Need help planning Germany trip

I'm in the very early stages of planning a trip to Germany for May 2006. I'm looking for some help regarding which parks to go to... suggestions for how to travel... hotel recommendations... perhaps a park or two in bordering countries. Anything at all would be greatly appreciated.

As of right now, I was planning on flying into Hamburg, as it seems to be the cheapest place to fly into. If anyone correct me on that, please do. Two parks on my must-do list are Holiday Park and Heide Park. Everything else is up in the air and i'm hoping to get some good suggestions from you guys. I'll be with my mother and aunt. Neither of them will be riding anything. So upon mentioning a park, if you could provide incite as to whether they would enjoy the park for scenery/landscaping/shows, please let me know. Particularly curious if there's anything of interest for them at Holiday Park and Heide Park.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Why not look at the ECC Germany routing in 2004? There are a few trip reports on the ECC site -

http://www.coasterclub.org/trips/reports/2004/germany/

There are also my own diaries here -

http://www.bannister.org/coasters/trips/2004/

Thanks Richard, anyone else please?

I hate to say this, but I agree with Richard Bannister :)

Europa Park and Phantasialand are two of the very best parks in the world IMHO and Holiday Park has one of the very best coasters in the world. Include these and you'll have a fantastic trip.

Hi,

I've only traveled to Germany for work, so I can't speak for the coaster/park part of your question, but as for general travel:

- Germany has an extensive train network. You can take them pretty much anywhere. There's extensive information on schedules and routes on their website: http://www.bahn.de. I haven't ever bought tickets off of here but I've used it for schedules and planning. If you're uncomfortable about driving while you're there these are a good option. I've been there many times for work and actually never driven there, but rather just relied on the trains and taxis. The site should tell you about types of trains. The ICEs (high speed trains) are pretty cool - low on scenery, but high on speed (no airtime tho). There's a cool route from about Bonn maybe to Frankfurt that goes along the Rhine...not a high speed but beautiful.

- If you don't speak much or any German, there are a number of American hotel chains who have taken over local hotels in many German cities and kept them pretty German, while still having desk staff that speak English. Best Western is one I've had good experience with. Another chain, which I think is German, called Maritim, also speaks English. In any situation a phrase book can't hurt either. (Die Birne ist kaput - the light is burned out - came in very handy one time in a no English ever situation)

I've always flown into Frankfurt or Dusseldorf so I can't speak for Hamburg.

I hope this helps some. If there is anything else general you want to know about traveling to Germany, let me know and I'll try to help.

Sandi

Ok, so I suppose i'll be hitting Europa Park, Holiday Park, and Heide Park. Which of those 3 would be the best to take my nonriding family to for the best landscape/scenery? Any other park I should consider adding?