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Fairy Tale Route in Germany

Germany created several thematic itineraries in the country for tourists to easily choose their favourite routes according to their theme preferences. One of these routes is the "Fairy Tale Route", actually one of Germany’s most popular tourist routes. It follows the footsteps of Grimm Brothers into a fairy tale world of charming castles, beautiful medieval towns, forests and enchanting landscapes. This is our experience on the route. We arrived in Hamburg.

We rented a car and transfered to Bremen, which was the beginning point of our fairy tale route. The route can also be done by public transportation, but the most common way is by car, it gives you the liberty to move, plus the landscape on the way is beautiful. And, yes, German roads are very good. As we were traveling with kids, the car was the best way for us. We spent the night in Bremen.

We had the entire day to explore our first fairy tale world. We enjoyed wandering through the tiny streets of Bremen’s historic area, Schnoor.

We had lunch on a pirate ship and enjoyed some of unbelievable German pancake combinations. Everyone was delighted with their choises of the menu on the boat.

We drove to Botanika, the botanical garden with interactive activities for kids, and even with monkeys. There's a restaurant there in case you get hungry while exploring the beautiful garden.

In the evening we explored Bremen Market Square, which by itself is like out of a fairy tale with the fine buildings surrounding the square. The picturesque town square is actually hosting annual holiday markets. We spent the second night in Bremen.

We left Bremen in the morning, just after breakfast.

We stoppped in Hamelin, the town known for the tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. On summer Sundays, there are live retellings of the Pied Piper story, which is beautiful especially for kids. Even if they are in German, kids understand the story thread. We had a walk in the historic part of the town and enjoyed a delicious ice cream before we moved further.

We drove further to Trendelburg. We stopped at Hotel Trendelburg just in time to see Rapunzel let down her hair from the tower. The entire hotel is a fairy tale ground. We spent time outside, in front of the hotel, with nice views overlooking the town and valley below. We spent the night here.

On the next morning, we slowly moved further.

We arrived in Hann. Münden, which is one of the most beautiful towns I've seen. It's filled with colourful restored half-timbered houses and the the town is surrounded by forested mountains. It also has fortified towers, medieval bridges and city walls. There are also bike trails around the place and because the town sits at the confluence of three rivers, you can also try kayaking or other water activities.

We moved further and drove through scenic lanscapes towards our destination, Waldeck Castle, which is a a stone castle on a hill overlooking Edersee Lake. We took a walk around the castle, then took a gondola ride, had something to eat and got back on the car again.

Marburg is the town where Brothers Grimm attended school. We arrived there in the evening, just had time to check-in and went out for dinner.

It's a super nice restaurant with delicious food and it's a beautiful place to go with the family. You can either stay inside or outside, on the restaurant's green courtyard.

We spent the night in Marburg.

The next day we took time to explore Marburg town a bit. Marburg is built on a hill, we started from the bottom and wandred up on the beautiful streets till we reached Marburg Palace and the castle above the town. There's a nice view from above.

We stopped to eat and drink something at Bückingsgarten. With that we ended our fairy tale road here. There are many stops you can do on the fairy tale road depending on your time and travel habbits. This is our share of the fairy tale road, that we fully enjoyed.