The most beautiful time of the year is awaiting you right outside your door. Vacation farm areas can provide with peaceful, unencumbered days. Out in the country, you will find elements of life that you otherwise may not experience. Instead of the hectic pace of everyday life that makes you feel unacknowledged, you encounter real hospitality in a warm, personal atmosphere.
You will find yourself rejuvenated in such a natural setting whether just walking outside, fishing, biking or horseback riding. There's no end to the new experiences and discoveries you can make. The hosts of the farm will spoil you with regional delicacies like fragrant fresh breads, home-made sausages and cheeses as well as wine and juices from own vineyards. Diverse leisure activities for both young and old round off the whole experience in the country.

Bed and Breakfast

A Bed and Breakfast is typically a lower-priced alternative to hotels and inns. Instead of staying in anonymous hotel beds, you sleep in cosy, private guest rooms. You are welcomed cordially by your hosts who offer a pleasant atmosphere in which to enjoy your stay. In the morning, breakfast is prepared just for you according to your taste. Your hosts take a personal interest in helping you with providing tips and information about the area, the country and the people.

4. Where to go.

4.1.Festivals

A) The Berlinale.

From its beginning in post war Berlin, the Berlinale was designed to be an international rather than a national film festival.
Over the years the festival has cemented its status as major European film festival and is easily as important as its competitors in Venice and Cannes.
The Golden and Silver Berlin bear and many honorary awards are much sought-after.

B) Love parade in Berlin

German techno guru Dr. Motte and 150 of his closer friends started the rave in 1989. They met at Berlin's 'Ku'damm' to celebrate a party and to demonstrate for tolerance and love.
Successfully: the mobile party attracts en-vogue DJs and an enthusiastic crowd.
Some facts: In 2000, the loveparade's busiest year to date, 250 DJs on 53 wagons partied together with over a million guests.
Recently, Austria, Israel, South Africa and Mexico have joined the craze and organised their own love parades.

C) Frankfurt's Bookfair

Frankfurt is a big player in global trade fair business. An annual average of 80 fairs and exhibitions attract numerous visitors from all over the world.
One of the highlights is Frankfurt's book fair. The biggest book fair worldwide dates back to the 15th century. Its popularity has increased ever since.

Today, more than 250,000 annual visitors flood the fair.
The aim: information on a selection of the almost 400,000 books which are being presented. Readings, talks, interviews and other side events offer additional incentives for an interested public. Book industry, publishers, critics, readers and writers alike are under the spell of the biggest book fair world wide.

D) Carnival in Germany

In Germany Mardi Gras ('Fasching') is also referred to as the fifth and foolish season ('die närrische Zeit'). It is a time of elaborate parades, masks, balls and election of Carnival king and queen and official madness.
The exact time of celebration and the traditions vary from county to county, but it generally takes place in early spring. Munich, Cologne, Mainz are strongholds of Mardi Gras celebrations.
Switzerland and Austria, too, join the party with enthusiasm following their own traditions.
E) Munich's 'Oktoberfest'

Even though it is called 'Oktoberfest', the festival actually takes place in September, as Bavarian autumn can be tricky and surprise with early cold and snow. Today, the 'Oktoberfest' is the largest festival worldwide attracting a multitude of visitors. Apart from beer tents the festival offers amusements as diverse as roller coasters, circus appearances, festive parades and live brass bands.
The ceremonial opening happens at noon. The mayor arrives in a festive coach followed by a decorated horse-drawn brewer's cart. Guests, staff and the numerous brass bands are all wearing traditional costumes (lederhosen and dirndls) for the occasion. At the end of the parade the major taps the first keg of beer and shouts, "o'zapft is!" (The keg is tapped).
It takes good nerves and a solid stomach to survive the festivals 16 days of intensive partying. However, the festival is a huge success: Apart from attracting a multitude of visitors the festivals brand name 'Oktoberfest' has been exported all over the world.

4.2. National Parks

A) The Jasmund National Park

The Jasmund National Park offers many different landscapes within a very small area. Come and visit a cretaceous landscape with numerous bogs, wet grasslands and dry meadows. The most renowned attraction are the chalk cliffs surrounding the Königsstuhl which have been captured in paintings by the famous artist Caspar David Friedrich.

Apart from the Königsstuhl, the highest point on the chalk coastline, the whole length of the chalk coastline is impressive. It stretches over a length of 10 km, reaches a height of 117 m and consists of both active and inactive cliffs, illustrating the dynamics of an active steep coastline.

The national park offers a wide range of activities, such as hiking and bicycle tours, excursions and seminars which give the opportunity to explore the most beautiful hiking trails through the region´s forested landscapes.

The Stubnitz area is not just worth a visit because of its magical chalk landscape, it is also the home of mythical figures.
On guided tours, organised on a regular basis by the national park administration, you will find out everything about Hertha, a Germanic goddess, and Störtebecker, a pirate who is said to have buried treasure somewhere in this area.

Highlights:
- Cape Arkona with the little town of Vitt
- the fishing port of Sassnitz with its fishing museum
- "Piratenschlucht" (pirate´s gorge) in Sassnitz
- Greifswald's museum with an exhibition of paintings by Caspar David Friedrich
- historic craftsmen's dwellings in Gingst
- Grümbke lookout tower near Neuenkirchen

Activities:
Jasmund offers a wide range of guided tours (daily tours take place from April - September, both from the parking lot in Hagen to the Königsstuhl and from Sassnitz to the bizarre rock formations of "Wissower Klinken").
Furthermore, you can visit numerous exhibitions (at the national park visitors´ center at the Königsstuhl and also at the Granitz hunting lodge near Sellin).
The biosphere reserve "South East Rügen" organises further hiking and bicycle tours, as well as excursions.

B) The Wadden Sea of Hamburg National Park

The Wadden Sea of Hamburg National Park, which is the smallest of three mud-flats national parks, is characterized by three islands:
"Neuwerk", widely covered with meadows and with a population of 40, "Scharhörn", with its sand dunes, and "Nigehörn" which has been created artificially. The island group is located directly at the mouth of the river Elbe near Cuxhaven in northern Germany and protects a landscape of approximately 12,000 hectares of wadden sea.

On guided tours you not only have the opportunity to learn about the region´s landscape but also about the islands´ historical background.
On the way from Neuwerk to Scharhörn you will walk along trails leading across seemingly endless mud-flats. Scharhörn, which used to be a sandbank, is a tourist attraction mainly for its sea bird colonies. On a visit to the ornithological station you will see one of the largest colonies of sea swallows.

Highlights:
- carriage ride across mud-flats from Sahlenburg to the island of Neuwerk
- voyage with the MS "Flipper" from Cuxhaven to the island of Neuwerk
- guided walks across the Wadden sea
- guided tours to the bird colonies, salt marshes and wadden sea of Neuwerk
- guided tours to Scharhörn, the bird sanctuary
- searching for amber on the "Kleiner Vogelsand"
- amber exhibition on the island of Neuwerk

Activities:
We recommend national park visitors on day trips to take a walk along the main dyke, from which you can see the foreshore with its bird colonies but also the island´s interior. Cars are banned on the islands. For this reason tours, for example, to the fortified tower of the island of Neuwerk, through the salt marshes of the foreshore with their abundance of flora and fauna, or to the "Ostschleuse" lock, can either be made on foot or by horse-drawn carriage.

C) The Wadden Sea of Lower Saxony National Park

Make a trip to one of the most impressive wadden sea landscapes. High up, in northern Germany, at the North Sea coast of Lower Saxony, the Wadden Sea of Lower Saxony National Park is located. It protects the wadden seas landscape between the river Ems and the river Elbe, including the offshore East Frisian Islands. The national park offers amazing natural spectacles and various landscapes, such as salt-marshes, which are typical of this region, the steep coast near Dangast and the "swimming bog" near Sehestedt, Germany's only remaining bog landscape located outside the country's dykes

Highlights:
- Wadden Sea House in Wilhelmshaven
- Norddeich seal station
- Lightship and whale-bone fence on the island of Borkum
- Fisherman's House Museum on the island of Norderney
- Dornumsiel Castle, surrounded by water
- German Shipping Museum in Bremerhaven
- Old lighthouse on the island of Wangerooge

Activities:
The surrounding area offers a wide range of sightseeing opportunities, such as the East Frisian islands of Juist and Norderney. Whether you want to go swimming and enjoy the broad beaches, take a ride in a carriage across the island or a walk through the salt-marshes, the national park´s recreation and leisure program will guarantee a lot of fun and relaxation.

D) The Wadden Sea of Schleswig-Holstein National Park

Welcome to the Wadden Sea of Schleswig-Holstein National Park, the largest national park in central Europe. One third of Schleswig-Holstein belongs to the world´s largest uninterrupted wadden sea landscape, which reaches from the North Sea coast of the Netherlands up to Denmark. The wadden sea, a stretch of land affected by tides, are flooded by sea water during high tide and remain dry during low tide, a unique phenomenon worldwide. Experience an oceanic landscape as near to nature as it can be, with dunes, beaches, salt-marshes and "Halligen", small islands which are not protected by dykes and therefore become flooded whenever there is a spring tide or a heavy storm.

Experienced guides will show the amazing spectacle of low and high tide. You can watch how, after six hours of low tide, the wadden sea become flooded again and the deep, artificially constructed furrows - called 'Priele' - fill with water. Whether you go swimming in the sea, take a walk along the beach or over the mud-flats, join a boat tour or watch the birds in the salt-marshes - your holiday in the Wadden Sea of Schleswig-Holstein National Park will definitely be relaxing, for both body and soul.

Highlights:
- Multimar Wattforum in Tönning, a national park center
- Husum, with its old river port and museums
- ride in a carriage to the Südfall Hallig
- guided hiking tour across the mud-flats
- Nordstrand tourist information center with its aquarium
- Friedrichskoog seal station

Activities:
One of many possible sightseeing opportunities is a trip to the small fishing villages which belong to the national park. You can also go on a boat tour to the seal banks and observe a unique and fascinating animal spectacle.

4.3. Routs in Germany.

Germany’s first “Vacation Routes” and “Scenic Routes” date back to 1927, each carving a path dedicated to a particular cultural or scenic theme. Today, some 150 such routes exist, and millions of people travel them annually. Discover Germany along the “German Castle Road,” “German Fairytale Road,” or the most famous, the “Romantic Road.” Whatever your interest, our Scenic Routes will guide you on a fun and exciting vacation.

1. The “Romantic Road.”

Wuerzburg Residence Palace

In every traveler's life, there are never-to-be-forgotten moments. One of them is the transformation that begins at the exit from the A-7 Autobahn, where you enter the Romantic Road. One of the most famous of the German Vacation Routes wends its way from Wuerzburg to Fuessen.

The Romantic Road is a 220-mile journey from the River Main to the Alps that offers the traveler what is simply one of the most beautiful and most engaging melange of scenery, cuisine and ambience Germany can offer.

It's all gorgeous - the stunning Wuerzburg Residence Palace, the centuries-old panorama and magical atmosphere of Rothenburg-ob-der-Tauber and Dinkelsbühl, the Roman remains in Augsburg, Bavarian King Ludwig II's unforgettable dream- castle of Neuschwanstein.

Castle of Neuschwanshtein

Wherever travellers find themselves on the Romantic Road, exceptional cuisine, delicious wines, glorious land- and city-scapes, castles, churches and fortresses inspire the appetite and the soul. Here, in one of the most charming and beautiful sections of Germany, even the most cynical and unromantic traveler cannot help but be seduced.

B) The Classic route.

Whether we pass through Erfurt, Weimar, Jena or Gotha, names such as Goethe, Schiller, Wagner and Strauss always linger on any trip through the "green heart of Germany".
The town of Eisenach is known as the home of the "Wartburg", the castle once inhabited by the famous Martin Luther. It is also, however, the city of minstrels and birthplace of Johann Sebastian Bach, whose history can be traced in the local "Bach House" museum. Eisenach is a medieval town which both Goethe and Wagner liked to visit, and it is a joy to wander through the splendid forest landscapes of this area.