First Time to Europe!

Hey All,

My student group and I will be traveling to Germany in Mid-June and are staying there for 10 days, then going onward to Poland. I have a few questions I was wondering if anyone could answer about my first trip to Europe:

What is the best/cheapest airport to fly into Germany? (We are staying in Leipzig)

What is the best/cheapest way to travel from country to country in Europe?

What cities would you recommend seeing, ideally that aren%26#39;t overrun by tourists?

Can anyone recommend any festivals/events to go to while in Europe?

Thats all I have for now, I would really appreciate your guys feedback! CANT WAIT!

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%26quot;What is the best/cheapest airport to fly into Germany? (We are staying in Leipzig)%26quot;

I imagine Frankfurt for most airlines, but check as some airlines may have cheaper flights to some other cities such as Duesseldorf. Be aware that it is possible to combine inexpensive onward train travel with your airline ticket. For some airlines this may be on one particular train, but for others there is more lattitude about train choices and restrictions. Check with your airline to see what they offer when train travel is placed on your airline ticket.

%26quot;What cities would you recommend seeing, ideally that aren%26#39;t overrun by tourists?%26quot;

That is usually just a few areas in Germany such as some places along the Romantic Road or Heidelberg. There%26#39;s so much to see and do in Germany, you should be able to visit excellent places with few tourists, even German ones. Germany has over 30,000 castles and palaces alone, there%26#39;s plenty out there. Just look through the Germany forum, and I think you can easily tell which places to avoid that have lots of foreign tourists. My wife, being a teacher, has contact with visiting school classes. One time a group of American students were asked how they liked their visit to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a premiere German tourist destination. They all replied that they hated it, they wanted to see German people, not almost entirely American and Japanese tourists!

If you want information on particular places, go to www.PLACENAME.de, substituting the actual place name. Many tourist offices will send you their excellent free information and you%26#39;ll find plenty of excellent places not overrun by foreign tourists. You might also avoid the places mentioned by Rick Steves in his books, as you will then be intermingling with his numerous American fans.

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Oh, one other thing about flights, you don%26#39;t have to restrict yourself with direct flights from the US to Germany. Last fall my cheapest roundtrip ticket from Stuttgart to Cleveland was with KLM through Detroit and Amsterdam, much cheaper than the other alternatives.

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I would suggest American Airlines from Columbus via O%26#39;Hare and direct to Frankfurt. That%26#39;s probably the cheapest

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hey jonahl,

once you are in leipzig, you definately should not miss Dresden and Berlin, both not too far away!

have fun - tom

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