Europe Travel Guides

Disabled access

Overall, Germany caters well for the needs of people with disabilities ( Behinderte), especially people who use wheelchairs. You'll find access ramps and/or lifts in many public buildings, including train stations, museums, theatres and cinemas. Newer hotels have rooms for mobility-impaired guests with extra-wide doors and spacious bathrooms. However, other disabilities (such as blindness or deafness) are not as well catered for, and German organisations representing people with disabilities continue to lobby for improvements.

The web page of the German National Tourism Office (www.germany-tourism.de) has an entire section dedicated to information about vacationing in Germany with a disability (under Travel Tips) with helpful links. Many local and regional tourism offices also have special brochures for people with disabilities. The Deutsche Bahn operates a Mobility Service Centre (tel 01805-512 512) whose operators can answer questions about station and train access, and can help you plan a route requiring minimal train changes. With one day's notice, they can also arrange for someone to meet you at the station and assist you in any way necessary. Generally, all ICE trains and most IC/EC, IR and S-Bahn trains can accommodate people in wheelchairs. Guide dogs are allowed on all trains. In cities, U-Bahns and buses are becoming increasingly wheelchair-friendly as well.

For children

In Germany, discounts for children and families are widely available for everything from museum admissions to bus and train fares and hotel accommodation. The definition of 'child' varies, though. Some places consider anyone under 18 eligible for discounts, while others put the cut-off at age six, 12 or 15. Most car-hire firms have children's safety seats for hire from about EUR 5.00 per day, but it is essential that you book them in advance. Highchairs are standard in most restaurants and cots (cribs) in most hotels, but numbers are limited.

Childcare and babysitters are widely available. Check the Yellow Pages under Babysittervermittlung or, better yet, ask your hotel's reception staff for a referral. The choice of baby food, infant formulas, soy and cow's milk, disposable nappies and the like is great in German supermarkets, but keep in mind their restricted opening hours. Run out of nappies on Saturday afternoon and you're facing a very long and messy weekend.

Bringing your kids, even toddlers, along to casual restaurants is perfectly acceptable, though you might raise eyebrows at upmarket ones, especially at dinner time. Breastfeeding in public is practised, especially in the cities, although most women are discreet about it.

Gay & lesbian

Germans are fairly tolerant of homosexuality, but gays ( Schwule) and lesbians ( Lesben) still don't enjoy quite the same social acceptance as in certain other northern European countries. As elsewhere, cities are more liberal than rural areas, and younger people more tolerant than older generations.

Berlin is by far the gayest city in Germany, if not in all of Europe, but Cologne also has a lively scene and there are smaller but still vibrant ones in Hamburg, Frankfurt and Munich. In those cities gay couples holding hands or kissing in public is becoming more common and raises fewer eyebrows. Discrimination is more likely in eastern Germany and in the conservative south where gays and lesbians tend to keep a low profile. Germany's gay movement took a huge step forward in 2001 with the passing of the Life Partnership Act, sometimes called the 'gay marriage'. It gives homosexual couples the right to register their partnership at the registry office and to enjoy many of the same rights, duties and protections as married couples.