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I am planning to visit Berlin and Munich from Frankfurt from 23rd Sept to 25 Sept. I know this is really tight trip, but i have only one weekend and i am ok with covering only the main attractions. I will be using flixbus in all 3 nights and will not be staying in the city (Berlin or Munich) on saturday night so as to utilize the time. I would like to spend as little as possible.

  1. Is this a doable idea to try and cover both cities in one weekend? The days cannot be extended, but if the original plan is impossible, i will spend the 2 days in a single city.

  2. Is there any preferable sequence I should do? FRA-BERLIN-MUNICH-FRA or FRA-MUNICH-BERLIN-FRA? Travel time seems to be the same but the prices for this week are confusing me. Please consider the fact that i must reach back to FRA Monday early morning.

  3. Is there any Deutsche Bahn pass for the weekend that can allow me to travel all over Germany? The cost is the factor because of which I chose flixbus. Seems like the total transportation (flixbus + local single day pass) will cost me something around 90-100 EUR.

gdrt
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ishan
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  • Kinda related: http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/14917 – hippietrail Sep 06 '16 at 07:33
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    I've taken the bus from Berlin to Munich twice. I will never do that again. It is a little bit cheaper than the train, but the experience is horrible. It takes 7 hours. It's uncomfortable. You cannot sleep because some people will be on the phone the whole time, or a group will be talking loudly. They do not let you eat in the bus. The toilet will be very smelly because people don't use it the way it's supposed to be used. The train is a bit more expensive but not considerably faster. Still, way more comfortable. If you book early, flying is the best option imho. – simbabque Sep 06 '16 at 10:21
  • I agree with the answers suggesting two days in either city. You would need to sprint from one place to another. – Andrew Lazarus Sep 06 '16 at 19:09
  • I went to Munich with a one way ticket and ended up extending my stay there for 3 days. Yet, i feel i have missed a lot of places. For berlin, i dedicated another weekend and i feel 2 days are enough for Berlin (without museums). I now realize it was a stupid idea to cover both cities in a weekend. – ishan Dec 06 '16 at 08:45

6 Answers6

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I have been in Berlin for four weeks(!) in school summer holiday 2004 (age 18). It wasn't boring at all during that time, although I must admit that I spent some days in museums and at Wannsee Tegeler See, as well as at the "open doors" weekend of the federal government.

But still, Berlin has enough attractions to entirely fill your weekend - museums, fountains and churches not included. Checkpoint Charlie, The Berlin Wall, TV tower, Reichstag dome, to name a few. Not to forget that you will be in a bus during Saturday night, when every sane Berliner is enjoying themselves. Cheap hostel bunkbeds in nightlife locations, on the other hand, start around 15€ per night.

Munich also has enough attractions for a week-end, if not longer; but if price is important, I wouldn't go there during Oktoberfest, with regular hostels starting around 100€ for a single night.

You should really consider doing a single city now, and keep the other city for your next visit to Germany.

Alexander
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  • Please have a look to the revised question, in general we prefer to have both questions and answers not suggest places or itineraries but rather focus on the doability of trips and not things you would find in a guidebook or from a travel agent. I understand that the question originally asked for that but unfortunately I find your answer now addresses mostly the parts that are off-topic. – mts Sep 05 '16 at 21:08
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    I think this is a good answer to the "is this doable" part of the question: Technically yes, but you'll probably get more out of your trip if you don't. Berlin is huge. – Peter Cordes Sep 05 '16 at 23:01
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    You mentioned an important aspect - the Oktoberfest. I guess it will mess up with my budget trip. Thank you for pointing that out. – ishan Sep 07 '16 at 09:21
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If you can really sleep in buses and there are tickets for the buses you plan to take, you can do it.
But most people will be broken after a night in a bus, sleep only little or lightly and will not do well to do it more than one night running. Trains might be a little better but not by enough and they are more expensive.
There is no direct overnight train from Berlin to Munich I can see, (although there might be one on other days) and your easiest option is leaving Berlin after an early dinner to arrive in Munich about 7AM, or leave a bit later and 'change' with a stop over of a few hours in the middle of the night.

You will have a few hours, likely more depending on the time the buses arrive and leave, to see the main sights of the cities.

The easy option is to do a tour, although you will see more buses than you should on this trip.
The other option is to walk, either a tour or by yourself, but you need to do your homework to see what there is to see in the cities.

I do feel that you will not get much out of this trip besides bragging rights.
If you really want to do it, book all bus and/or train tickets in one action, so you are not ending up with two out of three tickets, making those useless. Do your homework, get an (online) guide for each of the cities and read it. Or just search online for tourist information.
As you are in Munich during the festival, consider booking into one of the beer garden tents as just walking in seems unlikely, specially as you have such limited time.

If you had a day more I would suggest flying from Berlin to Munich, but as flights eat much more time than the actual travel time, I fear you will not win anything but lose a couple of day time hours for getting to and from the airport, and will not be able to sleep much or at all even for an early morning flight. A late night flight will solve that but has the potential to leave you with only expensive transport from the airport.
Besides, with the short period left before your intended travel, it is very unlikely that you will find cheap flights anymore.

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Willeke
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Before I answer, part of your question is off-topic by our rules and I will only answer the on-topic parts. Please see our asking help.

1) This is very little time for each city but who is to judge, if you have only one weekend and want to see both, go for it. Your experience will be different of course. It is doable in any case, see below.

Note that your planned travel is during the Munich Oktoberfest. That means it will be very hard + expensive to near impossible to find accommodation in Munich, since it is also the weekend. Also the city will be very full, transport can be slow and expect heightened security. On the other hand, you also have the chance to sample a unique festival.

2) If you wish to sleep on the day you spend in Munich, the determining factor will be when you will be able to find accommodation.
If you are willing to travel with little sleep and very cheaply, consider the following itinerary:

  • leave FRA->BER Friday evening / night, sleep in Berlin
  • visit Berlin on Saturday and take the night bus to Munich
  • on Sunday morning you will arrive in Munich, see Munich and in the evening take one of the latest buses or trains back to Frankfurt. In this case make sure to reserve ahead of time.
  • be back in Frankfurt Sunday night and catch some sleep there.

3) There is no railway pass that makes sense for your travels. Pre-book bus and train tickets as soon as possible for a better price. Trains are faster but typically more expensive than the buses, however still a good deal if you manage to get a saver fare (unlikely by now for those dates).

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mts
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I live in Berlin and come from an area down south close to Frankfurt.

In addition to Alexander and Willeke´s great answers I would add the following:

1) It is doable seeing only main attractions, I think but it will be really hard as everyone mentioned but definitely doable. I do sightseeing with some of my visitors in Berlin by foot or bike in around 6 hours and we have covered the majority of main attractions.

2) I would suggest FRA->BER->MUC-FRA Besides the Flix bus option I would also consider BlaBlaCar. Which can save a lot of time as it is car sharing and therefore way faster in most of the cases. Which will give you then more time in the cities. Also I would stay longer in Berlin then because of the prices for Oktoberfest in Munich on that day.

3) These passes only exist for slow trains and not the ICE. So you would have way longer travel periods and less time in one place.

Hope that BlaBlaCar will help you and save you some time traveling so you can make the most of it.

seb
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  • Thanks for the answer. I did see blabla car and that they are cheaper, but i think i will not be able to sleep in them. Never experience car sharing before. – ishan Sep 07 '16 at 09:33
  • True you need to be used to that. For me sleeping in a car is totally fine. Anyway maybe munich to Frankfurt is good with that as it will be fast. – seb Sep 07 '16 at 09:34
  • Well actually it is more like i should not be sleeping right next to a driving person, specially at night. – ishan Sep 07 '16 at 09:38
  • Trust me you will not be alone in the car with the driver and these people are used to that. I used to drive every week Vienna-Stuttgart with 3 sleeping people in the car, no issue. – seb Sep 07 '16 at 09:39
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I am German, and I have lived in Munich for a while. Let me say that you can't see much in two days. Instead of trying to do two cities, why not do just do one well? Munich is richer, more conservative, with lots of culture, a beautiful town full of beautiful places in the setting of the nearby Alps. Berlin is a young, international city with a diverse mix of innovation, creativity and historical places (and a bit less expensive).

Giorgio
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davidman77
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It depends on what you mean by "doable".

Berlin really needs several days IMO. You need to go to the Berlin Wall history museum, the East Side Gallery, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of the Holocaust, The Topography of Terror. I'd add in the Reichstag building, Brandenburg Gate, and of course personal favorites, if you're a geek, like the Game Science Center and the Computer Game History Museum. Ideally you'd check out Mauerpark Flea Market on a Sunday. And that's the short list. There are other museums, areas of the city to stroll around, etc that I personally found worth seeing.

Even without the geek stuff though if you crazy rushed you could do the first things in 1 day. I personally couldn't do it.

I haven't been to Munich.

gman
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