Nestled in the wine hills of the Württemberg wine region, SouthWest Germany’s capital city of Stuttgart is a mecca for car, culture, and wine lovers. We bring you on a whirlwind tour of the automobile highlights while not forgetting the stops in the wine hills along with beautiful and varied museums. The resumed flight from Atlanta is another bonus for this year’s travel outlook from the U.S.
The restarting of the direct flight from Atlanta to Stuttgart, which at this point is planned through October 2023, is a great help to businesses on both sides of the Atlantic as well as to families and visitors traveling for leisure. The U.S. is the number one trading partner for the Stuttgart region with around 600 companies that have business relationships with U.S. companies, including big players as well as many small and medium-sized companies.
Whirlwind Tour of Automobile City Stuttgart
In 1883, Gottlieb Daimler developed the first fast-running, light engine for universal use, thereby laying an important cornerstone for the evolution of the automobile and the rest is history.
Car Hotels and Motorworld
We start our exciting trip to the Automobile Region of Stuttgart at the Motorworld. This is where professional vendors sell, restore, maintain and rent out vehicles while private classic and sports car owners present their “treasures” in glass boxes. Workshops, retail stores, service providers, restaurants, conference rooms and event areas for up to 1,000 guests, as well as theme exhibitions, make this a hotspot for lovers of classic vehicles, sports cars, and motorcycles. To top it all off, at the two V8 Hotels (both 4-star), guests can choose between standard rooms and individually designed theme rooms, all geared to the classic car ambience of the Motorworld.
Daimler Benz
After the Motorworld, it is on to Gottlieb Daimler Memorial Site, which is the perfect place to start delving into automotive history as it is where Daimler and Maybach made the first engine in top secret. Close by is the next port of call: the Mercedes-Benz Museum where visitors often cover up to two miles browsing through more than 130 years of automotive history. The exhibition is divided into “Legend” and “Collection” rooms. The seven Legend Rooms tell the story of the Mercedes-Benz brand, subdivided into themes and eras, and outline the history of the company within the context of world history.
The five Collection Rooms show the diversity of the brand portfolio over the years. Exhibits include the Popemobile, Princess Diana’s red SL, the “Grand Mercedes” Type 770 owned by the Emperor Hirohito, and the bus used by the 1974 German national men’s football team. Both the Legend and the Collection tours lead to the exhibition section “Silver Arrows – Races and Records.” In a large banked curve, legendary record-winning cars are on show: the Phoenix racing car, the “Blitzen-Benz” and Silver Arrows, including Nico Rosberg’s F1 World Championship winner from the year 2016, arranged in a breath-taking display.
Porsche
Our automobile tour culminates at the Porsche Museum where spectacular access from the foyer to the extensive exhibition area takes visitors into the interior of the museum. In addition to world-famous automobile icons such as the 356, 911 or 917, Professor Ferdinand Porsche’s outstanding technical achievements from the early years of the 20th century are on show. Highlights include a new version of the Type 64, the very first Porsche. The chronological circular tour is augmented by special theme areas and visitors are reminded constantly of the “Porsche Concept,” which is based on the characteristics “fast, light, clever, strong, passionate, consistent.”
At the end of 2021, the Porsche Museum introduced a new concept for the prologue of the permanent exhibition, including private photos of young Ferry Porsche, personal contemporary accounts, and a construction table. Virtual reality makes it possible for visitors to become part of the Gmünd production plant and to hammer form and paint their own Porsche 356. At the end of the exhibition, the interactive “Porsche Touch Wall” invites visitors to browse through the multimedia options about the history of the company. The interactive sound installation “Porsche in the Mix” is the only one of its kind in existence, and it reproduces the characteristic engine sound of seven different models.
75 Years of Porsche Sport Cars: Special Exhibition
On June 9, the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart will open an extensive special exhibition on 75 Years of the Porsche Sport Car: “Festival of Dreams.” The museum is also celebrating two more milestone birthdays: 60 years of the 911 and 100 years of the Le Mans 24 Hours. The 911 has been a hit since it was presented at the International Motor Show (IAA) in September 1963. With its iconic design and incomparable driving experience, it has burned itself into the collective memory of sports car fans all over the world.
Getting to Stuttgart: Planes, Trains and Automobile and the StuttCard
Whether you are landing in Stuttgart on Delta’s direct flight from Atlanta, or you are arriving by train from another nearby airport, or renting a car, Stuttgart is within five hours or less by direct train or car ride from Frankfurt, Paris, and Zürich. It is the hub of a very accessible network of train and automobile routes.
Once you are in Stuttgart, you can use the newly available StuttCard that includes entrance to museums, cultural highlights, public transportation, city tours and guides, and discounts at a number of restaurants that surround the central Palace Square. The StuttCard also includes buses and the regional trains that will take you within minutes into the wine hills with charming seasonal taverns that serve delicious traditional Swabian meals. They also bring you to the nearby baroque town of Ludwigsburg with its extraordinary palace, or the medieval city of Esslingen, where you immediately step back 500 years wandering the narrow cobble-stone streets amid the half-timbered houses. It is the perfect way to create an affordable and care-free tour of Stuttgart and the Stuttgart Region.
