Wonderful place, once you can get past all the smokers on the public transport stations. Not for those with light wallets, and the tipping customs are painful, although I only had to pay €80 for a decent hotel in Augsburg. Cheers!

Germany is sometimes overlooked as a good travel destination. If you like driving a car, viewing natural scenery, and don't care to learn another language, it's surely better than France. If your interests as a traveler are sometimes different, like mine, Germany also has its rewards. So if you want to make something more than a quick tourist stop and have a few weeks or months, it is the perfect place to be, especially if you're young and you're going to school. Young Germans are perpetually in school, and there's a collegial culture around the universities that is much less snobby than England's. The summer I spent working there with exchange students from other countries was one of the highlights of my life. People are easy to talk to, though it's initially extremely difficult to get them interested in you. Smile at a stranger and they'll think you're an escapee from a mental institution. If you give it time, though, you'll make friends for life ... you don't even have to put much effort in, or be at all interesting -- they'll like you regardless if you hang around long enough. This is, in fact, how German men or women prefer to hit on you: by hanging around forever and considering it "dating." These friendships/relationships can be a lot more than you expect, because they take them so seriously, to the extent of thinking about why you didn't call them when you casually or just politely said you would. I had an acquaintance I made there who practically showed up on my doorstep back in the U.S. These people take words more seriously than any other I've encountered. A seemingly casual conversation may quickly become a lot more than you bargained for. Even the average city dweller likes to chat about history and the classics, whether in literature, music, or philosophy. There's no small talk. Even their sense of humor is strangely formal; I remember more than one occasion when a German prefaced a joke with the words, "I will tell a joke now, so prepare yourselves ..." The British reviewer got it exactly right when he said that people are "usually either servile or radical," which accounts for the strange lack of middle ground, especially in their politics. Food and beer are plentiful and cheap, and after I'd had some riesling from the Rhine country, I couldn't go back to drinking any other white wine. Obviously, I have a lot of feelings about the country ... In general, a fine place to visit, whether for a quick stop or a lengthy stay.

I was fortunate enough to be stationed in Germany for almost 3 years with the Army and it was a very memorable time in my life. Yes, it takes awhile for the Germans to warm up to you, but once they do, you'll have a friend for life. Overall, I found them to be good, hard working people and all they want us (visitors) to do is try to speak their language. Most Germans speak better English than we Americans do! The country itself is very picturesque - Heidelberg, Munich, Bavaria, Rhine Valley - awesome.

Overall, the people I talk to who have all gone to Germany before seem to have different opinions of the people there. My experience with the natives was not so good. The German hospitality was completely shameful and you couldn't try to be nice without getting dirty looks. Granted, the Germans do have a fair share of tourism and tons of immigrants from all around but that is no reason to treat people the way they did. Me and some friends got called 'Amis' by a group of teenagers, which is a deragatory term for an American; an African American kid in our group was called something completely inappropriate by a passerby, which I'm sure you can guess, and people would yell out at our group and make fun of us. I could understand a little bit of flak, but when I visit a group I don't want to be treated like a lesser being. Being a 5th year German student, I also want to practice the language in their country but they insisted on speaking in English. The country itself was amazing and that is the main thing. The scenery was beautiful, especially in Bavaria. Most notable was the Neuschwanstein castle and the meideval town of Roethenburg, which is surrounded by a brick wall and guard towers. Western Germany was pretty, but I didn't think it had as much culture as southern Germany and Bavaria. Eastern Germany was pretty in it's own way, but the image of socialism still exists. There are many bleak reminders of it such as drab apartment blocks and communist propaganda on walls, especially in Dresden. Fortunately, much of this is being renewed. I would definetly go back, it was a beautiful country but I feel the Germans need to pull their heads out of their asses and have a little respect.

Let's get away from irrelevancies such as WW2 and the German government's lack of enthusiasm for Bush's invasion of Iraq, eh!! Fact is, as a destination for visitors Germany's very under-rated. The scenery is often stunning, with around 30% of the country being forested, especially as you go towards the south. Many of the smaller-medium sized towns are chocolate box picturesque, every bit as much as you'd expect to see in Austria or Switzerland, perhaps even more so. While some cities are very impressive and remained pretty much intact after WW2, others such as Frankfurt were largely bombed to smithereens by the RAF and and so little of historical interest remains. Big shame, when you see photos of what they looked like before. If you like sausages, Germany is food heaven as there is about every type you can imagine. Although not quite up to Italian or French standards the cuisine generally aint half bad. Then there's the beer. In this respect the beauty of Germany lies in the fact there is no mega-brewey such as Budweiser. Instead there are over 3,000 independents all operating at local to regional levels. And excellent stuff it mostly is too.

jo, jo, jo ugly language, ugly ladys, basicly bleeeeeeeeeeeee

Lots to do, awesome food, and surprisingly friendly people.

You wouldn't think it, but a lot of Germans are fleeing their country to find jobs in America, Canada and Australia. You can imagine the surprise on my face when I visited Australia and realized there was such a thing as "German illegal immigrants". Particulary, I was watching the Aussie Big Brother where this guy used to be one. Funny how American media never tells people that. Naturally, there must be many here too. It seems like the reunification wasn't that great an event, it caused so much misery...

I visited Germany after not being in the country for 22 years, and have to tell you, that almost without exception, I had the most enjoyable time of my life. I had the luxury of getting way back in the woods and meet some real genuine German people - OK so there were a couple of 'surly' folks - but you get that almost anywhere you go. The press gives you the opinion that Germans don't like Americans - I went all over the country when I was there in Nov - Dec 2004, and if there was any anti-Americanism, I sure did not run into any of it. I would recommend a trip to Germany to anyone.

They disagree with us, and thats fine. At least they didnt try to completely destroy our campaign against Iraq or support the enemy. Much better people than the French. UPDATE- Once the country made up of fascist thugs who are responsible for some odd 75 million deaths, this country now has flip flopped and now won't fight anyone, including terrorists.

There was that whole WWI and WWII thing.

this gets 5 starts for the music alone! morser, systral, enfold, linsey, yage, insane how much amazing punk / hardcore comes out of this country, and the metal aint bad either. also has a more progressive government than the pitiful sh*t for brains leadership we have in the US.

Hitler was an up-and-coming loudmouth when Max Schmeling won the world's heavyweight championship.Most of Schmeling's friends and his manager were Jews(autobiography,Sports Illustrated article,film-Joe and Max).He saved Jews from a riot(1938-Kristalnaught) and reportedly on the frontier.He was the only German athlete to be drafted;he was a 34-year old Private and Hitler decided he was expendible after he was kayoed by Joe Louis.Germany,which has a tendency to return to its old bad habits,just hasn't had enough Schmeling's.

Not the warmest people on the planet and the food's a bit limited , although generally tasty. Beer is generally good if a bit lacking in variety. Many of the towns are beautiful and the scenery often stunning. Interesting historically and culturally - schlosses, Beethoven.. Higher proportion of stunning babes than most places I've visited. Homeland to many of rock's more interesting groups e.g. Kraftwerk, Neu, Fuast, Can, Tamgerine Dream. In general, stupidly written off by narrow minded Brits and Yanks who still bleat on about WW2, even though 99% never lived through it.

Germany has a great array of things to recommend it, from natural beauty, to architectural attractions, to high-tech goods and gadgets of all kinds. Comments based on numerous visits between 1972 and 1996. The Germans run the gamut from extremely friendly to rude, obstinate, and self-inflated. German customs officials can be pompous, narrow-minded, and in some instances, just plain dumb. The Bavarians are fine to deal with, but in some other places, people can be overly bureaucratic with too much of a passion for Alles in ordnung. Food generally is good, but mostly a little heavy for my taste. I'm not a beer drinker, but the conventional wisdom is that German beers are great. The wines, in my opnion, are not very good at all; no match for Spanish or Italian, but maybe as good as French (which is not saying a lot in my estimation). Hotels and gasthauses I have stayed in were always very good to excellent in terms of cleanliness and breakfasts, but spotty in terms of service. German drivers are skillful enough, but be really careful driving in the fog; I saw one series of accidents on the Autobahn once that had over 50 cars piled up in 11 separate accidents (I stopped counting after that). Overall, it's a country with a lot of variety and beauty, with high prices to match for the most part. The people are a blessing and a bane at times. Nice place to visit at least once, if not more often.

Nothing like the good ole days when Germany excelled at Europe's pastime, developing burtal, megalomaniac blood thirsty dictators. Go Europe!! Eurpoe, the most savage place in the history of mankind, hopefully you have learned how to live together in peace like America!

Speaking as a Brit, there has always been a bit of British German antagonism over the last 60 years, although in this day and age it's not really that relevant. Haven't ever been to Germany (so I have to plead ignorance there) but I have encountered quite a few in the UK through University (I'm living in a house with two and I might end up with a German brother in law), so might not be representative of the nation as a whole. They're usually either servile or radical. Some of the coolest people I can think of are German but some of the most emotionally repressed anally retentive people as well. Germany has always been a comparitively well educated nation and certainly all the Germans I've ever encountered have been able to hold an intelligent conversation. A very interesting nation, third biggest economy in the world, but I don't know I'ld want to live there.

Interesting place. Nice hotels. Good music. (Rammstein is amazing.) Funny movies.

Germany would be in the #1 place I would love to visit. Without a doubt. Love the food, people, wine, landscape and culture. Would really enjoy taking part in the Oktoberfest celebration and visiting the vineyards. There is just too much to see and do that I'd have to keep going back... Did you know that German wine is very highly rated in the world, if you haven't tried it, please do so. Anything with the rating "Qualitatswein mit Pradikat" (english: wine of distinction) is awesome. Greetings from Canada eh! danke :)

To Bugaha, Germany started two world wars and quite rightly were made by the allies to understand what they had done and to learn by it. Through their guilt, hard work and economics this is what they have done, vowing never to take up arms in an invasion again. And now you're calling them wimps for not supporting the invasion of Iraq? What sort of double standard is that? Germany wanted an intelligent method of disposing of Saddam since it is well aware of the pain and strife caused by war -that's all. But America didn't listen. That doesn't make Germany wrong. It's a great country and America could learn a lot from it, not least of all it's transport infrastructure.

A strong intelligent country, I have some very good friends from Germany. I don't understand their politics, they're unwillingness to help the USA in it's fight against terrorism. You'd think judging from Germany's past it would do a better job fighting against oppression. Maybe being too close to France the laziness and cowardly nature is rubbing off. But I still rate it a 4.

a great country!

Germans are as loyal as snakes.

Ahhhh the Fatherland. A truly wonderful place to visit. Beautiful mountians, rivers, cities, musuems, beaches, castles, etc. It truly has the fairytale European feel and isn't quite as touristy as France and Italy. The food is great, and isn't just beer and knockwurst. It's actually one of the most friendly countries toward vegetarians in the western world.

Still having all sorts of problems since they incorporated the former DDR. Taxes are among the highest in Europe. That guttural accent of theirs grates on my nerves. Schooling is too rigid. Their beer is OK, but not as good as AMERICAN beer. Their flag colors are pathetic. Yellow? YELLOW?!? NAh--RED WHITE AND BLUE!!! AMERICA, BAY-BEE!!!!

Germany is a surprisingly urban, industrial, dirty country. The urban areas are well organized, but dirty, smogy cities. Germany is the industrial powerhouse of Europe and it shows! Driving in the Autobahn is quite an experience. You're driving down the road going at 120 miles per hour and you still have people passing you. Bavaria and the Rhine River valley is the most beautiful part of the country.

Guten morgen, I wish to be woken up, the wake-up call says. They must have been joking! I'd never even gone to sleep because I was looking around at all of the sights so much. Germany is such a cool place, with great food and hospitable people, with those heartbreaking ruins of the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps, and of course with the famous Munich Hilton. Better than any room service you could eveer hope to find in the US, according to most people whove stayed there. I never actually stayed in the MH, but I've heard the fantasy stories about it. Like nasha said, you should learn about ten words of German before going here. If you say so much as "Guten tag" the people there will love you. Germany is a cool country, but not quite deserving of five stars. Take care, everyone!

To enjoy Germany, you need to understand the Germans a little. Just like all Americans are not loud cowboys, all Germans are not beer chuggin-fat-dirndl-wearin nazis. Germans respect intelligence and a good argument. This is tough if you don’t speak their language. Unlike France, trying to speak a little German will get you a long way and most young people speak a bit of English. Carry a phrase book and try and don’t worry about the fact that Germans generally don’t smile. Enjoy the train system and the rich cultural heritage and if you get bored, remember that Germany is in the middle of Europe and that every other European country is only hours away. Hop on a fast German train for another country. (That’s what the Germans do)

Stay in Bavaria as much as possible.