Trains are a hassle. I'd rent a car. I would have missed two trains on my last trip, if I hadn't understood German, when they rescheduled the train for a different track. Sometimes you end up on a full train and have to stand in the aisle the whole trip - not too fun. Leave the trains to the young backpackers.

It sounds like you will be spending too much time traveling and have little time to see the places you are thinking of visiting. Scale back your plans. Germany is full of wonderful things to see and do. There are over 30,000 castles and palaces alone, so you won't run out of things to do even staying in one city and its surroundings for your short trip.

If all you want to see is cities, the train is the way to go as having a car in a city makes little sense with the excellent public transportation. If you like more rural sights, drive, as they can be hard to reach by public transportation, and you can also stop where and when you like and there are a lot of excellent things along the way. Also, staying in more rural areas will be cheaper. Flying between a few cities in Germany may also make sense if they are far enough apart. There are several discount airlines where you should be able to find cheap flights.

Since I live in Stuttgart, I'll give you a few websites for Stuttgart and the surrounding area:

State of Baden-Wuerttemberg www.schloesser-und-gaerten.de www.tourismus-bw.de

Stuttgart www.stuttgart-tourist.de (world's largest Spring beer festival 12Apr-4May with lots of rides for children and adults besides the large beer tents www.stuttgarter-fruehlingsfest.de)

Black Forest www.schwarzwald-tourismus.info

Swabian Alb (low limestone mountains with a lot of castles and caves) www.schwaebischealb.de

Lake Constance (Bodensee) www.www.bodensee-tourismus.com

Upper Swabia (numerous beautiful Baroque churches, monasteries and palaces) www.oberschwaben-tourismus.de and the Baroque Road www.barockstrasse.org

Hohenlohe www.hohenlohe.de

That's months worth of interesting things in a small area. Other areas will have lots of things to offer, all excellent, but somewhat different.

I should also have mentioned two great castles, Burg Hohenzollern www.burg-hohenzollern.com and Lichtenstein www.schloss-lichtenstein.de, as well as the excellent old college town of Tuebingen with its hilly cobblestone streets www.tuebingen.de (however, this one probably doesn't have an English option).

For in and around Stuttgart, click on my name to see what else I've written.

"If we were to fly to Berlin, then go to Hamburg, Cologne, Heidelberg, Stuttgart, down to Fussen, and then back to Berlin, what's the best way to do this? Rent a car? Combination car and train?"

In 7-10 days? The best way is "not". At that pace the kids will remember what the back seat looks like but not much else.

You need to scale back, as marcopolko suggests.

You can stay in a region as Marcopolko suggests, or maybe hit two in that amount of time.

If you want to stretch yourselves, try a north-south run. Hamburg, Cologne and the Rhine Valley to the south (this is where your real medieval castles are) and Stuttgart and immediate vicinity would be about all I could manage with a family in that period of time. Trains cover this route quite thoroughly. Then fly home out of Stuttgart. Berlin and Füssen are too distant to worry about.

A car is a major liability going in and out of these major cities. Just use the train. Kids will love it and be able to move about, use the restroom whenever, people-watch. No one has to navigate, find parking, etc. - just enjoy your time.

Railpasses are the most convenient. You'd need a 4-day twinpass for the adults (about $400) and one kid's pass or regular kid-priced tickets (unsure of price) to cover the 7-yr-old (5-under is free.) That covers the major legs of your trip. But passes may not be the best deal. Spend some time at the German railways site and price some trips. 2 adults and 2 kids Hamburg to Cologne can cost as little as 69 Euros total if you book in advance a "Dauer-Spezial" ticket at www.bahn.de; I checked the arbitrary date of 5/20 and found this price available.

Thanks for the advice/caution. I can't imagine skipping Berlin - it was the original reason for visiting - and yet we'd like to see the Alps and some castles too. How long is the drive, just for argument's sake, from Fussen to Berlin? (Understanding that we drive A LOT in the United States). Fussen isn't an absolute must for us, but the pictures sure are enticing.

Also, I know I sound typically American, but a lot of the fun in the castles and the medieval towns is simply seeing them (since we don't have them in our country), as if we were taking a scenic drive, and not actually going into each one and learning about the history in depth for each one - which is not something a 4 and 7 year old want to do just yet anyway. We'd more likely pick what looks interesting along the way and stop for an hour or a few hours and then drive on to the next interesting looking place (in the south, anyway - not talking about the cities).

I hope that doesn't offend your sensibilities, but I'm looking at this as a trip that we're not likely to make again anytime soon, and would like to cover a lot of ground.

For Berlin you really need 3-4 days.

Check if you cannot get an open-jaw flight ticket. I.e. to Berlin but back from Munich, Stuttgart or Frankfurt.

Traveling back to Berlin from Füssen will cost you one day and brings you nothing.

My suggestion:

Berlin to Cologne by train (skip Hamburg, you've enough big cities on your list). Available from EUR 69,00 (for all of you together). You can book at earliest 89 days in advance. If you book at the begin of this period you should have no problem to get this special ticket.

Traveling ICE is certainly also for the kids a new experience on its own.

Rent a car in Cologne.

Explore the Middle Rhine Valley with its castles

http://www.welterbe-mittelrheintal.de/

talderloreley.de/impressionen/impressionen.0…

Stay in a castle, e.g.

Burg Stahleck in Bacharach

diejugendherbergen.de/cms/front_content.php…

Grafenschloss Diez (opened in 2007)

diejugendherbergen.de/cms/front_content.php…

Diez is in a side valley of the Rhine, the Lahn valley, which is also really nice.

http://www.daslahntal.de/

From Heidelberg to Stuttgart you can follow the river Neckar. The part till Heilbronn is identical with the Castle Road

www.burgenstrasse.de/showpage.php…

Thank you very much - I will look into all these links. I appreciate the information.

Abalada's suggestion seems do-able - substitute Berlin for Hamburg.

"the fun in the castles and the medieval towns is simply seeing them (since we don't have them in our country), as if we were taking a scenic drive, and not actually going into each one and learning about the history in depth for each one - which is not something a 4 and 7 year old want to do just yet anyway."

There are actually very few that you can go into - most are privately owned. Marksburg in Braubach has a very good tour; Burg Eltz (not actually on the Rhine, a car is most handy for this one, actually) is even better. I wouldn't suggest touring more than one, really, but just driving by really is a bit like waving as you pass the Louvre. My 8-year-old was blown away by her first castle tour. At a minimum, they'd enjoy crawling around on Rheinfels Castle ruins (in St. Goar) I'd think - not a real tour even.

Abalada's suggestion for castle hostels is a good one too. The Diez hostel is a lovely place, if not very castle-like inside anymore. Bacharach's is a bit more rustic.

If you are wed to Berlin and doing this trip by car, I think I'd suggest that you see Berlin and then drive, avoiding the larger cities you mentioned - Cologne, Hamburg, Stuttgart - in favor of the smaller countryside destinations on the rest of your trip. You don't really need to plan much if you do it that way at that time of year. Just stop in town at the tourist office and see what's available. I can see spending 4 days in Berlin and 4-5 days by car on the way to Füssen; there are many wonderful little places enroute. Head west to Goslar, Hameln, then south to Hannoversch Münden ("Fairy tale road" towns in this region), Fulda, Würzburg, Bamberg, Rothenburg, and the other Romantic Road towns on the way to Füssen, all are possibilities. Drop the car at MUC and fly out of there.

Good resource for accommodations in smaller places, especially Bavaria, including apartments (rooms for 4 are scarce):

www.bensbauernhof.com

My friend Roger and I went to Germany in September. You have tooooo much planned for the amount of time you have. If you travel on the autobahns its quick but you see nothing. There are so many cute towns and interesting places along the way. Do more research. Fussen area is beautiful with King Ludwig's Castle being a must do. We drove ourselves as we Leased a car in Paris but only viable for 17 days or more then it is cheaper than hiring or renting. Diesel cars are the best as more economical but you have to pay to park most places but your time is flexible.

Regards

Elaine Burrows

elaineburrows@hotmail.com if you want to write to me.