We are planning a large family trip to Germany (Schweinfurt) over the Christmas holidays. There will be a total of 5 adults and 6 children. Rather than try and rent multiple cars and try to do the tour thing ourselves, we would like to possibly hire a guide for at least a week. Any suggestions as to how to go about finding someone reputable and able to handle, including transportation, a large group like this.
Thanks, Patricia
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Transportation by car is not that easy.
You need either a van (8 seats) plus a normal car or real small bus (~ 20-25 seats).
van/car: you need children seats for children younger than 13 as long they are not over 1,50 m tall.
bus: you need a driver with a bus drivers license
The usual trip destinations around Schweinfurt could be also reached easily by train. E.g. W��rzburg, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Nuremberg, Bamberg to name a few.
Esp. without luggage traveling by trains is quite relaxing, the group can stay together, the children don%26#39;t have to stick to their seats. And the trains will bring you directly into the city centres (esp. useful for W��rzburg and Nuremberg).
Guess you will land in Frankfurt? Also from the airport to Schweinfurt the train would be an option. ICE train from the airport to W��rzburg is (as I guess) for sure a new and exiting experience for the children. Cars are more or less the same everywhere.
How many of the 6 children are
0-5 years:
6-14 years:
old?
You may also contact the tourist office of Schweinfurt. To some extent they will organize things by their own. And if there is a local guide offering the kind of service you%26#39;re looking for they will know for sure.
schweinfurtserver.de/Englisch_1272_0_0.html
tourismus@schweinfurt.de
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That%26#39;s great! We have one daughter w/husband in Iraq over in Schweinfurt now. She has three kids ages 5, 8 %26amp; 13. Our other and her husband will be flying over from Japan with their three, ages 15, 11 and 6. I will have them look into your suggestions for the train, including from the airport.
Do you have a suggestion for priority spots to visit. The military has some 2 %26amp; 3 day trips, including Paris but I don%26#39;t want to bore the kids to death with museums and shopping. Plus my husband can only stay for 1 week so we want to get as much bang for the buck as we can. The rest of us will be staying another week or so. We would certainly want to give the kids a history lesson on the concentration camps and WWII. Thanks!
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1. Children under 15 are free on far distance trains if traveling with a parent. But they must be listed on the ticket.
That%26#39;s e.g. an option from Frankfurt Airport to Schweinfurt.
2. Inside Bavaria a good deal is the Bavaria Ticket. EUR 27,00 for 2-5 persons. Thus you would need 2 of these tickets. The 5 year old is generally free and does not require a ticket with public transport. Bavaria Ticket covers only regional train. Initially no big problem as Schweinfurt is connected to the closer interesting cities anyway by regional trains only. The Bavaria Ticket does however cover also the buses, trams and U-Bahn (metro - only Nuremberg and Munich) in the cities. Validity
Mo-Fr from 9am till 3am next day
Sa,So from midnight till 3am next day
ideas
Christmas Markets (till 23./24. December)
Any town/city will have them. One of the most famous is in Nuremberg.
http://www.christkindlesmarkt.de/english/
Avoid the weekends if possible.
Nuremberg (1:18 minutes by train) has also some interesting museums and 3rd Reich related places.
nuernberg.de/internet/��museums.html
Thus to Nuremberg you could easily travel twice without getting bored there.
Bamberg (31-41 minutes)
http://www.bamberg.info
One of the largest cities in Germany not destroyed in WWII. The city with the most listed buildings in Germany. UNESCO world heritage. And the real beer capital of Germany.
W��rzburg (26-37 minutes)
Famous for the Residence (UNESCO world heritage) and Marienberg fortress.
��bayern.de/englisch/��wuerzbur.htm
Rothenburg ob der Tauber (~ 2 hrs)
The ultimate medieval town in Germany. Still with complete town wall. Quite touristic however.
http://www.rothenburg.de
There are however a number of nice medieval towns and castles closer to Schweinfurt.
- - -
Too far for day trips but an idea if you want to stay there overnight 2 nights or so.
Munich
2,5-3 hrs with ICE trains (up to 300 kph) between Nuremberg and Munich. Quite expensive however (EUR 62/66 per adult).
3,5-4,25 hrs with regional trains. Which travel also with up to 200 kph between Nuremberg and Munich. Bavaria Ticket is valid of course.
www.muenchen.de/Tourismus/6942/index.html
Close to Munich is Dachau concentration camp. In my opinion most of the children are however too young for this place. The documentation centre in Nuremberg is better suited for them.
Prague
6:42 (h:mm) from Schweinfurt. These fasted connections to Prague are inside Bavaria classified as regional trains.
Can be done also for cheap. Bavaria-Bohemia-Ticket (EUR 32,00 for 2-5 persons). Similar like the Bavaria ticket, but valid till Plzen/Pilsen. In the train you can buy normal tickets from Plzen/Pilsen to Prague (~ EUR 7,50 pp) from the Czech conductor.
For the return trip you would have to buy a Bavaria-Bohemia-Ticket in advance for the return day as you cannot buy this ticket in Prague or on the train.
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Thank you. I am keeping all of these replies so I have reference when we get closer to travel time. Should we buy tickets in advance? What about hotel accommodations for overnight trips such as you mentioned?
Patriciaa
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%26gt; Should we buy tickets in advance?
Tickets cannot sell out. Only seats. And this only on far distance trains (IC/EC/ICE). With regional trains seat reservation is not possible.
E.g. you could reserve seats from Frankfurt Airport to W��rzburg (on your route to Schweinfurt). This is possible at max. 89 days *) in advance. This can be done online through the DB timeable
http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en
*) due the timetable change 11. December it may be also only possible from early November on when the new timetable will/may/should go online.
Peak travel days will be 21., 24. and 28. December.
Bavaria Tickets are best bought on spot. As they come with no change - no refund.
%26gt; What about hotel accommodations for overnight trips such as you mentioned?
Here you better reserve in advance. To arrive and start to look for accommodation with this crowd of persons/children seems to be not a good idea to me.
A good site to search and book hotels is
http://www.hrs.com
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