Germany

[flagfred]

I have a question - perhaps I am looking in the wrong place - we are planning a ABD vacation next summer, and have settled on three very different options...Knights and Lights, Viva Italy and Once upon a fairytale. We are drawn to each for different reasons.

My question...I can find plenty of trip reports for italy and england/france but for germany there just aren't many and the ones I have seen are all adult or Christmas (which sounds wonderful but not an option)....sooo if anyone has any great insight on the Germany trip I would love to hear it.

We have VERY VERY active daughters 13 and 16, who are much more into to doing than looking. DDs and I have never been to Europe - DH has been a number of times. Thank you in advance for any information you have to share...the Germany trip is speaking to me, but I just wish I had more insight from folks who have done the trip.

 

[job09]

I haven't gone on an ABD trip yet but I was looking at the one that goes to Italy and Switzerland, there are some good trip reports about it showing kids ziplining and hangliding in the Alps, looks amazing. I thought my 13 yo son would love it.

 

[abdalums]

Our kids are 15 and 13 now and we are about to leave for Greece--our 5th adventure. We have not done Knights and Lights, as we felt comfortable doing London and Paris on our own. We did Paris as our pre-adventure for 5 days before ABD Viva Italia in 2009. We did London as our post-adventure for 5 days after ABD Germany in 2010. Both were great trips. It was our experience that the Germany trip attracted families with younger kids--maybe it is the storybook theme. Our kids were 13 and 11 at the time and were the oldest kids on the trip by far. While we enjoyed the trip, it was a little slow for my active kids. They also weren't as dazzled by things like Rapunzel letting her hair down from the tower of the hotel/castle. (But we did take a photo of course.) The little girls in the group loved all the storybook characters we met along the way. By contrast, Viva Italia was fast paced and exciting. Our kids were 12 and 10 at the time and most of the kids were around that age and older. Our kids bonded with the other kids and had a great time. If I had to choose between the two, I'd pick Italy as best for active teens. In Venice, we made amazing carnaval masks which are proudly displayed. Whereas, in
Germany, we made small stuffed animal heads. Not the whole animal just the head. My kids thought it was a little creepy. They are not on display. In Italy, we made pasta; and in Germany, we made pretzels. Both fun, but I think the pasta making was a little more entertaining.

I am a big advocate of pre-tour days especially with teens. It really helps to deal with jet lag on your own schedule. I know many people arrive at the tour starting point a day or so early. That works, but we have tried to leverage the cost of airfare to maximize our limited vacation time. The biggest part of our airfare is flying over to Europe. So, we try to tag on another counrty. If you have the time, I would highly recommend a pre trip in London or Paris. When I went to book our flights to Rome, I found a cheaper flight to Paris including the Paris to Rome leg. We used Marriott points to cover the hotel in Paris. So, as I told my DH, "It's free." It gave us plenty of time to see another city and relax before starting our adventure in Rome. In both London and Paris, we hired a private guide for one day. Totally worth it! This year, we our spending 4 days in Barcelona before going on to Athens. Again, we have hired a guide for one day.

Whatever, you decide you are sure to make some wonderful memories with your teens.

 

[jjb52]

I have a question - perhaps I am looking in the wrong place - we are planning a ABD vacation next summer, and have settled on three very different options...Knights and Lights, Viva Italy and Once upon a fairytale. We are drawn to each for different reasons.

My question...I can find plenty of trip reports for italy and england/france but for germany there just aren't many and the ones I have seen are all adult or Christmas (which sounds wonderful but not an option)....sooo if anyone has any great insight on the Germany trip I would love to hear it.

We have VERY VERY active daughters 13 and 16, who are much more into to doing than looking. DDs and I have never been to Europe - DH has been a number of times. Thank you in advance for any information you have to share...the Germany trip is speaking to me, but I just wish I had more insight from folks who have done the trip.

I did this trip in September a few years ago and loved it. I took my 80 y old Mom. We had mostly adults due to school schedules but 5 young girls were part of our small group of 23. The oldest was 12 or 13, a 9 year old, 7 yr old and 2 5 year olds. I would say 5 was too young -Dad's carried them alot. There was alot of churches, museums and castles to tour-lots of looking. There was a day of archery and bike riding. Pretzel making was fun. Steiff Bear museum was interesting but I was disappointed that we just stuffed a bear head but there are time restaints. It was interesting to hear about King Ludwig and the history of Octoberfest. I loved that it was fall and leaves were beautiful and that it was a good mix of countryside and city-I prefer the country. Castles were awesome. Weather spectacular-just a littl rain one day. As adults we like the fairytale theme and history of Grimm brothers stories. But it you are looking for alot of activity I would maybe try a different trip as this was pretty slow paced and leisurely which is my kind of trip. We did have 2 young couples(in their 20's) that just finished pharmacy school and were celebrating-they seemed to enjoy the trip as well as the three families with kids. Then there were 2 married couples-one older (60's) and one younger (40's) that really enjoyed the trip and my Mom and I who loved it. Maybe try the Scotland trip-it seems more active. I would love to do that in 2014.

 

[flagfred]

abdalums - that is exactly what I was looking for!!! thank you soooo much.

I love the idea of Italy, and ABD i am hoping will give us the pixie dust to miss lines etc that if I were to do this myself I would be super anxious about....

We actually talked to the girls about the trips last night and they both thought the castle trip would be boring. "Who wants to shoot a bow and arrow in germany - I mean Papa would show us for free at the farm" and "I want to stay in a castle that hasn't been updated...no plumbing or electricity..." I did control the eye-roll when the 16 year old said that (it was a huge effort) because I was thinking of her not being able to take a 20 minute shower and then a blow dry and straighten....phhhhllleaaase, not enough pixie dust to make her happy about that .

We are budgeting for a few days before - so we can adjust to the time change and it never occurred to me to look at flying into a different country. We are hilton people so I am betting we might be able to get a "free" trip as well

Once again the disboards rock!

 

[sayhello]

I love the idea of Italy, and ABD i am hoping will give us the pixie dust to miss lines etc that if I were to do this myself I would be super anxious about....

That is one of the huge advantages of ABD (of which there are many). You definitely have a lot of front-of-the-line perks (or at least shorter lines). We waltzed into St Peters, totally ignoring the long line of people waiting to get in. We had the same happen at the Eiffel Tower and Versailles on Knights & Lights. The lines were awful, but we didn't care!

Sayhello

 

[WeLoveABD]

We did Germany ABD (but for Christmas and the Christmas markets)--so really a completely different trip. BUT! Do consider post-days in Munich, so you can take in the terrific and huge museum that is on an island in the nearby river--and take the train to Salzberg for a day.

 

[pjacobi]

That is one of the huge advantages of ABD (of which there are many). You definitely have a lot of front-of-the-line perks (or at least shorter lines). We waltzed into St Peters, totally ignoring the long line of people waiting to get in. We had the same happen at the Eiffel Tower and Versailles on Knights & Lights. The lines were awful, but we didn't care!

Sayhello

There is nothing "magical" about getting advanced tickets to European tourist attraction. I recently waltzed my family to the summit of the Eiffel Tower, bypassing the queue that stretched all the way back to London. It's quite easy thanks to the Internet. I even had a ticket scanned directly from my iPad - no need for paper tickets!

Of course, I spent hundreds of hour researching my destination, planning my trip and getting tickets on-line. I find this task enjoyable, but other may prefer to out-source the job to ABD.


-Paul

 

[Boardwalk_bride]

There is nothing "magical" about getting advanced tickets to European tourist attraction. I recently waltzed my family to the summit of the Eiffel Tower, bypassing the queue that stretched all the way back to London. It's quite easy thanks to the Internet. I even had a ticket scanned directly from my iPad - no need for paper tickets!

Of course, I spent hundreds of hour researching my destination, planning my trip and getting tickets on-line. I find this task enjoyable, but other may prefer to out-source the job to ABD.


-Paul

I agree.....we just did some of Europe on our own, and bought advanced tickets for everything. Even the Germany castles that are known for all day waits, we bought a cheap day tour and got right in. I think the 'magical' thing about ABD is the fact that is makes up a nice package, so that you don't have to spend hundreds of hours researching (which can be a pain!)

We just recently did a copycat of part of the Germany trip. While we are not teenagers we are in our mid 20's, and did LOVE the castles and especially Rothernburg. I would say that those 2 experiences were pretty active...there was definitely a lot of walking and climbing. However, like a previous poster mentioned, the ABD version does seem a bit geared towards younger children, which is one of the reasons, aside from price, we opted not to do that trip with ABD.

Your daughters are so lucky! I am sure whatever trip you choose they will have an amazing time

 

[carpenta]

We just returned from a Tauck Bridges Family tour and BOY DID WE MISS ABD. I am tempted to write a letter to ABD begging forgiveness for straying. They did not adjust the tour to take into the fact that young kids (10,11,12 yr. olds) were on the trip. Unorganized in alot of the excursions and staff were almost rude to the kids.We kept saying ABD is nicer and would do it better. We had made reservations on a future Bridges tour (just for the fact that ABD does not do that date we need) but the first thing I did is cancel that future trip. We are now looking at the Germany trip also.........only if ABD can forgive us and have us back?...

 

[abbyjt]

Our kids were 10,11 and 14 when we did ABD to Germany. We all loved the trip. There were active moments and quieter moments. We read Grimm's fairy tales before we went, so that added an extra something. There were a mix of ages on our trip including some 7 year olds who took turns falling asleep during activites. You can also do some more active things during your time on your own.

We just returned from the Greek Odyssey and that is now my favorite of all the trips we have done. A great mix of very active things (fairly challenging hikes and kayaking) and enough time to enjoy the beach and pool. Great food too. More authentic than any of the other ABD's (I would put South Africa up there with my favorites and the food was great on that trip too).