Stuttgart Hechingen Triberg Rust Baden-Baden

Hi

%26gt; Stuttgart, Hechingen, Triberg, Rust, Baden Baden.

%26gt; We (2 adults and an 11 year old) are hoping to complete the above round trip

%26gt; in around 7 days in October 2007.

%26gt; Is this realistic? Can I reach all these places by train? I have tried

%26gt; looking at train timetables but when i put in Hechingen for example, it comes

up

%26gt; with about 10 Hechingen somethings and I dont know which one it is.

%26gt; We want to see Stuttgart, hohenzollern castle near Hechingen, waterfall at

%26gt; Triberg, Europa Park and Baden Baden. Will we be best to stay a night at

each

%26gt; place and travel round rather than backwards and forwards from one place?

%26gt; Or is there a central place in the middle of all these we can day trip from?

%26gt; Any help/advice much appreciated as first trip to Germany.

%26gt; Also, any ideas on the weather around end October/November?

%26gt;

%26gt; Thanks, Nicola

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You can reach the Europa-Park by bus. All other listed places have a train station.

When using the DB timetable the default suggestion (first entry in the drop-down list) is in 99% the correct one. Just click again on [search connection]. Some places have more than one station. And the DB timetable knows also about all bus stops. Which ones are displayed is however a secret - Hechingen has rather 100 than 10 bus stops.

Worst connected place is Hohenzollern Castle. Albeit it%26#39;s only a short hike from Hechingen. To see the bus to the castle use

To: Burg Hohenzollern, Hechingen

For the Europa-Park use

To: Europa-Park, Rust

This place is well connected.

Itinerary is realistic.

Distance between all places is approx. 1,5 hours at minimum.

Directly between Triberg, Baden-Baden and Rust is Offenburg.

http://www.offenburg.de/

OK - but not as charming as staying directly in Triberg or Baden-Baden. Europa-Park has also hotels directly on site.

In the last years the weather end of October was really nice (for the time of the year). But nobody can give you a guarantee on this (but this is true for the whole year in Germany).

A good deal is the Baden-Württemberg Ticket (EUR 27,00). Valid for 2-5 persons. A day ticket covering all local trains and nearly all other local public transport (buses, in Stuttgart also trams) in the state Baden-Württemberg. Valid

Mo-Fr 9am - 3am next day

Sa,Su midnight - 3am next day

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Although theoretically you can get to, or close to, the places you want to visit by public transportation, it might involve a lot of transfers because some of the places you are going to are not connected with each other by train in a straight line fashion and you will also have to use buses. And then you have to get to the place you actually want to visit at your destination. Driving simplifies such a trip because you can drive directly between places and park as close as you can get to where you are actually going. If you are driving you can just easily throw your luggage in the boot and proceed to your next destinations where you can overnight without backtracking, and overnighting in just one location would also work out best by car. Driving also saves time as you don%26#39;t have to wait for your connections as you would have to do by public transportation.

A few further suggestions, the old college town of Tuebingen is one of my favorite places in Germany, and just north of it is the excellently preserved medieval Bebenhausen monastery. Nearby close to Reutlingen is Lichtenstein Castle, another delightful fairy tale-like castle as is Hohenzollern (Hechingen).

As to weather, who knows, as it is really now becoming unpredictable. It snowed on the Schwaebisch Alb (where the mentioned castles are) in early November last year, albeit it not much, and hasn%26#39;t really snowed since that I%26#39;ve been aware of. I think that 0-10C temperatures would be fairly normal, and always be prepared for rain, although it probably won%26#39;t rain that much. Hopefully there will be no fog which I think would cause the most problems with a visit.

The restaurant just off the highway turnoff below Hohenzollern Castle is a good place to have lunch.

Germanwings, www.germanwings.com , has two flights a day between London Stansted and Stuttgart. The timing is such, early morning and evening, that you can get almost an additional full day at your destination going in either direction.

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Thank you both so much for your help - very informative. I think maybe a car would be the better option if there are connections to be made as this will save us time, give us more freedom and be easier when dragging luggage and a moaning child around!

Do you know of any car hire places that will allow pick up in Stuttgart airport and drop off at Baden Baden airport (is this the same as Baden Europark airport?). It is looking much cheaper for us to fly into Stuttgart with germanwings and out of Baden Baden with Ryanair.

Are the road signs etc easy enough to follow - I am not an experienced right hand side of the road driver!

Any tips for budget (but nice!) hotels anywhere too would be much appreciated.

Thanks again, Nicola

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I would rent a car only upon leaving Stuttgart, not in the airport. You don%26#39;t need it in the city anyway.

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There are six rental car agencies at the Stuttgart airport: Avis; Budget; Europcar; Hertz; National Car / Alamo; and Sixt. Oftentimes cars rented from one location can be dropped off at another location in Germany with no drop off fees. Also, be aware that the luggage restrictions on Ryanair are more than Germanwings which has fairly liberal amounts.

I always recommend the City Hotel in Stuttgart which has free parking and is centrally located and one block away from B27 which is an easy way to get to Tuebingen and Hechingen. Stuttgart hotels can be booked through the Stuttgart tourist information office ( www,stuttgart-tourist.de ) and besides the online information there is a place there where you can order some of their publications. For other places to stay I would just travel visiting places of interest until you are ready to quit for the night and then just choose a hotel in a village or small town. Such hotels are inexpensive and will allow you to see the %26quot;real%26quot; Germany. The restaurants in these smaller places also have the best regional food. At the time that you are traveling, or at most any time, there shouldn%26#39;t be a problem finding acceptable accomodation, and some such places can be very enjoyable.

Since you are from England you might like to do some inexpensive shopping. Metzingen, a small town to the SE of Stuttgart, is a shopping mecca with the most factory outlets of anyplace in Germany and people from nearby countries make special trips to shop there.

A few other useful tourist information offices:

www.tourismus-bw.de

www.schwarzwald-tourismus.info

www.noerdlicher-schwarzwald.de

www.schwarzwald-sued.de

www.schwaebischealb.de

www.europapark.de

The problem is there is just too much to see and do, you need at least a month. You should have an excellent time and afterwards be ready to come back for more. Stuttgart has Europe%26#39;s largest Christmas Market, second largest Fall beer festival, largest Spring beer festival,and also a large wine festival at the end of August beginning of September all of which are fun to attend besides the other excellent nearby places to visit.

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Correct Stuttgart tourist information office:

www.stuttgart-tourist.de

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I see I left out the Metzingen website, www.metzingen.de , which will tell you which shops are there. Stuttgart also has excellent shopping and Breuninger%26#39;s in the center of town is Germany%26#39;s second largest department store.

Also, I ignored your question about driving. Driving in Germany should cause no problems. Use of signs is good and sufficient. Stuttgart will cause the most driving problems as it is the only large city you%26#39;re visiting. After the freeway B27 ends going into Stuttgart, stay in the middle of the three lanes. When the road becomes two lanes you will be in the right lane in which you should stay because otherwise you may be in the wrong compulsory left turn lane where the road narrows to one lane further down at the stop light. There is also a speed camera along the two lane part. Leaving the city to the south is easier because the number of lanes keeps expanding. I would recommend stopping at the Shell gasoline station on your right along this road when leaving and getting their maps #16 (which will cover most of your driving except Baden Baden and Stuttgart) and the Stuttgart region map #24 which will cover all except Triberg. These maps are very large scale (1cm = 1.5 km), show ALL rural roads, show all places of interest (castles, palaces, churches, monasteries, visitable mines, amusement parks, caves, vista points, etc.) and the better places to visit are highlighted in yellow or green, and the best also have a box around them. There is also an accompanying booklet which for map #16 includes city maps and guides for Freiburg, Freudenstadt, Tuebingen, Villingen and Schwenningen and map #24 Heilbronn, Schwaebisch Hall, Stuttgart, Tuebingen and the Stuttgart airport.

For most things in Stuttgart you won%26#39;t need a car as public transportation is excellent and will take you close to where you are going. If you choose to visit a few more remote attractions such as Solitude Palace, the Uhlbach wine museum, or the burial chapel on the Wuerttemberg then driving would be preferable. To visit Ludwigsburg and Germany%26#39;s largest perfectly preserved Baroque Palace or the excellent well preserved medieval center of Esslingen the S-bahn can be easily used.

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%26gt; Do you know of any car hire places that will allow pick up in Stuttgart airport and drop off at Baden Baden airport

Yes. All rental agencies having a branch at both ariports will allow this.

Hertz, Europcar and Sixt have offices at both airports.

(is this the same as Baden Europark airport?).

No.

Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden Airport aka Baden-Airpark (FKB) is in Rheinmünster.

http://www.badenairpark.de/

Lahr Airport aka Black Forest Airport Lahr (LHY) is in Lahr.

http://www.blackforest-airport.com/

This airport has a restricted passenger licence, i.e. it can be used only for guests of the Europapark.

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BRILLIANT - thank you all so much for your help. Can%26#39;t wait to get there now and see everything!

Thanks again.

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