Berlin Express
9 DAYS
Berlin 2 • Munich 3 • Rothenburg ob der Tauber 1 • Frankfurt am Main 1
Basic Inclusions
Accommodations
Accommodations in centrally-located three-star or four-star hotels. Rooming on a triple basis. Double rooms: $50 per night, per person.
Meals
All breakfasts. All dinners.
Transportation
Round-trip transportation on scheduled airline. Deluxe touring motorcoach. All public transportation tickets included where applicable.
Guide
Services of a specially-trained passports Tour Director throughout. All tips are included in the Program Cost. Whisper headsets included.
Travel Protection
Passports provides and pays for a Post Departure Travel Protection Plan that includes coverage for Trip Interruption, Trip Delay, Medical Expense and Evacuation and more.
Tour Summary
Itinerary Includes
Unlimited public transportation
Days 1-2: Arrival Berlin
Arrival transfer
Day 3: Berlin
Half-day city sightseeing: Local Guide
Excursion to Potsdam: Visit to Sanssouci Palace
Visit to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum
Day 4: Berlin - Munich
Departure transfer, ICE Train Berlin-Munich, Arrival transfer
Day 5: Munich
Half-day city sightseeing in Munich: Local Guide, Visit to the Nymphenburg Palace and Gardens
Excursion to Dachau: Visit to the Dachau Memorial Concentration Camp
Day 6: Munich
Excursion to Neuschwanstein: Guided tour at Neuschwanstein Castle
Day 7: Munich - Rothenburg ob der Tauber
The Romantic Road, Sightseeing stop in Dinkelsbühl
Tour director-led walking tour in Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Day 8: Rothenburg ob der Tauber - Frankfurt am Main
Heidelberg Castle Courtyard, Wine Barrel and German Apothecary Museum, Rhine River cruise
Day 9: Departure
UNPARALLELED STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE
Detailed Itinerary
Days 1-2: Arrival
A dream comes true as your wide-bodied jet thunders off the airstrip, Europe-bound. Time for a meal, a movie and a nap. Then it gets light again, first off the left-hand side of the airplane, then everywhere. It's morning and your destination is Berlin, Germany!
You're about to discover a city that has risen from the scars of World War II and the Cold War to reclaim its former splendor as the capital of a reunited Germany. Potsdam Square, long a desolate sector of East Berlin, is once again its most vibrant district.
Overnight: Berlin
Day 3: Berlin City Sightseeing, Excursion to Potsdam, Checkpoint Charlie Museum
"Ich bin ein Berliner!" On a guided tour of the city, you'll understand why John F. Kennedy made this claim on behalf of all world citizens. See Rathaus Schöneberg, where 1,500,000 West Berliners flocked to hear this speech in 1963, the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, the imposing Soviet War Memorial, Kurfürstendamm, the historic Unter den Linden, now checkered once again (under its trees) with Western-style sidewalk cafés, and what's left of the Berlin Wall.
A half-day local guide, well-educated and specially-trained on the history and culture of Berlin, will accompany your group.
Today's excursion takes you to Potsdam to visit the summer residence of Frederick the Great.
Discover the summer residence of Frederick the Great, built among the hills and meadows of Potsdam. This 18th-century lover of artistic endeavors designed for his court an outrageously lavish palace and named it Sans Souci (French for "without a care").
Walk through the palace's luscious park, which is adorned with a monumental staircase, fountains and pavilions, in particular the graceful Chinese Tea-House.
Delve into the city's gripping history at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. As the best-known crossing point between East and West Berlin, Checkpoint Charlie became a symbol of the East/West split of both Berlin and Germany, and, for East Germans who wanted to escape, a gate to the West.
Overnight: Berlin
Day 4: Train to Munich
Travel aboard a high-speed ICE train bound for München, Germany's third-largest city.
You'll be struck by your first impression of Munich and its landmarks, which have been beautifully restored to their pre-war conditions.
Overnight: Munich
Day 5: Munich City Sightseeing, Excursion to Dachau
A sightseeing tour in München takes you around the impressive Theresienwiese, site of the famous annual Oktoberfest. In the center of the city discover the grand set-piece boulevards of the Ludwigstrasse and Maximilianstrasse with their Neoclassical palaces, and the monumental Feldherrnhalle where, in 1923, Hitler failed in his attempt at the coup d'état known as the Munich Putsch. See the student area of Schwabing, Königsplatz, the Residenz, the Frauenkirche, whose 300-foot-high onion-domed towers symbolize the Munich skyline, and the historic Marienplatz. The tour ends with a performance of the red-coated mannequins in the Town Hall Glockenspiel.
A half-day local guide, well-educated and specially-trained on the history and culture of Munich, will accompany your group.
Visit Nymphenburg Palace, once the summer residence of the Bavarian sovereigns. See rooms decorated in their original Baroque style from the 17th century, as well as Rococo and Neoclassical decor. The gardens were landscaped in the 18th century by an employee of André Le Nôtre, who designed the gardens of Versailles.
Set out for a town located a mere twelve miles from Munich.
Enter KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau, the Nazi concentration camp, which has been preserved as a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust.
The town of Dachau itself, paradoxically, has long been renowned for the beauty of its scenery and the gaiety of its summer festival.
Overnight: Munich
Day 6: Excursion to Neuschwanstein
Today's excursion takes you along a scenic route into fantasyland.
Enter the dream castle built by Bavaria's "mad" King Ludwig II. About Neuschwanstein, the model for Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty's castle, it is said that Ludwig employed a stage set designer rather than an architect. The result is pure theatrical fantasy, stimulated by the King's fancy for Wagnerian music: from artificial grottoes to ornate rooms to dazzling views of the Alps from the belvedere.
Overnight: Munich
Day 7: Dinkelsbühl, Rothenburg Walking Tour
Follow the Romantische Strasse, famous for its castle-topped hills and rural greenery.
Pause along the Romantic Road to view the ramparts and watchtowers of the enchanting town of Dinkelsbühl.
Continue to the unforgettable medieval walled city that peers down upon the River Tauber.
Enjoy the car-free Old Town as you step back to the 1500s on a stroll that includes feudal walls, towers, and the Street of the Nobles, Herrengasse. See comfortable burgher houses that mark the birth of the German middle class.
This evening, you may choose to follow a costumed "night watchman" on a guided Lantern Tour where you can learn the secrets of the medieval city.
Overnight: Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Day 8: Heidelberg, Rhine Valley, Frankfurt
Journey on to Heidelberg, a town famous for its university and the majestic castle that inspired Sigmund Romberg's 1924 operetta The Student Prince.
Pay a visit to the regal Schloss which overlooks Heidelberg and the Neckar Valley. Your visit includes the castle's courtyard, the German Pharmacy Museum housed in the castle, and the 50,000-gallon wine barrel!
Travel to the scenic Middle Rhine Valley.
Enjoy a cruise on the mighty Rhine River, with sights pointed out to you on the way. Beware the call of the siren as the Lorelei Rock comes into view!
Travel to Germany's fifth-largest city, which is also Europe's financial center.
Frankfurt has made the most of its situation as a ford on the River Main and as a stage on a trade route from southern to northern Europe. Customs houses brought revenues, as did the great trade fairs. Some of the country's oldest banks were founded there; the first German stock exchange was established in 1585. Nowadays, Frankfurt can claim the largest airport in Europe and the third largest port in Germany.
Overnight: Frankfurt am Main
Day 9: Departure
Auf Wiedersehen! Memories of Glockenspiels, Cinderella castles, oom-pah bands, fastidiously clean villages and fast, sleek automobiles all blur together as you bid adieu to Germany at the bustling Frankfurt airport.
You'll arrive home eager to share your adventures with family and friends.
CUSTOM TOURS
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Berlin City Sightseeing
Excursion to Potsdam
Munich City Sightseeing
Excursion to Neuschwanstein
Tour director-led walking tour in Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Heidelberg Castle Courtyard
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