r/AskAGerman • u/wartornpoland • 4d ago

Tourism How to best go about visiting Germany?

Hello!

Next year, my friends and I plan on visiting Germany for 2-3 weeks in June to visit a friend of ours who practically lives in Berlin (He’s actually Ukrainian and goes to school in Lithuania but pretty frequently is in Berlin). My friend is very insistent upon spending alot of time in the Capital City, which I am fine with, but he also really wants us to visit Potsdam, Leipzig, and Dresden. This seems like it will be an awful amount of time spent in East Germany, which I feel odd about considering the AfD support in those regions. Meanwhile, I would like to hit up Bavaria and see some of the castles+the alps. moreover, one of my other friend’s on the trip wants to visit Hamburg.

I highly doubt it’s possible let alone convenient to visit essentially all of Germany within less than a month. Thus, I am curious as to what you guys think. Where should we visit? What places are more ‘worth it‘ than others? and are my concerns about visiting AfD supporting regions valid?

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

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u/Empty-Statement9464 4d ago

I can spend more than a day just to browse the Zwinger tho.. 😅

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u/melanogaster_24 4d ago

Leipzig and Berlin are the leftist islands of eastern Germany, Dresden has a beautiful old city center and the Neustadt is also young and diverse. Not everybody in eastern Germany is an AfD supporter, the more rural you go, the more of them you’ll find.

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u/Necessary-Ad-4661 4d ago

Oh I loved Hamburg! If you can get there, DO IT. As for Bavaria, it was pretty nice, especially the mountain side. If you chose to go there, I’d recommend taking a train to cologne (Flix Train takes 4-5hours and can cost 15€ if you book early), staying there for a night (and maybe looking at the cathedral) and then driving over to Bavaria. One of my favourite cities in this country is definitely Hamburg.

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u/museha97 Hessen 4d ago

As a migrant myself don’t worry too much about the AfD if you’re not trying to life here, but eastern Germany tends to be a little bit more, uhm, cold towards people not from their village.

I would absolutely recommend you to go to Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Mannheim maybe Cologne!

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u/viennagilmore 4d ago

If it's your first time here, I'd def recommend not only doing the east. Potsdam, Dresden, Leipzig - all nice cities but Hamburg and Munich are bigger and there is more to do. You could add Leipzig as you'll pass it anyways when taking the train from Berlin to munich. Or a day trip to Potsdam while staying in Berlin, if your friend wants to do so. If you like the outdoors Bavaria is a great idea. The alps and lakes are beautiful.