I plan on visiting Heidelberg Germany for one week, are there any nearby cities or locations I should visit?

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Randy W

You want a Castle? you want a Night Life? you want Museums? and right now the Worlds Best Christmas Market and Christmas feeling? You gotta go to Nuernberg. 2 hour ride but Nuernberg has a lot to offer you. I grew up there and it is fantastic. If you need more info, ask me anytime

PedestrianMe

Nurse Ratchett is incorrect. Neuschwanstein is not in Austria. But it is still pretty darn far from Heidelberg. You only have a week; stay in that region. There's tons to see. There's great local music in nearby Mannheim and fun soccer stadiums with crazy fans in Mainz and Stuttgart.

Elke

First, I dont agree with Nate. Mannheim is a big ugly city with the highest criminal rate in all of Germany. I have relatives that live there and visit occasionally.
Heidelberg is a beatiful city. To quote a friend with whom I traveled through Europe "Of all the places I have seen, Heidelberg is the most beautiful." There is much to see here and lots of unknown sights to foreigners. For example the Philosophers Path on the mountain opposite of the castle with a breathtaking view of Heidelberg old town. (Wear good shoes). You can take a day trip to Ladenburg which is the oldest Roman city on the right of the Rhine river. It has a lovely old market place and a museum with roman relics. If you can, rent a car for a day or two and drive down the Neckartal, definitely! It is also known as the Castle Road. The town of Neckarsteinach alone has four castles. The beautiful old town of Eberbach (old part of town). I would drive along this road until the town of Mosbach. There is much to see and surely you will "find" a town worth staying overnight. The Fortress of Burg Hornberg and Burg Guttenberg with its medieval museum are worth a visit. And Burg Hornberg has its own vineyard and wine and a very interesting historical background.
You dont need to walk 300 steps to the castle. If you want, there is a funicular (the Bergbahn and also name of bus stop) and you will be in the castle within minutes. Be sure to see the castle Wine barrel. You need to walk up stairs to reach the top of it. Huge!
Heidelberg has a very vibrant night life with many bars and pubs and so-called "Gasthauses". Take a walk along the main street in the evening, which is only for pedestrians. Visit the old Student jail near University Place (opening times?) where randalizing students where locked up for the weekend, lol. See many Maria statues on buildings and gargoyles. Leave main street to walk along the narrow side streets and down to the Neckar River. Visit the Red Ox Inn (Roter Ochse), where Mark Twains name is engraved (and as far as I know you can engrave yours too).
Enjoy, it will be worth it ;-)

Ken Guru

You could go to nearby castles in Neckarsteinach or Dilsberg.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergfeste_Dilsberg (only in german). There are many more castles if you follow the Neckar river upstream.

Famous cathedrals are in Speyer, Worms, and Mainz. Mannheim is very close and good for shopping, besides its palace (a part of the university is located there) and cultural events. Neustadt a. d. WeinstraÃŸe is a nice town in Rhinland-Palatinate.

Large technical museums are in Sinsheim (they have a Concorde!) and Speyer: http://www.technik-museum.de

In Rust there's the Europapark, considered being the best theme park in Europe (closed most times in winter): http://www.europapark.de/lang-en/c51/default.html

If you want to see larger cities go to Frankfurt or Stuttgart. For seeing palaces go to Bruchsal, Karlsruhe, and Rastatt.

A nice two day trip would be going to Freiburg (Black Forest, maybe connected with a visit of the Europapark or the Swiss city of Basel). On good weather conditions (clear sky) you should go up the Schauinsland, "Freiburg's" mountain with an excellent view sometimes as far as the alps (300 km or 200 mi away). If you go there by car you could visit Colmar and Strasbourg on your way back.

There are many more places to go, depending on your interests. So I better stop at this point. If you are interested in more information on a certain place just type in the name at
http://en.wikipedia.org and http://wikitravel.org/en/Main_Page

pinata

If you are only here for one week Heidelberg is enough. But plan to go for another week to Bavaria and see the North - a totally other Germany.
Sorry our best times are in the summer --- our best dishes in the winter.
Greetings from Hamburg, Germany
Heinz

kebvee

take a little boat ride down the Rhein and have yourself some of that fine dry white wine! you can get yourself a cuckoo clock afterwards, if you're drunk enough :-)

palatinate127001

There are some interesting places on the German Wine Route that you can check out here: http://www.germanwineroute.com

There are also several castles in the area, Speyer is just 25 km over the rhine, Koblenz, Bad Duerkheim, is also in short travel distance

GRUMPY

I wish I knew when you were going. There's a lot that depends on the time of year.
Spring--There's the spargelfest in Swetzingen which is about 20 minutes away. Spargel is asparagus that they grow and as it sprouts thye dig trenches and recover it. It grows long, white and very tender. Quite a treat. The there are wine fests every where in the Spring plus there are tours up the Neckar where castle battles are re-enacted.
Fall- More wine fests plus Oktoberfest, but its really big and easy to get lost. But there is always a "fest" somewhere.
Winter- KrisKringleMarkt in Wiesbaden, about one hour North. The whole pedestrian shopping area is nick nacks of Christmas plus Gluhwine, a hot spicy wine that really takes the chill off.

All in all, there's always a lot to do. And there are tour offices also. But I doubt if you'll run out of things to do in Heidelberg

The baby penguin

Forget Munich, Heidelberg itself has a lot to see. You can also go to the Black Forest or Stuttgart if you wanna leave the town so badly. Check out the links.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidelberg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Forest

Heidewitzka

You can reach Frankfurt within an hour by InterCity train, but Frankfurt/Main is not really a nice city. There are the most skyscrapers in europe, and it is the only town in Germany that has a skyline

Taryn De'ann

go to the castle, you have to go up 300 steps to get there but its worth it!!!!!

King L

Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Paris, Amsterdam, Munich. Depends on how far you want to go. Heidelberg has a few things to see too.

nix

mannheim is pretty nice and while your in Frankfurt you should visit it to.

nurse ratchet

If there is any way, you MUST go into Austria and visit Neushwanstein (not sure of spelling) castle. It is the same castle that Walt Disney fashioned his castle after at Disney World. It is amazingly beautiful. Also, Munich Germany is a beautiful city with a lot of history. I went there 10 years ago and was amazed at the beauty of this country. However, I did not go to the Frankfurt area, I flew into Munich and traveled by car from there.

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