Top Germany hotels
At night Berlin
10 Reviews Not that I wasn't one at in a galaxy many years ago, but the teens use the metros as primary transportation and after a fair number of hours at the party scene don't be surprised if the party...
See All 151 Warnings Or Dangers in Berlin
Safe City Munich
22 Reviews Munich is the city safer than ever I have visited. It is very normal to see high times of the night by the stations of u-bahn to police, either the national, or the own one of u-bahn. Single a danger,...
See All 114 Warnings Or Dangers in Munich
Red Light District Hamburg
10 Reviews hey, lets be real whenever you enter an area of prostitution anyplace around the world,you will have to be extra carefull, always alongeside prostitution you will find drugs,thiefs ,muggers,so, if you...
See All 50 Warnings Or Dangers in Hamburg
Traffic Stuttgart
4 Reviews When driving here you need to be very careful and concientious. The yellow diamond shaped sign means that you are on a priotity road and you have the right of way. If you are not on the priority...
See All 13 Warnings Or Dangers in Stuttgart
People Berlin
13 Reviews Berlin is a wonderful city, the sights I mean. Public building stay open later than most cities I've visited and prices are relatively cheap, however, the people are so rude. I've read so many reviews...
See All 151 Warnings Or Dangers in Berlin
The area around the main station Munich
8 Reviews I'm staying few weeks in München and found the place safe and comfortable. The only exception is at Nett discount supermarket on Dachauerstrasse north of the main station. Nett is incredibly cheaper...
See All 114 Warnings Or Dangers in Munich
Dodgy Areas Hamburg
8 Reviews Use some kind of secure carrying device for your wallet, passport, cellphone, and keys. These are critical items and it will really put a damper on your trip if any of these are lost or stolen. I...
See All 50 Warnings Or Dangers in Hamburg
Public Transport Stuttgart
3 Reviews This seemed kind of odd and confusing to us. Trains just don't go North or South, East and West. You can get off a train going West and get on the next on the same numbered track and it will go East....
See All 13 Warnings Or Dangers in Stuttgart
Public Transport Berlin
18 Reviews If you use the trains in Berlin sooner or later you will have someone enter the train and after short speech offer to sell you a magazine. This seems to happen at the weekends. During the week after...
See All 151 Warnings Or Dangers in Berlin
Dangerous beer Munich
19 Reviews I could not believe it myself, when I first heared about this special prohibition in Munich : You are NOT allowed to drink alcohol in Marienplatz and the pedestrian zone of Munich !! This law was...
See All 114 Warnings Or Dangers in Munich
Drugs Hamburg
1 Review Hamburg is supposed to be a save city even with one of the highest criminal rates in Germany. This may be so high because of drug delicts. It is not well known that it used to be as easy as in...
See All 50 Warnings Or Dangers in Hamburg
Food and Drink Stuttgart
1 Review O.k, I know that Red Bull isn't exclusive to Stuttgart, but here is where I learned to mix this liquid version of Gummi Bears on Viagra with Absolut. WARNING: Don't do this, they go down far too...
See All 13 Warnings Or Dangers in Stuttgart
Skinheads Berlin
5 Reviews The east of berlin aint "dangerous", like some of the People above me wrote, I am from BERLIN and this kind of "half-knowledge" realy pisses me of, cuz it simply aint the truth. First of all, most of...
See All 151 Warnings Or Dangers in Berlin
Traffic Munich
15 Reviews As I was walking along the streets of Munich city center, I looked around, up and down and suddenly I happened to glance on something that should not be on the clean streets of this city. I saw a...
See All 114 Warnings Or Dangers in Munich
Free Trading Zone Hamburg
1 Review A large part of the port of Hamburg is a 'Free Trading Zone' - so it may happen, that you enter that port-area without seeing any controls but you might be checked for cigarettes,alcohol,drugs...,...
See All 50 Warnings Or Dangers in Hamburg
Traffic Berlin
14 Reviews Pedestrians: they have no rights on major crosswalks. If a pedestrian is ahead of you, and steps into the road, drive on, speed up, honk, or yell loudly and chase him back up on the curb. Never, ever...
See All 151 Warnings Or Dangers in Berlin
At the Oktoberfest Munich
16 Reviews If you've ever seen those nature films where the mountain goats smash heads repeatedly, you will see a similar activity among the youth of Munich at Oktoberfest. I'm not sure if there is an official...
See All 114 Warnings Or Dangers in Munich
Local customs Hamburg
1 Review If someone in Hamburg tells you about 'Michel' (German nickname for Michael), don't get confused. The person could possibly talk about St.Michaelis, a protestant church of the early 20th century and...
See All 50 Warnings Or Dangers in Hamburg
Pickpockets Berlin
12 Reviews Keeping your wallet safe--- common sense is a prerequisite. One method of keeping your wallet safe, which has never failed me, is to put it in an inside coat pocket, ( a front trouser pocket if you...
See All 151 Warnings Or Dangers in Berlin
Too expensive Munich
3 Reviews I know, big surprise, but the prices of everything around Munich are jacked up during Oktoberfest. We paid over $300 night for a hotel room (it was very nice, however) A liter of beer in the beer...
See All 114 Warnings Or Dangers in Munich
Public Transport Hamburg
3 Reviews Generally, the U and S-bahn is very safe. But as you would in any city, be aware of late night drunks, especially on the weekends, especially on days where one of Hamburg's football teams has been...
See All 50 Warnings Or Dangers in Hamburg
Animals Berlin
9 Reviews In Berlin you find lots of bears, lucky you they are not so dangerous! The Buddy Bear Story Everything started in Berlin in June 2001. In front of the KaDeWe (Kaufhaus des Westens – department...
See All 151 Warnings Or Dangers in Berlin
Weather Berlin
5 Reviews If you are walking near the Spree in Fall and Winter be careful of sudden, strong gusts of wind. I was walking near the Markiisches Museum when a gust blew the lightweight glasses I was wearing into...
See All 151 Warnings Or Dangers in Berlin
Beggars Berlin
5 Reviews Everyone knows about the women with "babies" on their arms who walk around the tourist spots in Europe asking for money.It looked to me as if it was worse in Berlin this time. They tend to be all over...
See All 151 Warnings Or Dangers in Berlin
Food and Drink Berlin
5 Reviews Watch out for the beer, especially when you are from Belgium and a beer lover. I tasted twice a local beer - called Berliner Weisse mit Schuss It is presented in two colours, green or red, the green...
See All 151 Warnings Or Dangers in Berlin
Sponsored Links
I'm not going to say much about this because East German hospitality is second to none....but.. if you stay with people in the East who grew up in the DDR. then you might have no choice but to listen to this. No further comment from me.Well......ok... just a little comment from me... "Praise be for the IPod!"
A couple things to think about if you come to live here:1. Diving laws are very different.a. The autobahn HAS speed limits in MOST areas. They use signs just like we do and they are not "suggested" speed limits, they are the leagal speeds.b. You will not find many speed limit signs in and around the towns. There is a standard speed limit that everyone is supposed to know. City = 50km, Outside City = 100km,Autobahn = 120km. All of these are "unless otherwise marked".c. They have a "right-of-way" law that can be very tricky.d. The military offers - Drivers Handbook and Examination Manual for Germany but not all information is in it. When in doubt ask a few German people, thats how I learned a lot.
A piece of warning: On the last day of our trip and being a few kilometers away from the Dutch borders we decided to make a short visit to Holland. On the way back we were stopped on the highway by the German Police. We were asked many questions why we were in Holland, where we stayed, why we were in Germany and almost our complete itinerary. Our luggage were searched as well. I was in terms of panic not knowing what we did wrong. The reason proved beyond my expectations: the police checks up frequently cars coming from Netherlands for illegal import of drugs!!!So if you see a car signing at you and the sign “Folgen Polizei” follow them. You most probably know the reason now!
After supper, my group and I toured the walled city of Rothenberg. MIND YOUR HEAD while walking on the wall. I was tall even back then (1987) and those medieval walls had doorways designed for short people. I guess, for some reason, you didn't have a lot of tall folks in the days of yore. That meant my hard head met a lot of doorways. While on the wall, Mama kept calling this cat on the street below in English. It never did occur to her that the cat only knew German commands (not "kitty kitty") and he looked at her like she was crazy. We were looking for a place to get a bite to eat before returning to the Rothenburger Hotel for the night. We happened on this bakery. None of us, including me at the time, knew a lick of German. The names on the pastries were so funny we would crack up laughing. The poor folks who worked there had to go in the back room to laugh at these weird Americans...
For all of you excentric collectors that delight in charishing the bygone "glorious" days of Adolf Hitler and his comrads, I have bad news for you. The sale, distribution and possession of anything which promotes or glorifies the NSDAP or the Nazi Regime is illegal in Germany.Basically remade or reprinted Nazi stuff is illegal, and you cannot buy "cool" Nazi souvenirs in Germany. Importing this stuff from Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland or elsewhere (particularly the U.S., Canada and the U.K.) is not allowed either, and you will not only get it confiscated from the customs officials, you will get fined, and may even be criminally charged. For this reason, you will never see live re-enactment soldiers at concentration camps, or re-actment WWII battles. You cannot buy fake Nazi medals, daggers, flags or uniforms at flea markets, and you cannot buy posters like the one...
Don't drink and drive in Germany. The legal limit for alcohol is 0.3 ppm blood alcohol content. Although the official limit is 0.5, if you are stopped by the police because you are suspected of drinking and driving, or have had an accident, it just dropped to 0.3 ppm. Then you have just doubled your problems if you have had an accident, because if you have a positive blood test (taken by the police), you will have no insurance coverage on your car. Incidently, they are planning to change the laws again, making the legal drinking limit for safe driving for driver under the age of 25 0.000 ppm blood alcohol content! That's right that means for drivers under 25 absolutely NO ALCOHOL and driving!
This tip may be most useful to anyone planning on studying abroad in Germany, or participating in an exchange to immerse themselves in German language and culture. Having spent six weeks in Germany with the desire to learn German, I felt in many places a lot of people had the misconception that I was ignorant, unwilling to learn about Germany, and uncapable of learning the German language just because I was from North America.It is a fact that most Germans speak excellent English (and French as well) even if they are in their 50s, they still remember all the English they learned in high school If you are going there to learn German, you NEED to make it clear to them that you want them to speak to you in German, not English. A lot of people "assumed" I didn't know any German, before they even tried talking to me. A lot of them would talk about me, or about Canada to eachother in German,...
If you want to go by train ALWAYS buy the ticket before you enter the train. some train conductors will sell you the ticket inside the train if you can explain why you didn't buy a ticket before. If you don't have a ticket you might have to pay twice the price of a normal ticket, but at least 40 euros!Also make sure you buy the right ticket.If you've bought the wrong ticket, you will NOT get your money back or only have to pay the difference between your and the right ticket.(If you need help on stuff like this contact me)
When you have been around VT a while you will start to find it useful on your travels to collect "stuff", ie: receipts, tickets, timetables postcards (just in case your photos are rubbish! like mine often are!), maps, in fact anything that reminds you of what you did, where you went, what you saw, and how much you paid for it and what time you did it!How can I throw away something that reminds me of the fun I had on my trips???
Germany is an extremely safe country. Even its most criminal city is rated as one of the ten safest cities in the world. That doesn't mean you should let your guard down completely, but it does mean you can relax a lot more here than in many other countries. As usual the big cities are the places where you need to be most careful, especially in Frankfurt, Berlin, Cologne and Hamburg. However, Munich is the exception to the rule. While being one of Germany's biggest cities, it is safer than some of its smallest towns. The other big city in Bavaria, Nuremberg, is probably even safer. Stuttgart is also another big city that has extremely low levels of crime.In the east of the country there is very high unemployment and this has led to friction with the ethnic population and a rise of the popularity of the far-right. There have been reports of racially motivated attacks, including one...
Circus - The Hostel Berlin
7 Reviews and 710 Opinions Having previously stayed in the Central and Western Ku'Dam area I decided on my 3rd visit to stay in...
Kempinski Hotel Airport Munchen Munich
7 Reviews and 482 Opinions I stayed here one night when my flight was cancelled due to technical reasons. This hotel is a high...
Hotel Domstern Cologne
4 Reviews and 245 Opinions We stayed at the Hotel Domstern for two nights, based on online reviews. Always a bit hesitant when...
Reviews and photos of Germany attractions posted by real travelers and locals. The best tips for Germany sightseeing.
More Cities in Germany
More Regions in Germany
Q: Is May a good time to travel down the rhine river? What is the best and most scenic stretch to travel along? How would you...
A: I would look at www.d-k.de. website. They have Great Boat Trips starting at Dusseldorf or Cologne all the Way to Mainz, passing Koblenz And Lorelei .... The strech...
Read 8 Replies
see all Germany member meetings
Sponsored Links
