Hello! There are lots of places around Frankfurt you could visit with a car. The Mosel area is beautiful and has small towns, castles, and nature. Here’s a guide we have on castles around Frankfurt – Burg Eltz and the castle in Cochem are very nice and in beautiful areas (https://www.mygermanyvacation.com/best-castles-to-visit-near-frankfurt-germany/). The Rhine area has nice small towns, opportunities for hiking, etc, too. Or you could drive down to the Heidelberg area. There you’ve got a cute old town, a castle on the hill, and lots of walking/hiking trails close by.

If you go to Stuttgart, here’s our guide on things to do: https://www.mygermanyvacation.com/things-to-do-in-stuttgart-germany/ You can also visit Esslingen, and there are lots of walking and biking trails through the vineyards in the area. Tübingen is a lovely university town near Stuttgart and there are a couple of castles not too far away that are set in beautiful natural areas (Hohenzollern castle and Lichtenstein castle).

Hope that helps!

Hi Holly, you’ve got a lot of great places on your travel agenda! 🙂 It’s a lot to see in 2 weeks, especially if you also want to see Berlin and Hamburg. If you have 2 full weeks (14 days) on the ground in Germany you can see quite a bit but if your int’l travel days are included in that 2 weeks it gets harder (plan 3 days for int’l flights to/from Germany, so 2 weeks of travel would give you 11 days in Germany…maybe 11.5 if your flight arrives in Germany early in the day and you can manage to get out and sightsee).

If you can fly into Berlin and out of Stuttgart that will make things easier. I suggest Berlin/Potsdam/1 other day trip, then Hamburg/Lübeck. Then down to Nuremberg/Bamberg (and maybe Regensburg or Rothenburg ob der Taube if you have time, and if you add either of those, stay in Nuremberg). Then over to Stuttgart/Tübingen/Lichtenstein/Hohenzollern and fly out of Stuttgart. You could stay in either Stuttgart or Tübingen. You can get to Stuttgart airport and both castles from either city. Tübingen is a smaller, more picturesque university town and Stuttgart is more of an everyday kind of city with fun things to do.

After factoring in international and in-country travel days, it could be difficult to fit all of that in to 2 weeks! It’s a good idea to choose 3 “bases” for your trip (Berlin, Hamburg, and then either Nuremberg or Stuttgart/Tübingen) but you might need to narrow down the day trips.

Hope that helps! 🙂