Germany Trip Help

[Nozzy]

Thanks to help I've gotten here I've been able to enjoy many of the UK parks while studying abroad, but I am now trying something a bit more difficult.

 

Our Fall Break will start in Barcelona on October 16, and I already have reservations to go to PortAventura for Sunday and Monday. I was hoping to fly to Germany to go to Holiday Park for 1 day to ride GeForce, then continue to Europa Park for 2 days before heading back to the UK. My trouble stems from the difficulty of understanding the German web sites, some of which don't translate very well.

 

Can anyone advise me on what airport I might use to fly into Germany, or if train would be cheaper/easier?

Are there any other parks right nearby that I could get to cheaply (I looked at the park just featured on the front page and Phantasialand, but both seemed pretty far)?

Any advice on hotels? I found one just outside Europa Park, would the convenience be worth 75 euro a night (way more than I usually spend)?

Finally, looking at websites has made me a little nervous about trying to go without being able to speak any German. Do many people speak English in Germany that I could get help from someone if I needed to?

 

Any and all help is greatly appreciated, and I hope to return the favors in the future. Thanks!

[robinschroder]

If you use the Deutsche Bahn website www.bahn.de you can click an option at the top for English. Holiday Park and Europa Park are listed as destinations and will show you train / shuttle bus options. The younger generation all generally speak good English, the older generation do as well but can sometimes be more nervous of getting it wrong. You really won't have too many language problems.

[Lamoure]

Hey I think from Barcelona to Germany would be cheaper by plane. Here in germany we've some "cheap-planes" like ryanair(http://www.germanwings.com)(http://www.ryanair.com). I think they have an english website.

You can land in "Karlsruhe-Baden" or "Frankfurt-Hahn", both a 3/4hour car drive from Holidaypark. Maybe you can by a rentalcar (hertz (http://www.hertz.de/), europcar(http://www.europcar.de) etc.) or by train (^like he told DeutscheBahn(www.bahn.de)). Autumn is the best season to go to Holidaypark!! They themed everything with Halloween and have one maze

 

Around Holidaypark are the villages "Hassloch", "Lachen-Speyerdorf","Duttweiler",Dudenhofen" and "Geinsheim". Maybe you find an Hostel or Appartment in the villages and go by bus to Holidaypark in 10min.

 

Except Holidaypark, there are, like you said, Europapark, Walygator at France (They have a Raptor Clone), Phantasialand and Skyline Park. Jusst googlemaps there position (http://maps.google.de/)

 

Hope I can help you, if you don't understand a word, you can ask me for translation Don't be nervous, we germans are very friendly and have very good girls

[Groteslurf]

Maybe flying in/out Strassbourg is an option aswell.

Both Holiday- & Europapark have excellent english website sections with directions and suggestions on how to reach them.

Don't worry about the english, you won't have big problems with people understand you.

[Nozzy]

Thanks for the responses. Looking through the websites, I see Stuttgart as a possible location to fly to as well. Would this also work well, or do the others offer some sort of advantage over it?

 

I am not too sure about driving in a foreign country, and as much as I'd love to try out driving on German roads I think I should stick to trains. After my time in England I'm confident with trains, but still slightly fearful of buses. I see shuttle buses listed on the park websites, but are there usually other buses that stop at the parks on normal routes?

 

It seems like there are a lot more hotels close to Europa Park than Holiday Park, so maybe I'll try to go there first as well. I'm glad to hear the reassurances about the language as well! Thanks again!

[Solid Gold]

Hey Hey, I can maybe help here. I took a trip in May by train to a few German and Dutch theme parks, including Europa.

 

Finding English speakers-Not a problem. 2/3 people can probably help you find what you want. In fact, Germany was well marked enough that I really didn't need much English.

 

In the area you want to go to, your best options are Europa(Most Southern Park), Holiday Park(Central to the others), Tripsdrill(Most Eastern Park), Phantasialand(Most northern park), and Walygator Parc(Most Western Park). If you are limited to three days, go for Holiday Park(and possibly Tripsdrill if you want credits and only if you drive) and Europa (2 days). You will need 2 days for Europa, it is a humongous place. I recommend putting it into any itinerary you create(your best option for the cheapest lodging would require more transportation, there aren't any hostels in the nearest towns of Europa) If you choose to do a trip by plane/train/bus, I would go for an airport near Frankfurt, arriving in the morning, and hitting Holiday Park that very day, then moving on to some other place.

 

My Best Advice: Pick the parks you want to go to and the days you have available, then figure out if the Transportation works.

 

I went by train and bus only, and let me say, the buses for Phantasialand and Europa were super easy, right from the closest train station to the front entrance at both places, with many many shuttle times. Getting to both of those parks was a breeze. Europa also does have some longer range buses, from nearby surrounding cities. CHECK bahn.de for any and all train/bus times! It is very accurate! It also has each of the aforementioned parks listed as destinations in its database, and you can look at it all in English.

[Nozzy]

Thanks again for everyone's help.

 

My break actually lasts until Monday, and I decided to do Phantasialand as well. Unfortunately, traveling works best going in the reverse order of what I want, so I'll be flying in to Stuttgart and traveling to Rust on Tuesday, doing Europa Park Wednesday and Thursday, leave Rust Friday morning, do Holiday Park and get to a Phantasialand hotel that night, Phantasialand Saturday, and flying back to London from Frankfurt on Sunday.

 

I expect Europa to be the best park, but I should still enjoy GeForce and Winjas. I'm only getting a half-day (opening to ~15:30) at Holiday Park too, but think it will be worth it for the Phantasialand hotel (I decided to splurge a bit after finding cheaper flights!). Should this be enough time to enjoy Holiday Park (I know there's GeForce, 2 coasters, and a StarFlyer and enjoy the Halloween environment Lamoure described)?

 

I hope to get all my reservations done soon, but any other help or advice is still appreciated!