Over the last few years Germany has gained considerably in popularity as a holiday destination and the number of regional airports that are being opened up to budget airlines has reflected this trend, as have the increased passenger numbers at the established larger airports.

Germany is a country blessed with outstanding natural beauty, more historic towns and cities than most and an extensive shoreline for the Baltic and the North Sea coasts with white sandy beaches, the Wadden Sea nature reserve, islands and white cliffs. As well as having an abundance of evergreen forests, mighty rivers and lakes, Germany also boasts the Alps, a mountain range that is a popular destination for winter sport enthusiasts. Airports like Berlin, Munich, Hamburg and Cologne are gateways into some of Germany’s most interesting regions.

Other airports, like Düsseldorf and Frankfurt for example, allow business travellers to attend some of the world’s largest trade fairs and give access to Germany’s industrial and financial heartland.

Since Germany’s reunification more and more regional airports have been opened for commercial flights and Leipzig-Altenburg Airport, Baden Airpark, Dortmund Airport, Braunschweig Airport and Dresden Airport for instance help to alleviate the pressure on the bigger airports, particularly Frankfurt, Munich and Cologne.

The airports are typically modern with excellent facilities for travellers. Public transport is heavily subsidized in Germany, therefore affordable and convenient for passengers to choose for onward travel within Germany. The country has an extensive railway network with connections to all major cities and most towns, as well as offering super-fast rail services to Paris and Brussels for example. A road system with fast-flowing motorway traffic allows motorists to quickly and easily traverse the country from north to south and east to west and vice versa.

Most airports offer a large variety of car hire companies, too, for passengers who prefer to self-drive during their stay in the country. Some cities offer the opportunity to explore not just Germany but its neighbouring countries, too. Flying into Hamburg for examples makes onward travel by train and ferry to Denmark, Sweden and Norway easy, while flying into Nuremberg means one can explore the region for a few days and then perhaps travel onwards by train or coach across the Czech border to the beautiful city of Prague.

The German capital, Berlin, is one of Europe’s most visited cities, offering hundreds of museums, galleries, bars, pubs and clubs as well as one of the largest zoos in the world among its many tourist attractions. The new airport serving Berlin from June 2012 onwards, named Berlin Brandenburg Airport, will be one of Europe’s most modern aviation hubs, facilitating onward travel to the Eastern European countries as well as broadening the opportunities for domestic travel.

All the world’s major airlines fly into Germany and offer extensive domestic routes within the country, but Germany itself has some major names among the most popular airlines. Air Berlin, Germanwings, Air Europe, Lufthansa are just a few of the hundreds of carriers who operate within this vast country.

For more information about the various airports in Germany, please visit our other pages on www.germanairportguide.com.