Why Germany
The country is federal and it shows everywhere: sixteen Länder, sixteen sets of local rules on certain points, sixteen school holiday calendars. There is no single centre — Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Cologne and Frankfurt each pull in their own direction, and none overshadows the others.
The north is flat, maritime, Protestant by heritage and rainy. The south is Alpine, Catholic, wealthier and dearer. The east still carries the trace of forty years of separation, in its architecture as in its prices.
May to September for mild weather and terraces, December for the Christmas markets, which are a genuine institution rather than a stage set. January and February are grey, short and quiet.
Entry and stay
An EU and Schengen country. An identity card is enough for nationals of the EU, the European Economic Area and Switzerland.
For other nationalities, the European Entry/Exit System (EES) has been in service since 10 April 2026 and digitally records every crossing of a Schengen external border, with or without a visa, against the ninety-days-in-a-hundred-eighty allowance. ETIAS, a twenty-euro authorisation for visa-exempt nationalities, is expected in the final quarter of 2026.
Source: France Diplomatie and the European Commission, checked on 22 September 2026.
Getting around
Deutsche Bahn covers everything, with fast ICE services on the main axes. Its punctuality has deteriorated and tight connections are risky: on a journey with a change, leaving margin is not excessive caution.
Long-distance coaches — FlixBus was born here — serve the country cheaply and remain more reliable than the train on some secondary routes.
Every city has a dense S-Bahn and U-Bahn network. The regional day ticket valid for several people is very good value for a group.
Money
Euro. Germany remains one of the Western European countries most attached to cash: many bakeries, bars, markets and even restaurants take cash only, or only the German debit card and not foreign cards. Carrying cash is not optional.
Tips are rounded up and stated as you pay, not left as coins on the table.
Before you go
On Sundays everything closes — shops, supermarkets, most services. Stations and petrol stations are the exception. Shopping on Saturday is a habit to adopt on day one.
The bottle deposit, the Pfand, is twenty-five cents on most containers: they go back into machines at supermarkets. Throwing a bottle away is throwing money away.
Cycle lanes are often on the pavement and marked in a different colour. Walking in them is frowned upon and dangerous: cyclists do not slow down.