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German Adventure - Planning

pluk

TS Member
Guten Tag!

With a week off at the start of July myself and the wife are heading over to Germany for some riding and adventure. We were originally thinking of trying to do the whole west side from Phantasialand / Movie Park and surrounding parks down to Europa, but soon realised we'd spend the whole trip either riding, driving or sleeping and see none of Germany, which seemed a shame, so we've scaled it down a bit to the southwest corner. I've never been to Germany before (other than a days skiing a couple of years back), so this is all new to me.

Flying out on Tuesday afternoon to Baden Baden, hiring a car, the current itinerary is...

Tuesday - Either stay in Baden, or drive to Holiday Park area, hotel in whatever area I stay (not booked)

Wednesday - Holiday Park during day, local hotel for night (not booked)

Thursday - Tripsdrill for the day, Tripsdrill wagon for the night (booked)

Friday - A bit of a look about Tripsdrill wildlife park in the morning, a couple of hours drive to Hasenhorn Rodelbahn in the mountains for the afternoon and night at a local hotel (not booked)

Sat - A day in the mountain area, a bit of hiking about plus the mountain coaster, then drive down to rust in the late afternoon to check in for three nights. Staying at Gastehaus Brigitte Duri (booked)

Sunday and Monday - Europa Park :grinning:

Tuesday - Drive to the airport at Baden, maybe have a little bit of time in the town before the flight, have a little cry that it's over, and fly home.
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Anyone done anything similar and can offer some advice? Current thinking/queries is...

- Looking to stay in Speyer the first two nights; it's near Holiday Park and kind of between there and Tripsdrill. Although I like the idea off staying in a slightly less practical, arse of nowhere, nunnery which I've seen (Kloster St Maria) as something a bit different!

- Might stay in Baden for the first night instead. Is it a nice place (most airport towns aren't!), and is the airport 'in' the town (ie walkable from the airport) so we could delay the car hire until the next morning?

- I'm desperate to do the mountain coaster. Anyone done that one? A bit concerned about being there on the presumably busier weekends, but there doesn't seem to be a way to book it in advance according to the website. I may be there in time to do it on the Friday if that is something I should worry about.

- I keep being told that for a first time visitor 2 days isn't enough in Europa, but we've knowingly decided we'd rather take more in of Germany at the expense of a third day there. So if I'm going to struggle to do it all, what should I miss out on park? What is less worth the time cost of doing it?

- I know I've left some of the booking a bit late (unpredictable work thing), but there appears to be plenty of cheap availability in all the areas I'm looking at, especially up the mountain with all the very many ski accommodations vying for summer business. We're not interested in slumming it with things like shared bathrooms for the sake of a few quid, but cost is always a consideration, so any recommendations would be good.

- Anyone driven around Germany in general? How do I best go about not killing myself while doing so?!

Any hints, tips, advice and experiences are very very much appreciated.

Danke!
 
I can't answer all of your queries but will try by best with the ones where I can offer some help!
- Looking to stay in Speyer the first two nights; it's near Holiday Park and kind of between there and Tripsdrill. Although I like the idea off staying in a slightly less practical, arse of nowhere, nunnery which I've seen (Kloster St Maria) as something a bit different!

When I visited Holiday Park we stayed in Speyer the night before which worked out very well (apart from accidently driving through some road works late at night in the town centre)! It's a great location for Holiday Park so it might be nice to have a short drive there on your first morning. We stayed at the Ibis Styles although I'm sure there are other options.
- Might stay in Baden for the first night instead. Is it a nice place (most airport towns aren't!), and is the airport 'in' the town (ie walkable from the airport) so we could delay the car hire until the next morning?

Not sure what Baden-Baden itself is like but the airport is not in the town as it were, it's on the other side of the autobahn in its own little complex. If you just want a hotel for the first night then there are probably a few around the airport but there won't be much else to do!
- I'm desperate to do the mountain coaster. Anyone done that one? A bit concerned about being there on the presumably busier weekends, but there doesn't seem to be a way to book it in advance according to the website. I may be there in time to do it on the Friday if that is something I should worry about.

I did the alpine coaster last week and highly recommend it! We were there on a weekday and it was fairly quiet, not too sure how busy it gets at weekend but I can't imagine it being too bad so I wouldn't worry too much. We ended up doing it twice though, it's such good fun and a real adrenaline rush. I recommend going to see the nearby waterfall at Todtnau also, it is only a few minutes drive from the alpine coaster and quite spectacular.
- I keep being told that for a first time visitor 2 days isn't enough in Europa, but we've knowingly decided we'd rather take more in of Germany at the expense of a third day there. So if I'm going to struggle to do it all, what should I miss out on park? What is less worth the time cost of doing it?

You'll almost certainly wish that you had more time at EP but that seems to be the case no matter how long you're there for! You'll get all of the main things in the park done in 2 days and still have time to see a couple of shows. If you want to save some time and don't mind sitting alone I can recommend utilising the single rider queues on Blue Fire, Wodan and particularly Arthur. I think you'll get everything you want to done, you just might miss out on some of the smaller rides (which might not appeal anyway) or riding some coasters as much as you might want.

I hope you have a brilliant trip, sounds like it should be a lot of fun!

:)
 
To hone in on the point about EP shows, if you were to prioritise them I'd recommend the jousting in Spain, the ice show in Greece and Cinema Italiano. The 4D films in the Magic Cinema are also worth it for the 15-20 minutes.
 
Thanks for all of that @Rob and @venny , very helpful stuff.

I've taken a look at the Ibis, I'd go for it but they can stick their 7 Euro a day car parking! I think staying in that area for the two nights is the right thing to do though, will book something up soon.

Buzzing for the Alpine Coaster now, and that waterfall sounds right up our street, will have to find it.

I might struggle to persuade the Mrs SRQ's are a good idea, maybe for re-rides I'll get away with it! The shows certainly do drain times in any park, thanks for the recommendations, I'll have to have a read up them all and decide what we're best off missing if we have to.
 
Thanks for all of that @Rob and @vennyBuzzing for the Alpine Coaster now, and that waterfall sounds right up our street, will have to find it.
The waterfall is easy to find, we also went to see it in the spur of the moment. It is clearly signposted from the road when driving from Todtnau to Rust/Europa direction, and there is plenty of space to park on the roadside. This whole part of my trip, alpine coaster, and the village Todtnau, was amazing. If you want to actually see some of Black Forest Germany other than just theme parks then the Hassenhorn Coaster is a great excuse to go to a really beautiful and charming area not explored by most.
 
If you can, try the Gutach Alpine Coaster, too. It's faster than the Hasenhorn one - although isn't as spectacular.

It is in the same area.

:)
 
Have a great time! I read that EGF was closed for a few days last week but I believe it's running again now.
 
Cheers! I was there 2 days ago and thankfully everything including EGF was running. Was really impressed with Holiday Park and the charming Tripsdrill yesterday, both exceeding expectations.
A couple of more relaxed days now, before Europa Sun and Mon.
 
Feel free to get some Ireland snaps and post them here for us!

:D

Sadly yesterday was my last day. Amazing planning huh!

It looked good yesterday but there was still a big crane on site, was all looking a bit dusty, and workers all over the place. Seems they turned it around in time though!
 
Resurrecting a very old thread and having spoken to @pluk , I’m planning a very similar trip to his this September.

Day 1 Fly to Karlsruhe. Stay in Karlsruhe the night
Day 2 Holiday Park. Stay in Speyer the night
Day 3 Tripsdrill. Stay at Tripsdrill the night
Day 4 Black Forest - Possibly Hasenhorn Mountain Coaster. Stay ??? the night
Day 5 Europa Park. Stay in Rust
Day 6 Europa Park. Stay in Rust
Day 7 Fly home from Karlsruhe

Most of the itinerary parks & hotels are booked, I just need to sort out a couple of things.

Does anyone have experience of flying into Karlsruhe and hiring a car from there? I’ve not hired a car in Europe before, so trying to get my head around it. Any advice would be appreciated.

Still deciding whether to take the long drive from Tripsdrill to Todtnau on Day 4 to ride the mountain coaster, or to head across towards Rust and stop elsewhere for the night on the way. I appreciate it does look good, but it will put some serious miles on the trip and can always be done maybe on a future trip.
 
Hassenhorn is far and away the best mountain coaster I’ve done, so if you like them it may be worth your time. It’s also a nice drive once you get beyond Freiburg and into the hills. If you are going that way and are looking for something else to fill out the day, a couple of hours in Freiburg itself is pleasant. Your route will probably also take you past Steinwasen Park, which is not too bad a place to visit for a few hours and has its own (lesser) mountain coaster.

That said, it is out of the way to go from Speyer, down past Rust to Todtnau, to then have to double back on yourself. If you did want to save it for another trip, I would more readily recommend it as a stop either on the way to or back from Europa, if you’re flying into Basel - it’s then much less out of the way.
 
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Still deciding whether to take the long drive from Tripsdrill to Todtnau on Day 4 to ride the mountain coaster, or to head across towards Rust and stop elsewhere for the night on the way. I appreciate it does look good, but it will put some serious miles on the trip and can always be done maybe on a future trip
If it sways you, Tripsdrill to Todtnau is 2hrs 45 mins, Tripsdrill to Rust is just over 2hrs. It's not actually a hugely different journey on the day, although the next day you then have about an hour on to Rust too. For me I'd say it's worth it, but then I'd guess there's plenty of other places worth visiting that are more direct too.
 
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Visited Steinwasen and the Hassenhorn in October 2021.

Incredibly stunning scenery and highly recommend visiting both.
 
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This is the view from the top of the Hasenhorn. Do it.
 
As it happens, I'm in the very early stages of planning a trip myself; current plan is to do two days at Phantasialand (staying in the charles lindburgh hotel) and then two days in europa and a half-day in Rulantica. Of course, the Phantasialand tickets and meals are all sorted with the hotel, but for Europa-Park I'm asking for a bit of guidance on the cheapest way to get tickets, accom of a reasonable standard, waterpark tickets etc. Also need to consider dates (ideally within a month or two) and how we're going to travel around the country (I have a driving license but we're both young whipper-snappers so renting a car might be difficult.) All help appreciated! Thanks.
 
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