Germany by Train

Eleven Cities in a Loop from Berlin

Come along on a journey through the central and eastern side of Germany, traveling by train on a loop that begins and ends in Berlin and takes in 11 base towns over about four weeks, with several day trips along the way and many interesting sights to enjoy. If you are considering a Germany visit, this group of towns provides a good collection to choose from, with an itinerary you can easily modify for your own particular interests and time available.

• Berlin, 3 nights; DT (day trip) Potsdam, Brandenburg
• Hamburg, 4 nights; DT Lübeck, Lüneburg, Stade
• Bremen, 2 nights; DT Oldenburg
• Hannover, 2 nights; DT Celle
• Goslar, 2 nights; Wernigerode en route
• Quedlinburg, 2 nights
• Erfurt, 2 nights; DT Mühlhausen
• Würzburg, 2 nights; DT Rothenburg ob der Tauber
• Bamberg, 2 nights; DT Coburg
• Leipzig, 2 nights; DT Naumburg
• Dresden, 2 nights; DT Meissen
• Berlin, 3 nights again at end

This is a manageable list of 11 base towns with several day trip destinations, an ambitious but comfortable journey. For your own planning, the route can be modified by slowing it down, spending more time in various places, or eliminating some places from the list. These pages present detailed information for you to consider -- a big menu with delicious choices. Even if you're not traveling it's fun to look at the many pictures, do some reading and take an armchair trip.

Thanks to Germany's excellent Deutsche Bahn train system it is easy to get from one place to the next with the efficient sequence presented here, with cities easily visited by train, usually with direct connections under two hours. The focus of this trip is on smaller cities with well-preserved historic centers, pedestrian zones, picturesque waterfronts, along with several larger cities.

You can enlarge this map in its own page by clicking the square symbol in upper-right corner.

Google My Map outlines the route with locator pins containing brief descriptions. There are similar maps for each of our destinations in the following pages. The city maps are loaded with information about the places and hotels, which can be opened by clicking on the various points, including direct links to the hotel websites and emails. These can be used in your mobile devices if you are visiting these places, to help you get around, as described here.

Our routing is not presented as any kind of definitive "best cities" of Germany but is a plan to visit generally lesser-known, beautiful places that are not crowded, with many attractive sights to enjoy, along with several major cities. There are about 10,000 towns in Germany, with 25,000 castles, palaces and mansion houses. Here we present a sample of some of the most interesting places in central and eastern Germany.

The journey, town by town

The loop begins in Berlin, the capital and an ideal place to start, combining grand government quarters, world-class museums and vivid evidence of a divided past with the energy of a city in constant reinvention. Three nights give time for the landmarks — the Brandenburg Gate, Museum Island, the Reichstag and remnants of the Wall — with room to spare. An easy day trip runs out to Potsdam, the former Prussian royal seat, where the palaces and landscaped parks of Sanssouci and the New Palace reflect the ambitions of Frederick the Great and provide a graceful contrast to the capital's urban scale.

Moving north to Hamburg, Germany's great port city asserts its maritime identity through the harbour, the canals and the red-brick warehouses of the UNESCO-listed Speicherstadt, floodlit and reflected in the water at dusk. Four nights make Hamburg a comfortable base for several excursions. The first is to Lübeck, the "Queen of the Hanseatic League," whose island old town of brick-Gothic churches, gabled merchant houses and the twin-towered Holstentor recalls the centuries when it dominated Baltic trade.

Two more day trips reward the Hamburg stay. Stade is a small Hanseatic gem on the timber-frame road, its old harbour lined with 17th-century facades and half-timbered houses set above a quiet canal crossed by a humpbacked bridge. Lüneburg, once wealthy from the salt trade, presents a handsome townscape of stepped gables and leaning brick facades, its prosperity written into the grand houses that line its market streets and squares.

The route turns west to Bremen, a proud free city and Hanseatic trading centre, where the UNESCO market square gathers the ornate Town Hall, the Roland statue and the bronze Town Musicians, and the winding Schnoor quarter and the Böttcherstrasse offer lanes of small artisan houses. From Bremen an easy day trip reaches Oldenburg, a former ducal residence town with Germany's oldest large pedestrian zone, a market square anchored by the Lambertikirche, the cobbled artisan lanes of the Nikolai quarter, and the yellow ducal palace set in its gardens.

Next is Hannover, the regional capital, best known for the baroque Herrenhausen Gardens, one of Europe's finest formal gardens, along with its old town and the grand New Town Hall. From here a short day trip leads to Celle, a jewel of a town whose old centre is packed with hundreds of half-timbered houses in a rainbow of colours, gathered around a ducal palace — a compact and beautifully preserved townscape that rewards an unhurried wander.

Turning into the Harz mountains, Goslar stands out for its UNESCO-listed Imperial Palace and a market square ringed by slate-hung and half-timbered houses, the legacy of a medieval mining town of real wealth and imperial importance. On the way south lies Wernigerode, the "colourful town in the Harz," worth a stop en route for its fairy-tale timber-framed Rathaus, its lanes of leaning houses, and the turreted castle riding the hill above the town.

The Harz stop is Quedlinburg, one of the most remarkable towns in Germany, with over 1,300 half-timbered houses spread across a thousand years of building beneath its castle hill and collegiate church — a UNESCO World Heritage site of extraordinary density and charm. Continuing into Thuringia brings Erfurt, the regional capital, whose beautifully preserved medieval core centres on the Krämerbrücke — a bridge entirely lined with inhabited houses — and rises to the cathedral and St Severus church above the market square.

From Erfurt a day trip visits Mühlhausen, a walled medieval town with a ring of towers and gates and a fine set of Gothic churches. The route then turns toward Franconia and Würzburg, marked by its baroque Residenz, a UNESCO palace with a famous Tiepolo ceiling, and the Marienberg fortress above the vineyards and the old bridge over the Main. Würzburg is also the base for a day trip to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, the walled medieval town on the Romantic Road, whose towers, gates and crooked lanes are among the most photographed in Germany — best enjoyed with an overnight, after the day-trippers have gone.

Bamberg, farther east, is a UNESCO town built across seven hills and the Regnitz river, famed for its Old Town Hall marooned on a bridge, the "Little Venice" row of fishermen's houses along the water, and its distinctive smoked beer. From Bamberg an easy day trip climbs to Coburg, crowned by the vast Veste Coburg — one of Germany's largest fortresses — above a handsome ducal town of grand squares, the Ehrenburg palace and colourful gabled houses.

Heading east, Leipzig stands as one of Germany's most culturally significant cities, a place where music, history and peaceful revolution converge — the city of Bach and the Thomanerchor, of a lively arts scene and handsome commercial arcades. A worthwhile day trip runs to Naumburg, whose UNESCO cathedral is one of the masterpieces of the German Middle Ages, celebrated for the lifelike statue of Uta, with a small, gracious old town gathered around its market square below.

The last main stop before the return is Dresden, the baroque capital of Saxony, gloriously rebuilt after wartime destruction, its river terrace crowned by the Frauenkirche, the Zwinger and the Semper Opera and best seen glowing along the Elbe at dusk. From Dresden a short trip down the river reaches Meissen, the birthplace of European porcelain, a lovely town of steep cobbled lanes climbing to the Albrechtsburg castle and Gothic cathedral high above the Elbe.

At the end the loop returns to Berlin for three more nights — time to revisit favourite districts, catch the museums missed the first time, and enjoy the city at a more relaxed pace before flying home. Taken together, these cities and towns provide a comprehensive survey of Germany's regional variety, the sequence moving from centres of political and cultural leadership to smaller towns that shaped the country's economic, religious and intellectual traditions.

Personal note from Dennis: I designed this busy trip to maximize the number of places I can visit by train in order to shoot a lot of video for this website and my YouTube channel. I will be editing and uploading many videos from it for your enjoyment!

After leading about 80 groups tours in Europe by train, this is easy for me to manage, but some travelers would prefer a more leisurely approach. The information on these pages is organized by city to give you an overview of possibilities and help you plan your own itinerary. Photos, text, maps and links will help you decide where to go and how much time to stay in a place.

These cities, and more, are listed on the sidebar in alphabetical order with links. A detailed outline of this itinerary with distances by train can be found here. Our route includes a mix of modern skyscraper cities and smaller town with traditional architecture, always featuring historic sights and many pedestrian lanes to stroll through. Each place is described in detail on separate webpages, including maps and photos.

The Official Germany Tourist Information website has a large amount of information about the country including sights, accomodations, dining, tours, scenic routes, links to many cities, free brochures, maps and more. We also provide official information links to each city on their pages.

Train routes were planned with help from the website of the Germany national railway company, Deutsche Bahn, containing detailed information about ticketing, rail passes, timing of trips, and suggested destinations. Germany's train system is one of the most extensive in Europe, connecting more than 1,000 cities and towns offering travelers a convenient way to move between cities and regions. High-speed Intercity Express (ICE) trains connect major destinations like Berlin and Hamburg in just a few hours, while a dense network of regional trains ensures that even smaller towns are well linked. Because of the speed and efficiency of German trains, this entire 30-day route looping through 11 towns can be done with about 27 hours of train travel, quite reasonable.

Stations are generally modern and accessible, with clear signage, frequent departures, and integrated connections to local transit. Service levels emphasize comfort and efficiency, with spacious seating, onboard amenities such as Wi-Fi and dining options, and convenient schedules that make rail travel a practical alternative to flying or driving. Trains make it possible to plan flexible trips, combining urban exploration with day excursions, all while traveling in comfort and without the stress of driving through traffic.

For details of the train routing, length of time for each ride, and list of cities with daytrips on our itinerary, see this page.

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