Germany (Lonely Planet, 6th Edition) - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [3]
Bike rental per day €6-12
Mass (1L) of beer at Oktoberfest €8.60
Cinema ticket €6-10
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Museum admission ranges from €0.50 in small local-history museums to €15 for international blockbuster exhibits. Some sights and museums are free, or have admission-free days, and discounts are offered for children, teens, students and seniors.
Car-hire costs vary widely, but you should figure on spending at least €45 per day for a medium-sized vehicle. Flick to Click here in the Transport chapter for more details.
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TRAVELLING RESPONSIBLY
Hotels, restaurants and sights that go the extra mile when it comes to being green are listed in our GreenDex. Another excellent source is the booklet Tips for Green Travel in Germany, available as a free download from www.cometogermany.com/pdf/Broschuere_Green_Travel_Tips.pdf.
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Accommodation
Many properties follow simple eco-initiatives, such as offering you the option of reusing your towels and sheets, switching to soap dispensers, replacing plastic or styrofoam cups with glass and dropping prepackaged items from the breakfast buffet. Guests can often borrow bicycles for free or a small fee. Newer hotels are sometimes built using local and/or ecofriendly materials. Recycling is de rigueur.
You can help raise awareness among hotel staff by thanking them for any ecofriendly programs they offer; if they don’t have any, politely encourage them to do so and provide a few constructive hints.
Organisations that certify ecofriendly lodgings include www.biohotels.info, www.viabono.de (in German) and www.ecocamping.de (in German).
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Food
Whenever possible eat at locally owned restaurants to support the local economy. Take fast food off the menu. The German word for organic is ‘bio’ and you’ll see it everywhere these days, even in discount supermarkets like Plus or Aldi. Many chefs have gone ‘locavore’, meaning they’ll source their meat and produce from small regional farms rather than importing it from who knows where. Farmers markets abound and local farmers often set up roadside stands. Germany’s water is perfectly safe and clean. If carrying a bottle of water, refill it in bathrooms or at water fountains.
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Transport
Even if you’re travelling by car, consider ditching it at least part of the time. Getting around between towns or to tourist attractions and trail heads by train or bus is usually uncomplicated and inexpensive since timetables are often designed with visitors’ needs in mind. Low-emission or alternative-fuel bus fleets are increasingly common. If you rent a car, spend a little extra on a hybrid or at least get a fuel-efficient model.
The least polluting way to travel is, of course, by bicycle. Bicycle touring has exploded in popularity in Germany in recent years. There are dozens of signposted long-distance routes, plenty of bike rental shops (indicated throughout this book) and hotels that cater specifically for cycle tourists. Get the low-down on Click here.
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TRAVEL LITERATURE
To get you in the mood for your trip, consider reading some of these titles written by travellers who have visited Germany before you.
A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain is a literary classic that includes keen and witty observations about Germany garnered during his travels in Europe, including a walking tour of the Black Forest in the 1880s. Twain’s postscript ‘The Awful German Language’ is a hilarious read.
Mr Norris Changes Trains and Goodbye to Berlin are by Christopher Isherwood, who lived in Berlin during the Weimar years and whose stories inspired the movie Cabaret. The book brilliantly and often entertainingly chronicles the era’s decadence and despair.
For a different take on the same era, try What I Saw: Reports from Berlin 1920–1933 by Joseph Roth, a dynamic and insightful chronicler.
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TOP 10
MUST-SEE GERMAN MOVIES
Planning and dreaming about your trip to Germany is best done in a comfy living room