, there's plenty to keep you occupied there. The old town is quite nice and the castle is worth a look around too. You can take a funicular up to Konigstuhl too, which is well worth it. It's a great trip up to the top and the views when you get there are fantastic.

If you're driving from Munich you can take a route called the Romantic Road most of the way. Obviously it takes much longer than the Autobahn, but you'll see some lovely towns and villages along the way. Ansbach is quite nice, Rothenberg ob der Tauber is gorgeous (was spared bombing in WWII and retains a lot of Gothic structures - it was also a location in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang)

munchkin_utd

All those cities are spot on for a visit and all are student towns so should be lively enough (even though i amnt sure if term will have already started by then).

If youre heading to Hahn then logistically Heidelburg might be good as you have a direct shuttle bus to Hahn from there.
Otherwise if flying from Frankfurt, if you are a group of lads Bamberg might be an idea, as it has an unbelievably large number of brewerys and some with their own guest rooms!
Würzburg is VERY wine orientated so would definitely be a hit for a group of girls, but even a crazy beer head like myself was converted after a trip there. The standard local wines are much nicer than a lot of the plonk that is sent to Ireland and UK.
Nürnburg is good as theres a great range of bars downtown and wandering between them down the medieval streets is an experience.

The only place I'd add is Regensburg which is also a student town and they have heaps of little bars hidden in basements about the place along with big places on the squares. Its kindof a cross between Galway and Prague!!

EDIT: if travelling by public transport, then the cheapest way is to specify one of the cities as an overnight stopover on your journey from Munich to Frankfurt, which should mean your stop costs you no extra, and if you do it right it might even work out cheaper altogether as you could manipulate your times to get the cheapest possible ticket. The only "catch" is that to get a deal on the price your stopover has to be on one of the direct routes of the journey, i.e. you couldnt specify Berlin as a stopover from Munich to Frankfurt!! (which used to be possible!)

kellyj77

Thanks very much for the responses. Some great information and tips there (particularly in relation to the trains). As an aside are any of the train journeys particularly noteable for scenery?

With regards to the mentioned towns, would the pubs/clubs etc close early seeing as we will be there on a wednesday or does any of the towns have potential to have late student nights?

kellyj77

Does anyone have any more input please?

thanks

munchkin_utd

None of the train journeys has spectacular scenery to be honest. The route via Stuttgart is maybe a little more interesting but its still not quite the same as taking the train down the Rhine valley into Bonn etc or say the route over the alps!

But heck, if you want to go somewhere then maybe just do Regensburg.
I was reading a wee article that claims it has the highest concentration of pubs in Germany which I can believe (and why I say its a cross between Galway and Prague, as theres heaps of pubs but like Prague many are wee cellar efforts!)
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/germany/bavaria/regensburg/entertainment-nightlife
Compared to Munich (or most other german cities) where everything is spread over the city - Regensburg is very concentrated on the old town so if one place doesnt suit you can just move on.

Gatica

We were in Heidelberg about 4 years ago. Loved that little town. It's really scenic, beautiful streets, great beer...
Don't know about the night life as we didn't go out for partying, just a nice quiet bar with darts and beer.
Nurnberg is great to visit, if only for the history. However we were there for a festival and didn't get around to the city sites.

irish_goat

Don't bother with Nuremburg. It's nice, I went there with my gf in June for 2 nights and that was loads for us. We were lucky and went when a local wine festival was on so there was music and craic in the main square but otherwise it would have been pretty boring we reckoned.

kellyj77

Thanks again...So im slowly narrowing my selection. Would any bars/clubs stay open late in the smaller towns like Regensburg or Heidleburg or would they close relatively early on a wednesday?

munchkin_utd

It seems that many places in Regensburg close at 1am during the week, some are there till 2 and the odd one for a bit later for instance this place which is open till 3am with DJ and whatnot. http://www.wunderbar.de/.
Is 3am late enough?

Heres a good site that lists 150 restaurants and 70 nightlife spots - most being literally in the space of downtown Galway!
http://www.regensburg-entdecken.de/#/kategorien/regensburg-entdecken/essen-trinken/77.1.html

donadoni

kellyj77 wrote: »

Hi,

Myself and 6 friends are travelling to Germany for a week in September. We are flying into Munich (going to Okboberfest) and will be flying home from Frankfurt. We are hoping to get another city in somewhere in between these two cities on the wednesday of our trip.

Can anyone recommend a city which could potentially have a decent night-life or have decent touristy things to do on a wednesday? Potential cities we have identified are Nuremberg, Stuttgart, Wurzeberg, Bamberg and, Heidleberg. Other cities would be considered however they should be convenient and cheap(ish) to get to from both Munich and Frankfurt.

Thanks for any help

Of the cities you listed here I would also recommend Heidelberg. Würzburg is also quite a nice place.
Regensburg, as mentioned here is a beautiful place and worth a visit.
What I would also recommend is Passau. It´s a smaller town (population of about 50 000) but has a huge university and is full of students and has therefore a very good nightlife. It´s also a very touristy place but still cheap (much cheaper than Munich or Frankfurt) for going out, hotels etc.
It´s a little bit off the direct Munich-Frankfurt route but there are direct trains from Munich to Passau (about 2 hours) and Passau to Frankfurt (4 hours). Trains are going at least every 2 hours from Munich to Passau and also every 2-4 hours from Passau to Frankfurt.