Summer school holidays begin this weekend in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most densely populated state, and in the north of the Netherlands.
With many families expected to drive south, and others heading north to the coast, Germany's roads and highways are expected to be extra busy starting Friday, July 11th.
The ADAC, Germany's largest automobile club, also notes that further travellers may be coming from the states of Bremen, Hesse, Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, as well as the south of the Netherlands, where the summer holidays have also recently begun.
Most of the traffic jams are expected to form around motorway construction sites. The ADAC currently counts 1,194 construction sites on Germany's motorways.
Other potential trouble spots include access roads to the mountains, coasts and major lakes around Germany.
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Peak traffic times
Most traffic jams are expected on Friday afternoon, Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon.
So, if your plans are flexible, it may be worth travelling on a different day or taking quieter alternative routes during these times.
A summer travel ban for trucks over 7.5 tonnes will be in operation from 7am to 8pm on Saturday on Germany’s most important motorways.
Germany's busiest motorways
In addition to motorways to and from the North Sea and Baltic Sea, experts say the following routes are particularly likely to see to traffic jams between July 11th and 14th:
- A1 Cologne – Dortmund – Münster – Osnabrück – Bremen – Hamburg
- Cologne ring road A1/A3/A4
- A2 Dortmund – Hanover – Braunschweig – Magdeburg
- A3 Cologne – Frankfurt – Nuremberg – Passau
- A5 Frankfurt – Heidelberg – Karlsruhe – Basel
- A6 Mannheim – Heilbronn – Nuremberg
- A7 Hamburg – Flensburg
- A7 Hamburg – Hanover – Kassel – Würzburg – Ulm – Füssen/Reutte
- A8 Karlsruhe – Stuttgart – Munich – Salzburg
- A9 Halle/Leipzig – Nuremberg – Munich
- A24 Hamburg – Berlin
- A31 Bottrop – Leer
- A45 Hagen – Gießen – Aschaffenburg
- A61 Mönchengladbach – Koblenz – Ludwigshafen
- A93 Inntaldreieck – Kufstein
- A95/B 2 Munich – Garmisch-Partenkirchen
- A99 Munich bypass
Road closures
In addition, full closures have been announced for the weekend on several major roads:
- A6 Mannheim – Heilbronn in both directions between Mannheim/Schwetzingen and the Hockenheim interchange from Thursday, July 10th at 10 pm until Tuesday, July 15th at 6 am.
- A8 Salzburg towards Munich between Bernau am Chiemsee and Frasdorf from Friday, July 11th at 8 pm, until Saturday, July 12th at 5 am
- A44 Düsseldorf – Essen in both directions between Heiligenhaus and Hetterscheid from Friday, July 11th at 6 pm, until Monday, July 14th at 5 am
- A62 Landstuhl – Pirmasens in both directions between Thaleischweiler-Fröschen and Pirmasens until Tuesday, July 15th at midnight
Visiting neighbouring countries
A few key problem routes during the summer travel season include the Tauern, Pyhrn, Inntal, Rheintal, Pyhrn, Fernpass, Brenner, Karawanken and Gotthard routes, as well as motorways to the Italian, Croatian and French coasts.
Extensive construction work is taking place on the Brenner motorway in Austria around the Luegbrücke.
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In Tyrol, interregional through traffic will be prohibited on weekends along the A12 Inntal motorway and the Fernpass route.
On the Reschenpass road south of Pfunds, there is alternating one-way traffic due to construction work. An alternative route is available via Switzerland.
In the Czech Republic, traffic jams should be expected on the D8 (Dresden – Prague) because of renovations to two tunnels near the border.
Border controls
Travellers heading beyond Germany's borders may be slowed down by border checks in some locations.
Waiting times are likely on return trips to Germany, especially at the motorway crossings at Suben (A3 Linz – Passau), Walserberg (A8 Salzburg – Munich) and Kiefersfelden (A93 Kufstein – Rosenheim).
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There are also checks of varying intensity when leaving Germany, mainly affecting crossings into Denmark, the Netherlands, France and Poland. Traffic jams are expected at the border crossings A4 Ludwigsdorf (Görlitz), A11 Pomellen (Szczecin), A12 Frankfurt (Oder) and A15 Forst.
All travellers passing through borders, including children, are required to carry identification documents.
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