Kris

Hello everyone,
This site has helped me so much already but I can't seem to find specific advice on the small towns. My boyfriend and I are traveling to Benelux, Germany and Switzerland in the fall. We plan on staying in hostels (any advice on the fall and if staying in hostels is a good idea would be helpful) and saving money. Also, one of our main goals is just to experience the cultures of these countries and not just stay in the big cities and see the sites. Do you know of any great rural areas in Germany and Switzerland...where we could meet the folks, drink the beer and socialize without going broke? I am looking for hostels right now but it asks me for a city and I just am clueless.

Thanks for your help
Cheers!!

Kris

Canadian Dude

Cities are easy to give advise on, but small towns I think are almost a preference, small towns are best discovered on ones own. Kinda like your on the train and just decide to hop off, why? just because you can. Be spontanious, just say, hey that place looks cool...

Here is a list of German Cities ( Alot of Non-touristy)

German Cites

Not all towns but a great resorce, and might help a bit just the same

Here is link for Swiss Cities and Towns


A great idea, the savings between hotels and hostels will be huge, but in some of these towns you will visit a B&B might be your only option, use this Travelpunk.com Hostel Service Not only is it backed by hostelworld.com and gives you a voice to speak to if you have any problems, but it also helps support this site, give it a go!

How about packing me in your bag???


Hope that helps a little and I would like to give you a huge
to the boards!!!

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joanofarc

i was just in germany this fall - i discovered then... i LOVE small towns!

i can highly recommend a small town just outside of frieburg in southern germany - it's called KIRCHZARTEN and it's located in the heart of the black forest. the cool part is, it's not too heavily touristed - native tourists mostly (as opposed to the rest of the schwarzwald). we stayed in a wonderful family run gasthaus called GASTHAUS LOWEN (no internet site) 70 euros for a double with bath in room, including breakfast. not exactly cheap...but so worth it. there are TONS of hiking opportunities around and the setting is just beautiful, you can also easily day-trip to lake tittisee.

this is a great place to go and get away from it all. i would suggest riding the train into freiburg and then taking the s-bahn to kirchzarten (15-20 minute ride), you'll see the gasthaus as you pull into station - or you can always ask around...after all... it's a small town! you really won't regret a visit here.

another really nice small town we found was SOLINGEN-OHLIGS, really, we stumbled upon it, but it was really sweet and there was a great bavarian restaurant in town. we chilled there drinking beer and chatting with the locals all night (well, trying to chat!) there's only one hotel in town though, so keep that in mind. we stayed with this really sweet old lady (50 euro /double with breakfast), but she doesn't always offer rooms. check with the tuireise center behind the train station, just ask for any pension type accomodations. by the way, this gem is just outside of cologne.

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