Germany

Neuschwanstein: the castle that inspired Disney, and the first thing most people put on the list. Book tickets two months out or you will be admiring it from the outside only.

Museum Island: five world-class institutions in central Berlin, including the Neues Museum and the bust of Nefertiti. Give it a whole day rather than trying to squeeze it into a morning.

The Berlin Wall: the longest surviving stretch is at the East Side Gallery, where the murals run for over a kilometre. Open around the clock and free, which makes it perfect for a budget day.

Cologne Cathedral: vast, and free to enter, though climbing the tower costs a few euros. It is an honest test of your legs — more than five hundred steps to the top.

Zugspitze: the highest point in the country, worth the trip for the Alpine panorama and the glacier. If the forecast is grey, postpone, because all you will see up there is fog.

Checkpoint Charlie: badly overrated, reduced to a photo op with people in costume charging for pictures. For the real history of a divided city, go to the memorial on Bernauer Strasse instead.

The Romantic Road: hundreds of kilometres through medieval towns such as Rothenburg. Without a car it is a demanding route that depends on tight bus connections, so plan it properly or hire a car for two days.

Currency: the euro, and you want cash on you in Germany more than almost anywhere else in western Europe. Keep coins for station lockers and for the paid toilets at motorway stops and railway stations.

Cards: the country is stubbornly conservative about plastic. Plenty of cafes and bakeries are cash-only or set a ten-euro minimum, and some terminals only handle the domestic girocard rather than Visa or Mastercard.

Where cards do work: hotels, department stores, supermarkets and anything at railway station scale take international cards without fuss. Amex is accepted far less widely than at home.

Tipping: five to ten percent in restaurants. The custom is to say the rounded total out loud as you hand over the money, rather than leaving coins on the table afterwards.

Pfand: most bottles and cans carry a deposit, refunded by machines at supermarket entrances. Plastic bottles return 0.25 euro each, which genuinely adds up on a long trip.

Item	Price (USD)
Doner kebab	7.50
Beer in a bar, 0.5 l	6.50
Beer from a shop	1.30
Currywurst from a stand	4.80
Lunch in a beer hall	16.00
Restaurant dinner	30.00
Coffee and cake	8.50
Day travel pass	11.00
Museum ticket	14.50
Mass of beer, 1 l	16.50
Pretzel	1.80
Bakery sandwich	4.50
Tower climb	6.80
Dorm bed	35.00

Deutschlandticket: at 63 euros a month, this is the best deal in European travel. It covers every city bus, tram, U-Bahn and regional train in the country, and pays for itself in about four days of moving around.

Fast trains: ICE services cross the country at up to 300 km/h. Book Sparpreis fares on the operator's own site about a month ahead and you avoid paying two or three times the price.

The catch: the 63-euro pass is not valid on long-distance IC, EC or ICE trains. Boarding one with it earns you a serious fine from a conductor with no discretion at all.

Buses: FlixBus remains the budget answer between major cities. Usually cheaper than rail and roughly twice as slow, because the autobahns jam like anywhere else.

Planning journeys: use DB Navigator, which shows live platforms and delays and sells tickets. In Berlin the BVG app is handier for single city tickets.

Bikes: cities are laced with cycle lanes and app-based hire costs very little. It is the best way to see the neighbourhoods that never make it into a guidebook.

Airports: from Berlin Brandenburg, the S-Bahn and the FEX express reach the centre in about half an hour. Buy tickets from the red machines on the platform before boarding.

Berlin districts: Mitte is the easy first-visit choice, with the main sights within walking distance. For quiet streets and good cafes, look at Prenzlauer Berg instead.

Reliable chains: Motel One offers stylish rooms at sane prices in the centre of most large cities. It is the middle ground between anonymous business hotels and noisy backpacker places.

Gasthof: in Bavaria and the small Alpine towns, look for this sign. These are family-run guesthouses with home-cooked breakfasts and interiors that have not been redesigned since the 1970s, in a good way.

Oktoberfest warning: Munich rates multiply several times over during the festival, and decent rooms are gone six months ahead. If your dates are fixed, book accommodation before you book anything else.

Sundays: the country closes, and even a small guesthouse reception can shut early. Always tell your host what time you expect to arrive.

Saving money: stay in the east. Dresden and Leipzig cost roughly a third less than Frankfurt or Hamburg for the same standard of room.

Longer stays: for more than a week in Fussen or Garmisch, an apartment with a kitchen wins. Many owners hand over a guest card giving discounts on lifts and local transport.

Currywurst: the sausage with curried tomato sauce that became Berlin's culinary emblem. Cheap, filling, on almost every corner, and best from a stand with a queue of builders rather than tourists.

Bavarian classics: in Munich order schweinshaxe, roast pork knuckle with dumplings. Portions are enormous and one plate frequently feeds two, especially with a fresh salted pretzel alongside.

Schnitzel: the Viennese original is veal, but in ordinary cafes it is usually pork. It comes in crisp breadcrumbs with potato salad and a wedge of lemon.

Beer: every region defends its own style, wheat beer in Bavaria, light kolsch in Cologne. In a beer garden you may bring your own food as long as you buy the drinks there, which is a wonderful institution.

Bakeries: they open very early and the smell of bread is part of the morning. A sandwich and coffee from a bakery costs a fraction of a hotel breakfast.

Kaffee und Kuchen: the three o'clock coffee-and-cake ritual is still widely observed. Try Black Forest cherry gateau or apple strudel with vanilla sauce.

Christmas markets: mulled wine and roasted chestnuts are the point. The mug carries a deposit, so return it or keep it as the least expensive souvenir in Germany.

The general picture: Germany is orderly and safe, but watch your bag in the crowds at Alexanderplatz. Pickpockets work the U-Bahn and the main stations, where visitors are distracted by maps.

Certain areas: Gorlitzer Park in Berlin has a reputation for drug dealing and is not the place for a solo evening stroll. Stick to lit, busy streets in that part of Kreuzberg after dark.

Oktoberfest: theft spikes during the festival. Never leave a bag on a bench in a beer tent, and keep track of how much you have drunk, since that is what thieves are counting on.

Autobahns: the unrestricted stretches demand total concentration and closing speeds are higher than most visitors are used to. If you have not driven like that before, use the trains.

Healthcare: excellent, and expensive without insurance. Pharmacies close on Sundays, so carry a basic kit of what you actually use.

Fare dodging: travelling without a validated ticket is treated as a real offence and plain-clothes inspectors sweep carriages without warning. Never board without a ticket or an active app.

Schengen rules: non-EU visitors get 90 days in any 180 across the whole zone, and the new Entry/Exit System now logs the dates biometrically instead of stamping passports. Count carefully.

Punctuality: arriving on time is not a habit here, it is a form of respect. Being five minutes late without a message genuinely colours how people see you.

Sunday quiet: officially a day of rest, with shops and pharmacies closed. Don't plan shopping or noisy activity; go to a museum, a park or a restaurant instead.

Recycling: waste separation is close to a religion, and visitors are expected to keep up. Every building has a row of different bins, and shop bags are deliberately expensive.

Beer garden etiquette: under the chestnut trees, the long tables are communal and democratic. Strangers sitting down next to you is not rudeness, it is the whole idea.

Nudity: the FKK free body culture is widespread and unremarkable. Saunas are fully nude as standard, and you will see sunbathers in city parks.

Greetings: say "Guten Tag" or "Hallo" when you walk into a shop or cafe. Skipping it reads as rude and quietly changes the service you get.

Rules: Germans value them, whether that is waiting for the green man or keeping quiet after ten at night. A stranger correcting you is normal social maintenance, not a personal attack.

SIM cards: local operators such as Telekom or O2 give the best coverage. Be ready for video identity verification with your passport, which German law requires before a physical card is activated.

eSIM: for a short trip, an eSIM bought before you fly avoids the verification process entirely and works from the moment you land. Airalo and similar providers cover Germany cheaply.

EU roaming: if you already have a SIM from another EU country, it works here at no extra cost. That remains the simplest option for anyone travelling around Europe.

Wi-Fi: common in cafes though often slow. Long-distance trains have reliable onboard internet, so you can plan the next leg while moving.

Apps: DB Navigator for rail tickets and connections, FreeNow for taxis late at night when service intervals stretch out.

Language: in big cities, younger people and anyone in tourism speak excellent English. In rural Bavaria or the east, a handful of German phrases makes a visible difference.

Offline maps: 4G is patchy in the mountains and the countryside. Download the region in Google Maps before you set off on forest trails.

English	German	Pronunciation
Hello (formal)	Guten Tag	GOO-ten tahk
Hi (north, slang)	Moin	moyn
Hi (Bavaria, slang)	Servus	ZEHR-voos
Thank you	Danke	DAHN-kuh
Please	Bitte	BIT-tuh
Yes / No	Ja / Nein	yah / nine
Excuse me / Sorry	Entschuldigung	ent-SHOOL-dee-goong
How much is it?	Was kostet das?	vas KOS-tet dass
The bill, please	Die Rechnung, bitte	dee REKH-noong BIT-tuh
Keep the change	Stimmt so	shtimt zo
One beer	Ein Bier	ine beer
Tasty!	Lecker!	LECK-er
Toilet	Toilette	twah-LET-tuh
Help!	Hilfe!	HIL-fuh
Railway station	Bahnhof	BAHN-hof
Train	Zug	tsook
I don't understand	Ich verstehe nicht	ikh fer-SHTAY-uh nikht
Awesome! (slang)	Geil!	gyle
Bye	Tschuss	chooss
Cheers!	Prost!	prohst

Getting there: Frankfurt and Munich are among Europe's biggest hubs, with nonstops from most North American and Asian cities, and Berlin is well served by low-cost carriers from across Europe. Rail from Paris, Amsterdam or Zurich is often faster door to door than flying.

Rail planning: bahn.de is the tool for timetables and tickets, and it is also where you subscribe to the Deutschlandticket. Buying anywhere else usually means paying a booking fee for nothing.

Castle tickets: hohenschwangau.de handles Neuschwanstein bookings. Slots go weeks ahead, and turning up at the ticket office in season is close to pointless.

Museums: smb.museum lists what is on across Berlin's Museum Island, with current prices and the timed entry slots for the busiest halls.

Plugs: type C and F sockets at 230 V. European chargers work as they are; UK, US and Australian travellers need an adapter.

When to go: May, June and September give you long days without August prices or crowds. December is its own reason to come, for the Christmas markets.