Germany Holidays and Escorted Coach Tours
Germany offers a wonderful mix of historic cities, scenic river valleys and beautiful countryside, with plenty to discover across its different regions. From the Rhine and the cathedral cities of the west to Berlin’s rich history and the lakes and mountains of the south, there is something to suit every traveller.
Our holidays offer a choice of travel options, including coach journeys via the Channel Tunnel or ferry, as well as flights with transfers on arrival. With carefully planned itineraries, organised excursions and included entrance fees where specified, you can relax and enjoy discovering Germany at your own pace.
Frequently Asked Questions About Our Germany Tours
Travel arrangements vary depending on the destination and itinerary, with options including coach, rail and air travel. Some holidays include transfers as part of the journey, while others offer a more direct route to your destination. Each tour page outlines the travel arrangements, so you can choose the holiday that best suits your preferences. If you have a preferred way to travel, our team will be happy to help you find the right option.
Most open in the last week of November and close on or just before Christmas Eve, though individual towns vary by a few days either way. Our festive tours are timed to fall comfortably inside that window, and in the case of Lake Constance take in markets in Konstanz, Lindau and Bregenz on the same holiday. Ask us for the exact dates of the departure you are considering.
German city centres are pedestrianised, so guided walks in Konstanz, Lindau or Innsbruck are done on foot, and cathedral squares and market lanes can be uneven underfoot. The coach drops you close to the centre, wherever it is allowed to. If you have concerns about distances, standing or steps, tell us before you book and we will be straight with you about a particular itinerary.
Enjoy the flexibility to choose the meal arrangements that suit you best. Depending on your preferences and the tour, you can opt for breakfast, evening meals or a combination of both. Lunches are generally left free, giving you the freedom to explore local cafés, restaurants and markets along the way. Special dietary requirements can often be accommodated, so please let us know when booking.
Yes. Any of these itineraries can be run as a Private Group for a club, society, church or a group of friends, and the dates can be moved to suit you. Several of our Germany prices are already based on a group of 25 or 30 travelling, which is the size a typical gardening club or U3A branch fills comfortably. Tell us roughly how many you are and when you would like to travel, and we will put a price together.
Berlin, Cologne and the Rhine
Berlin is a city of contrasts and it takes a few days to make sense of. The Brandenburg Gate, the surviving stretches of the Wall, Museum Island and the palaces and park at Potsdam are all within easy reach of a central hotel, which is where our short break stays, at the four-star Leonardo Royal by Alexanderplatz.
Cologne is a different proposition: a Rhine city built around a Gothic cathedral whose twin spires took six centuries to finish, with the Museum Ludwig and its Picassos next door and the Roman collections a few streets away. Being close to the Belgian border, it is comfortably reached by coach from the Channel crossing.
South of Bonn the river narrows into the Rhine gorge, where the vineyards climb almost vertically and castles sit on the crags above Rüdesheim.
Christmas markets in Germany
The German markets are the reason many people first travel here in winter, and they reward more than one evening. Cologne has several; the best known stands in front of the cathedral on Roncalliplatz, under the spires, with the stalls arranged around a tall tree.
Rüdesheim, a wine town on the Rhine, keeps its market in the narrow lanes off the Drosselgasse, and Advent on the river is a quieter, softer affair than a big city market. Around Lake Constance our tour visits three countries in five days: Konstanz spreads its stalls along the harbour, Lindau sits on its island with the Mang Tower and thermal baths, and Bregenz is in Austria on the far shore. The Christmas Gardens on Mainau Island are part of the same holiday.
Travelling by coach or by air
The coach tours cross by Eurotunnel or ferry and then use a private coach throughout, with the same experienced driver for the whole holiday. That means your case is loaded once, comfort stops come at sensible intervals, and the coach is waiting at the end of an excursion rather than a bus stop.
The air holidays use scheduled return flights with transfers at the destination, and on some tours transfers in the UK as well. Flying makes sense for Berlin and for the far south, where the drive would eat two days of a short break.
Accommodation is one or two hotels, breakfast and evening meals are included on the tours listed here, and prices are quoted on a set number travelling, usually 25 or 30 depending on the itinerary.
Germany with its neighbours
Germany's southern border is the sort of place where you can cross three frontiers before lunch, and two of our holidays take advantage of it. Lake Constance is shared between Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and the ferries and the Pfänderbahn cable car above Bregenz make that obvious in a way a map never does.
Further east, our four-country tour links South Tyrol in Italy with Switzerland, Austria and Germany: the gardens at Trauttmansdorff Castle above Merano, a South Tyrolean winery, an Appenzell cheese dairy, a guided walk through Innsbruck, Ambras Castle and Swarovski Crystal Worlds.
Alpine driving of this kind involves passes and long views rather than long days, and the coach does the climbing.
