Travellers visiting south-west Germany over the coming weeks can enjoy the growing sense of excitement and festive cheer as seasonal markets open throughout the region.

The tourism agency representing Baden-Wurttemberg highlighted a range of festive events that will be getting underway soon, which range from the 'big and bustling' to the 'small and intimate'.

In Bad Wimpfen, visitors can explore one of Germany's oldest Christmas markets and join walking tours led by night watchmen and town guides in period costume.

Another destination worth visiting is Ludwigsburg, near Stuttgart, which hosts a Baroque fair featuring more than 170 stalls, while Gengenbach offers the impressive sight of a giant advent calendar that uses the 24 windows of the 18th-century town hall.

The majority of markets in the region open in the last week of November and run until Christmas Eve. Click here for a complete list of the Christmas Markets.


If you want to visit not only Germany, but want the best of all, we have a very special Christmas Market Tour visiting German, Austria & Switzerland.
Travellers can get to south-west Germany by catching flights to destinations such as Stuttgart, Karlsruhe-Baden Baden and Friedrichshafen, while Frankfurt is also close by.

A Visit to Neuschwanstein Castle

Schloss Neuschwanstein is one of the most popular castles in Europe and we are glad that our autumn visit has allowed us to tour the interior of the castle. 

On a previous trip in winter, we could only admire the Neuschwanstein Castle from the village inHohenschwangau. On that occasion our tour did not include a castle visit.  Our tour director wasn’t forthcoming with information on how to get up to the castle and we didn’t have a lot of time to explore on our own.

Visits to the rooms of Neuschwanstein Castlecan only be done as part of a guided tour. Tours are conducted in German and English by Schloss Neuschwanstein guides and for visitors who do not speak these two languages, audio-guides are available in various languages.

The castle tour takes half an hour and visitors are shown through the rooms on the third and fourth floors.  King Ludwig commenced building his castle in 1869, but it was never completed.

King Ludwig’s Fairytale Castle

After King Ludwig II was defeated by the Prussians and was forced to accept domination of his country by Prussia, he decided to retreat to an alternative world of fantasy. Ludwig II had a very romantic view of life in the Middle Ages and thought he could live like a king of the Middle Ages and so the castle that he wanted to build was to be “in the authentic style of the old German knights’ castles”.

Ludwig was also very much influenced by the works of Richard Wagner and the main rooms of Neuschwanstein Castle are decorated with murals of scenes from the Germanic and Nordic sagas on which Wagner had based his works.

On the tour of the castle rooms visitors get to see Ludwig’s monuments to the medieval German knights’ and legends as well as references toTannhäuser, Parzival and Lohengrin, all of whom the king had identified with since he was young.  Particularly impressive were the King’sbedroom, the  Throne Hall, the Festival Hall and the Singers’ Hall.  The Singers’ Hall was one of Ludwig’s favourite projects and is the most important room in the Castle.  (Note: Image to the right is from a print.)

The guide we had was excellent and our only disappointment was that photography is not allowed in the castle.  Also, you do have to move quite quickly through the rooms as with the many visitors coming through, there’s no time to hang around and enjoy the features of this fairytale castle.

The tour ends on the 2nd floor where there is a shop, cafeteria and multimedia room.

Just past the cafeteria is a balcony from which you can get great views towardsHohenschwangau Castle, the village and the surrounding area.  The kitchen on the ground floor can be viewed on your own before you exit the Castle.

If you are visiting Neuschwanstein Castle on your own, note that entrance tickets must be bought at the ticket office in Hohenschwangau villagebefore you come up to Castle. The ticket office will advise you of the possible entrance times.  You will not be able to buy tickets at the Castle itself.  In spite of the inclement weather during our visit, it was very busy so allow time for standing in the queue. During the summer months, the Castle receives about 6,000 visitors each day. Also, allow time for getting up to the castle and back to the village.

Although only a 30-minute tour, a visit to the Neuschwanstein Castle rooms is certainly worthwhile doing.  A great view of the castle is from Marienbrücke.


Search tours to Schloss Neuschwanstein

Search hotel near Neuschwanstein Castle   

5 Things you want to know about travelling in Germany

Restaurants and Bars – You do not get water for free, you have to pay for it. If you order water you will get carbonated water. In most restaurants you can request tap water and they may or may not charge you but it is most likely straight from the sink. In some American fast food restaurants, (i.e. McDonalds) you must pay for ketchup as well. Be aware that the menus at most fast food restaurants in Germany are not exactly the same. You may also notice that a sandwich that you recognize from back home may taste a little different or it could be smaller. When you enter a restaurant you will not be seated, just walk right in and pick the table of your choice!- the tip should be much smaller than you would give in the States (this is because the waiters/waitresses get paid more than in the states) A tip of two or three EUR would be considered a good tip for very good service.

Supermarkets – If you shop for groceries in Germany you will notice the supermarkets have all of their large rolling carts outside in a designated area and they are locked to one another. In order to utilize a cart you must place one EUR in the cart itself, you will see the slot on the handle. Upon leaving the supermarket you latch the cart back to the other carts and pull the device out where you placed the coin, now you can retrieve your coin. When you have all of the groceries you want, proceed to the check-out counter. You will have to purchase plastic bags to put the groceries in or you can take one in yourself. If you decide to purchase one they are usually visible at the counter and normally only cost a few cents. If there is a long line do not put all of your groceries in the bag, put them back into the cart and bag them away from the line.

Closing hours – On Sunday everything is closed except for some restaurants, bars, gas stations and shops at the main train station and bigger airports. Some bigger stores are realizing that they can make much more money if they open on Sunday so they are doing just that, but I would not rely on it. During the week shops in bigger cities close at 8 PM at the latest. You may see shops in smaller cities closing even earlier.

Public Phones – Public phones are very rare in Germany. If you find one you will notice that they only take telephone cards. You can buy a telephone card in different shops like “T-Punkt”, “Telekom”, “Post”, and “Vodafone” or you can go to an Internet cafe.

Miscellaneous – “Bad” in front of a towns name does not mean that the people or the city is bad for example, “Bad Homburg”. Bad in front of a towns name normally means that the town is designated as a healthy location normally with very clean air and water.

For more great tips & special offers for Germany, call us at (800) 949-6362 or go to www.nonstoptravel.net 

Why Does Airline Food Taste so Awful?

Is it actually the food the airlines serve (when they do) that tastes so bad, or is it the flying experience that makes the food taste so awful?

Wired Magazine reported that a handful of brave volunteers made “the ultimate sacrifice for science” and ate airline food. Voluntarily.

Apparently a lab was set up that perfectly simulated the intense dryness, stale air and ear-irritating low pressure of airline cabins.

Germany’s Lufthansa Airlines spearheaded the experiment basically because they wanted some scientific sense of just how air travel affects the taste buds. So the volunteers were jammed into an Airbus A310 fuselage to find out.

From there, the hapless tasters were subjected to motors under the seats recreating the full sense of engine vibrations, while the ”cabin” air pressure was lowered and humidity reduced to a parching 15 percent.

The “flyers” were served various meals, tasted the food and reported back that the “pressurized cabins dulled the senses,” causing food to taste as if it had 20 percent less sugar and salt than it actually did.

Lufthansa says it will correct the mistaste by adding more sugar, herbs and spices to liven up the flavor.

They say they’ll also add humidifiers and pay more attention to aroma.

It seems that the nose feasts before the palate so, according to Ingo Bulow, head of on board services at the airline, “If you serve hot brown water and fill the cabin with the aroma of coffee, people will perceive the drink as coffee.”

Of course they could just serve good coffee and let the natural aroma entice the passengers.

Now there’s a novel idea.

Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival (Feb 2011)

We have exclusive access to this VIP Travel package to meet with Food Network personality's like Bobby Flay, Paula Deen, Anne Burrell, Duff Goldman, Sunny Anderson and  Aarty Sequeira.

Check out what we have to offer!!

Germany's busiest shopping streets visited by shoppers

Germany attracts thousands of tourists every year, and not only for its mountains and lakes or historical buildings. The country is also quite a popular destination for shoppers. In a research Kemers's Jones Lang LaSalle, a renowned real estate company, counted the number of visitors in 170 German shopping streets on Saturday between 1pm-2pm, the busiest hour of the week. What are the most visited streets? Tourism-Review.com brings you the top 10 busiest shopping streets in Germany published by Sellpage.de.

Germany: The Busiest Streets Visited by Shoppers

Lufthansa luggage restriction change on November 15th

For tickets issued on or after November 15, 2010, changes will take effect to the free baggage allowance for Lufthansa Economy Class passengers traveling from North America.

With this new regulation, Economy Class passengers may now check-in free of charge, one piece of luggage between the U.S.and Europe. (no change).

For the second checked piece max 23kg (50lb), max 158cms (62inches), a flat rate of USD/CAD 50 will apply. (change)

If you are planning on taking a second piece of luggage on your next Lufthansa flight, we encourage you to book before November 15th, 2010. We also anticipate that other airlines will follow.

Click HERE for a complete Lufthansa luggage guide!