Sommerurlaub: It's Not Just a Vacation, It's a Lifestyle

Germany is the Wurst No. 16

When my son is really mad at someone, like reeeeally mad, he delivers the most serious threat his almost-four-year-old self can muster, “Du kommst nicht mit in meinem Urlaub!” (“You can’t go on vacation with me!”). This is usually closely followed by the classic Kindergarten insult “Du bist nicht mehr mein Freund!” (“You’re not my friend anymore!”).

Threatening to exclude someone from your vacation is the coup de grâce, the death blow, and, in Germany, them’s fightin’ words.

Even small children understand of the importance of Urlaub in German culture, otherwise known as vacation or holiday if you are British or Madonna. Employees in Germany benefit from a generous standard thirty vacation days per year. If you work in the public sector, like me, overtime hours can also be used as vacation and your birthday is a free day off, as well.

Furthermore, planning vacation is a beloved German pastime that includes meticulous research and must be done at least one year in advance. While planning and going on their vacations is something mostly all Germans love to do and talk about, there is one form of vacation that reigns supreme: Sommerurlaub.

Sommerurlaub, or summer vacation, is not your average vacation. Basically the whole continent of Europe shuts down for the month of August. Restaurants, cafes, doctor’s offices; you name it, all close for a few weeks during the summer. I’m currently taking three weeks of vacation (if you were paying attention, this is 50% of my total allotted vacation time) because my son’s Kindergarten is closed for Sommerurlaub. My experience in Europe is that if you tell someone in a professional capacity that you are going on Sommerurlaub, the general consensus is that nothing is so important that it cannot wait until September.

So, where do all the Germans go on their summer vacations, you might be wondering? I did a little internet research and according to the 40. Deutsche Tourismusanalyse 2024, my astute observations about Germans and their vacation patterns have thus far been mostly accurate. However, I was surprised to learn that the most popular vacation destination for Germans is... Germany itself.

So, without further ado, here are the top three reported vacation destinations for Germans in 2024:

3. Italy

Monterosso al Mare, Italy

Maybe it’s the Spaghettieis or just actual spaghetti, but Germans are obsessed with traveling to Italy. I’ve previously written about Germans’ love of Italian food, but it doesn’t stop there, they also seem to enjoy crumbling classical antiquity, baroque architecture, and general confusion on any type of public transportation. My family and I even planned a road trip to Tuscany as part of our own Sommerurlaub this year, which we promptly cancelled after we barely survived the four-hour car ride with our two kids for an extended weekend trip to Niedersachsen.

2. Spain

Granada, Spain

Anyone who has been reading my newsletter for a while knows that Germans love traveling to Spain, basically because Mallorca is the unofficial seventeenth state of Germany. Despite protests against mass tourism, especially in places like Mallorca, Malaga, and the Canary Islands, tourists, Germans amongst them, just keep on comin’. Personally, my favorite part of Spain is Andalusia, which also happens to be the only part of Spain, besides Mallorca, that I’ve been to, which safely qualifies it by default as my favorite.

1. Germany

Wheat fields and wild flowers on the way to my son’s Kindergarten.

As I mentioned, this part of the tourism survey actually really surprised me - I had no idea Germany was a staycation nation. I guess Germans vacationing for a week or so on the Baltic or North Seas is the equivalent to Wisconsinites (and F.I.B.’s) heading up north for their summer vacations. There is a lot to see and do in Germany, from the mountains, to the prairies, to the oceans white with foam… oh wait, that’s the U.S.A. (but could also apply to Germany).

If you are looking for a Sommerurlaub destination close to Germany, but slightly more expensive and exotic, then stay tuned for my next newsletter.