We are starting to plan our holiday next year to co-inside with the Berlin bus fest and probably a visit to the VW musuem at Wolfsburg.
We really would like to find a nice [not too big]famiy friendly campsite with plenty for my two little girls 4 & 6yrs old to do, ie playgrounds and swimming pools are top of their list. I have no experience of Germany at all really except for a quick bike ride on the German side of the Mosel whilst in Luxemburg so any tips would be gratefully recieved.
Will the LEZ laws have an impact on traveling or is it just town centres?
We will be using Harwich to the hook ferry.
Thanks in advance.
The LEZ or Umweltzonen apply only to the major cities.
There are no allowances given for tourists so if you run a diesel it's a - Nein Danke (no thanks).
Have a look at our Euro Tour write up thread, we did Berlin and Wolfsburg without any problem.
But we may just have been lucky. I looked into the LEZ before we left and just decided to go with it and see what happened. We never drove to the centre of town (although we did get pretty close in berlin), always found a campsite on the outskits or similar and bus or cycled in.
Enjoy, Berlin is a great place to visit, i'd go back in a second.
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The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes...
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Titus A Duxass wrote:The LEZ or Umweltzonen apply only to the major cities.
There are no allowances given for tourists so if you run a diesel it's a - Nein Danke (no thanks).
Titus, I have a diesel with a diesel cat (fitted in Germany before it was exported) I'm sure I have some sort of certificate somewhere...... Does this mean I can drive in the cities or is it omething I have to register with the local councils?
Titus A Duxass wrote:The LEZ or Umweltzonen apply only to the major cities.
There are no allowances given for tourists so if you run a diesel it's a - Nein Danke (no thanks).
Titus, I have a diesel with a diesel cat (fitted in Germany before it was exported) I'm sure I have some sort of certificate somewhere...... Does this mean I can drive in the cities or is it omething I have to register with the local councils?
You can register and drive in some but not all cities.
Mine also has a diesel "cat" and a system that switches off the fuel, via the fuel cut off solenoid, when the throttle is closed at speed.
I still only get to the Red level. I live in Leipzig which is a green only city.
There are a number of cities that still let Red and Yellow category vehicles in but the list is getting smaller.
trucker wrote:We are starting to plan our holiday next year to co-inside with the Berlin bus fest and probably a visit to the VW musuem at Wolfsburg.
We really would like to find a nice [not too big]famiy friendly campsite with plenty for my two little girls 4 & 6yrs old to do, ie playgrounds and swimming pools are top of their list. I have no experience of Germany at all really except for a quick bike ride on the German side of the Mosel whilst in Luxemburg so any tips would be gratefully recieved.
Will the LEZ laws have an impact on traveling or is it just town centres?
We will be using Harwich to the hook ferry.
Thanks in advance.
Hi mate...have you seen the Sharaz post (a few months back) ...there are already several of us on the list and heading off to this event if you want to join in?
Very flexible..do your own thing but travel in a group.......
trucker wrote:We are starting to plan our holiday next year to co-inside with the Berlin bus fest and probably a visit to the VW musuem at Wolfsburg.
We really would like to find a nice [not too big]famiy friendly campsite with plenty for my two little girls 4 & 6yrs old to do, ie playgrounds and swimming pools are top of their list. I have no experience of Germany at all really except for a quick bike ride on the German side of the Mosel whilst in Luxemburg so any tips would be gratefully recieved.
Will the LEZ laws have an impact on traveling or is it just town centres?
We will be using Harwich to the hook ferry.
Thanks in advance.
Hi mate...have you seen the Sharaz post (a few months back) ...there are already several of us on the list and heading off to this event if you want to join in?
Very flexible..do your own thing but travel in a group.......
Martin
Already on the list mate
Thinking of stopping overnight nr osnabruck on the way,then Bus Fest follwed by a couple of days in Berlin if we can find a campsite outside the lez but still handy for transport in and out. then a few days at a kiddie friendly campsite somewhere, pools, playgrounds etc.
Excited? you bet!
Hi we too are thinking of going to Germany in the summer to take in the show at Berlin and go to wolfburg and are worried about the lez as we have a turbo diesel.Will this stop us from getting to the cities and if so how far outside them will we need to camp?
I can't possibly comment on all German Cities but I went to Munster at the back end of last year and you could get quite close to the city centre. Close enough to park and walk in anyway. You could even get to the train station.
It was only really the very heart of the city centre which was off limits, much of which was pedestrionised anyway.
It did make me wonder, what would happen if, as Johnny foreigner, you accidentally drove into the LEZ zone? Would they bother to send you a bill all the way to blighty? Would you be arrested on the spot? Would your vehicle spontaniously combust?
I honestly have no idea.
Also with Munster there was 2 seperate zones shown as rings on the map. The outer one in Yellow and the inner one in red. I presumed these meant different charges the closer you got to the city centre, but maybe they meant an absolute ban on certain vehicles? I honestly have no idea.
Which brings me back to my original question. What would happen if you accidentally drove too far into the city looking for somewhere to park?
72BUG wrote:
It did make me wonder, what would happen if, as Johnny foreigner, you accidentally drove into the LEZ zone? Would they bother to send you a bill all the way to blighty? Would you be arrested on the spot? Would your vehicle spontaniously combust?
The chances are that nothing will happen while driving as most police forces have said that they have no time to police this.
When parked you are at the mercy of the state traffic wardens.
It's a 40 euro fine and 1 point on your license (I don't know if they'll put points on a UK license).
The Leipzig Dumweltzone starts at the city limits which is about 5 km from the centre in some places.
might keep it in the loft incase I visit germany 
