Some impressions of the places we will visit during the trip and the hotel we will stay at in Bremen.
ATLANTIC Grand Hotel Bremen Photos: © ATLANTIC Hotels Foto@Gaby Ahnert
Have you ever wondered what the emigration experience was like for your German ancestors? Find out on this 6-day guided group tour from Bremen! We will visit the famous North German emigration port cities of Bremen, Bremerhaven and Hamburg as well as a living history museum in Lower Saxony. Join us to literally walk in your ancestors’ footsteps!
Overview
On this group tour, we will comfortably stay in the same centrally located 4-star hotel in Bremen for 5 nights and 6 days. From our base in Bremen, we will explore medieval town centers, interactive emigration museums, lively harbor towns and a living history museum where we will travel back in time. All while enjoying hearty German food and breathing in the fresh breeze of the north German coastline.
Download Tour PDFTrip Highlights
Daily Highlights
Day 1: Enjoy a guided tour and your welcome dinner in Bremen’s medieval Schnoor quarter
Day 2: Discover Bremen on an emigration-themed guided walking tour
Day 3: Re-live your ancestors’ journey at the emigration museum in Bremerhaven
Day 4: Travel back in time at the living history museum in Cloppenburg, Lower Saxony
Day 5: Explore more emigration history in Hamburg
Day 6: Say goodbye to Bremen and continue your ancestral adventure in Germany and/or Europe
Tour Itinerary
Welcome to the Hanseatic city of Bremen! It’s an almost magical feeling to be “back home”, knowing that for the next few days, you will walk in the same paths as your German ancestors once did.
Bremen can be easily reached by train, rental car or even on a short, domestic flight (for example from Frankfurt am Main or Munich). Make your own way to the hotel or book a transfer from Bremen’s train station or airport to the hotel through us (extra charge).
Once you have settled in, meet your tour leader and the other group participants in the hotel lobby. Together, we will head to the medieval Schnoor quarter – Bremen’s oldest city quarter.
On your first evening in Bremen, we enjoy a one-hour guided tour through the Schnoor quarter and an included welcome dinner at a cozy restaurant.
Meals included today: Dinner
After breakfast, we head to the city for a 2-hour emigration-themed guided tour with your tour leader.
If you have found out that your ancestors emigrated from the port of Bremerhaven (or Bremen as it is sometimes referred to in the documents), it is very likely that they spent a few days in the city of Bremen before they went on to Bremerhaven to embark the ship.
We will pass all of the sights today and learn all about the emigration history from Bremen and Germany as we walk in our ancestors’ footsteps.
The rest of the evening is at your own leisure. Just a few steps from the hotel, you can find plenty of options. You could enjoy a relaxing stroll along the nearby river front, visit the Bremen archive, a museum or sightseeing attraction and enjoy a tasty dinner in town.
Meals included today: Breakfast
Today after enjoying our hotel’s breakfast buffet, we make our way to Bremerhaven. The harbor city is located about 50 miles north from Bremen at the seafront of the North Sea.
Here, we visit the emigration museum “German Emigration Center” on a guided tour with an English-speaking local guide. In an interactive exhibition, the museum has recreated the journey that your ancestors would have taken when they emigrated from Bremerhaven to America.
After so much food for thought, we enjoy a typical emigrant dish for lunch: The so-called “Holstein potato soup” served with water/apple juice. We will then spend some free time at the lively harbor front of Bremerhaven before our coach takes us back to the city of Bremen.
Tonight, we meet up in Bremen again for another included dinner.
Meals included today: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Once we fueled up at our hotel’s hearty breakfast buffet, our coach takes us from Bremen to Cloppenburg in the neighboring state of Lower Saxony. The countryside here features many farms, from which a lot of people emigrated to America. Perhaps, your ancestors were among them?
Here, we will visit the open-air museum “Museumsdorf Cloppenburg” (museum village Cloppenburg). On a guided introduction tour in English with a local guide, we travel back in time.
Then, we put our handicraft skills to the test. In a fun workshop, we make our own butter churn or our loaf of bread (butter and bread workshops alternate on different tour dates). At the same time, we also learn more about the daily life (and daily struggles) of our rural ancestors.
Afterwards, you will taste the self-made bread or butter and take some with you as a souvenir.
Tonight, we get together as a group again and enjoy another group dinner in the city of Bremen.
Meals included today: Breakfast, Light Lunch, Dinner
Today, after breakfast, we will head further north in our private coach. The Hanseatic city of Hamburg is about 80 miles north from Bremen.
In terms of inhabitants, Hamburg is the second largest city in Germany after the capital Berlin. Furthermore, Hamburg is known as the second most important emigration port after Bremerhaven.
In Hamburg, we will visit the “Ballinstadt Emigration Museum” and get to know the harbor city on a tour with a local guide.
After an eventful day in Hamburg, we will enjoy one last farewell dinner in an emigration-themed location in Bremen.
Meals included today: Breakfast, Dinner
In German, there is a saying that goes “All good things have an end, just the sausage has two”. So unfortunately, our tour must come to an end today.
After breakfast, it’s time to say goodbye to Bremen. But perhaps you will continue your ancestry-inspired trip in Germany or even other countries in Europe. For example, to your ancestors’ hometowns.
You will have an option to book a private transfer to the train station or airport through us (extra charge). Alternatively, you can use the public transport network for a short ride to the train station or airport of Bremen.
By the end of this trip, you will have learnt a lot about emigration from northern Germany and the living conditions of your ancestors prior to their emigration. You now have some answers as to why your ancestors left Germany and what the emigration experience from Germany to America was like for them.
Meals included today: Breakfast
Day 1: Arrival in Bremen
Welcome to the Hanseatic city of Bremen! It’s an almost magical feeling to be “back home”, knowing that for the next few days, you will walk in the same paths as your German ancestors once did.
Bremen can be easily reached by train, rental car or even on a short, domestic flight (for example from Frankfurt am Main or Munich). Make your own way to the hotel or book a transfer from Bremen’s train station or airport to the hotel through us (extra charge).
Once you have settled in, meet your tour leader and the other group participants in the hotel lobby. Together, we will head to the medieval Schnoor quarter – Bremen’s oldest city quarter.
On your first evening in Bremen, we enjoy a one-hour guided tour through the Schnoor quarter and an included welcome dinner at a cozy restaurant.
Meals included today: Dinner
Day 2: Guided 2-hour walking tour and free time in Bremen
After breakfast, we head to the city for a 2-hour emigration-themed guided tour with your tour leader.
If you have found out that your ancestors emigrated from the port of Bremerhaven (or Bremen as it is sometimes referred to in the documents), it is very likely that they spent a few days in the city of Bremen before they went on to Bremerhaven to embark the ship.
We will pass all of the sights today and learn all about the emigration history from Bremen and Germany as we walk in our ancestors’ footsteps.
The rest of the evening is at your own leisure. Just a few steps from the hotel, you can find plenty of options. You could enjoy a relaxing stroll along the nearby river front, visit the Bremen archive, a museum or sightseeing attraction and enjoy a tasty dinner in town.
Meals included today: Breakfast
Day 3: Day trip to Bremerhaven
Today after enjoying our hotel’s breakfast buffet, we make our way to Bremerhaven. The harbor city is located about 50 miles north from Bremen at the seafront of the North Sea.
Here, we visit the emigration museum “German Emigration Center” on a guided tour with an English-speaking local guide. In an interactive exhibition, the museum has recreated the journey that your ancestors would have taken when they emigrated from Bremerhaven to America.
After so much food for thought, we enjoy a typical emigrant dish for lunch: The so-called “Holstein potato soup” served with water/apple juice. We will then spend some free time at the lively harbor front of Bremerhaven before our coach takes us back to the city of Bremen.
Tonight, we meet up in Bremen again for another included dinner.
Meals included today: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Day 4: Day trip to a living history museum in Cloppenburg
Once we fueled up at our hotel’s hearty breakfast buffet, our coach takes us from Bremen to Cloppenburg in the neighboring state of Lower Saxony. The countryside here features many farms, from which a lot of people emigrated to America. Perhaps, your ancestors were among them?
Here, we will visit the open-air museum “Museumsdorf Cloppenburg” (museum village Cloppenburg). On a guided introduction tour in English with a local guide, we travel back in time.
Then, we put our handicraft skills to the test. In a fun workshop, we make our own butter churn or our loaf of bread (butter and bread workshops alternate on different tour dates). At the same time, we also learn more about the daily life (and daily struggles) of our rural ancestors.
Afterwards, you will taste the self-made bread or butter and take some with you as a souvenir.
Tonight, we get together as a group again and enjoy another group dinner in the city of Bremen.
Meals included today: Breakfast, Light Lunch, Dinner
Old farm house in the open-air museum “Museumsdorf Cloppenburg”
Day 5: Day trip to the city of Hamburg
Today, after breakfast, we will head further north in our private coach. The Hanseatic city of Hamburg is about 80 miles north from Bremen.
In terms of inhabitants, Hamburg is the second largest city in Germany after the capital Berlin. Furthermore, Hamburg is known as the second most important emigration port after Bremerhaven.
In Hamburg, we will visit the “Ballinstadt Emigration Museum” and get to know the harbor city on a tour with a local guide.
After an eventful day in Hamburg, we will enjoy one last farewell dinner in an emigration-themed location in Bremen.
Meals included today: Breakfast, Dinner
Hamburg harbor with ship and Elbphilharmonie concert hall in the back
Day 6: Departure from Bremen
In German, there is a saying that goes “All good things have an end, just the sausage has two”. So unfortunately, our tour must come to an end today.
After breakfast, it’s time to say goodbye to Bremen. But perhaps you will continue your ancestry-inspired trip in Germany or even other countries in Europe. For example, to your ancestors’ hometowns.
You will have an option to book a private transfer to the train station or airport through us (extra charge). Alternatively, you can use the public transport network for a short ride to the train station or airport of Bremen.
By the end of this trip, you will have learnt a lot about emigration from northern Germany and the living conditions of your ancestors prior to their emigration. You now have some answers as to why your ancestors left Germany and what the emigration experience from Germany to America was like for them.
Meals included today: Breakfast
Cost
Tour price per person: 1,949 $ (USD) based on two people sharing a double room.
Single room supplement: 365 $ (USD)
To securely process your booking payment, we partnered up with the spezialized tour operator payment processor WeTravel.
Included
Not included
Tour Dates and Availablity
Tour 1: Fri, July 28, 23 – Wed, Aug 2, 23 (bookings close June, 30, 23!)
Tour 2: Fri, Aug 18, 23 – Wed, Aug 23, 23 (bookings close July, 21, 23!)
Tour 3: Fri, Sept 1, 23 – Wed, Sept 6, 23 (bookings close August, 4, 23!)
Tour 4: Fri, Sept 29, 23 – Wed, Oct 4, 23 (bookings close August, 28, 23!)
Countdown to next available tour
Bookings for Tour 1 close on June, 30, 23!
Location
In this map, you can see the locations of Bremen, Bremerhaven, Hamburg and Cloppenburg. You can zoom in and out to see further locations on the map.
About your tour guide
Hallo! My name is Sonja Irani and I will be your group tour leader on this trip. I am specialized in emigration history and ancestry-inspired travel from Bremen and Germany. As your tour leader, I will be with you every day 24/7 to guide and help with any questions and/or concerns you may have.
FAQ
No, flights are not included in the tour price. If you need help finding and booking your flights to Germany, consider enrolling in our upcoming Germany trip planning online course.
On the day of arrival, you will meet up with your tour leader and the other tour participants in the hotel lobby in Bremen. More details will follow in a briefing call via Zoom.
Yes, you can book additional nights at the hotel either before or after the tour through us. These extra nights will be at your own cost. Please contact us via email at contact@myancestorsjourney.com.
Our tours are small, varying between 10 people minimum and 20 people maximum.
Yes. The minimum number for each tour to take place is 10 tour participants. If this number is not reached, the tour will be be cancelled. Anyone who already booked the tour will be notified 4 weeks prior to the departure date.
Anyone who has already booked the tour will of course receive a full refund for everything paid so far.
For the day trips to Bremerhaven, Cloppenburg and Hamburg, we chartered a private bus and bus driver from a Bremen-based bus operator. The bus has air-conditioning and heating.
Yes, we accommodate the needs of any food allergies and vegans / vegetarians / pescatarians as best as we can. Please let us know as early as possible. If you can, please fill in any dietary requirements at the time of booking the tour. At the very least, tell your tour leader on the day of arrival.
There is a fair bit of walking involved. Guests should be comfortable with walking around 2 miles on our guided city and museum tours.
Please let us know in advance if you have any mobility issues or any requests regarding mobility. That way, we can ensure that you will have a good time during the tour!
To get to and from the hotel in Bremen, you can either use the public transport options or book a transfer through us (extra charge). If you like to book a transfer, please email us at contact@myancestorsjourney.com.
The most important document is your passport. Please ensure that your passport is still valid for a full 6 months after you return from your trip. If you have any personal ID cards and proof of vaccinations (especially against COVID-19), please also take these documents with you.
Your tour leader will be the first point of contact if anything happens to you during the tour that requires medical assistance.
No, private health insurance is not included in our tour price. Your health insurance back home will not cover any treatments during a medical emergency in Germany. For this reason, we highly recommend to get additional travel health insurance – especially if you are over 50 years old. If you need help finding travel health insurance as well as other insurances you may consider for your trip to Germany, you can enroll in our upcoming Germany trip planning online course.
At the time of writing this (May 2023), the COVID-19 restrictions to enter Germany have been lifted and you no longer need to document proof of vaccination. However, this may change again in the future. Therefore, it’s every traveler’s own responsibility to double check the entry requirements for the time and country they will travel to. You will be given more information on current entry or health restrictions in Germany and how you can prepare for your trip in a briefing call prior to your tour departure date.
We recommend to take some FFP2 face masks and some medical face masks with you when you travel to Germany. Although they are no longer required in most places right now (May 2023), this may change again in the future. And if you do get infected with the COVID-19 virus, you will need to wear them all the time in order to protect others from getting infected.
Yes, of course! Joining the tour traveling by yourself is absolutely possible. Our ancestry-inspired group tours are a great to meet new, like-minded people.
Yes. It is customary to quote prices for group tours based on double occupancy in hotel rooms. You can let us know that you would like us to find you a roommate of the same gender up until 4 weeks before the departure date. You will then pay the price of a double occupancy.
No, the included meals mentioned in the program only cover food. Drinks are at everyone’s own expense.
Yes, we do. And everyone who books our tour will receive a free complimentary mini guide for the best places to eat and drink in the city of Bremen.
We will only stay in one hotel for the entire tour. So there will be no hotel changes.
No, tips are not included in the mentioned tour prices.
Tips are not compulsory in Germany. However, they are appreciated of course. But you can also show your appreciation by leaving us a review and mentioning the names of your guides or drivers.
The tour has been designed primarily for US-Americans who have German ancestors. However, you can also take it if you live in another part of the world, have German ancestors and plan a trip to Germany to learn more about your ancestors.
Yes. Prior ancestry research is not necessarily required. During the tour, we will visit some great places to learn more about the general living conditions and the emigration experience of your German ancestors. Knowing which emigration port your ancestor left from (Bremen, Bremerhaven, Hamburg or other) and which region/hometown they were from is not required. However, knowing this will enhance your experiences on this tour as it will make them more personal.
You can book the tour by clicking on the button “Book Now” on this page. You will then be forwarded to a booking page of our secure and specialized payment provider partner WeTravel.
Absolutely! For the payment processing, we partnered up with WeTravel – a trusted and specialized payment provider for tours and travel products. If you experience any (technical) issues with your booking, you can contact them via email at info@wetravel.com or via the live chat on their website.
Our cancellation policy is part of our terms and conditions, which you can read here.
For package tours with individual arrival as follows (land tour price only):
Up to 46 days before departure 10%,
from the 45th to the 30th day before departure 15%,
from the 29th to the 15th day before departure 30%,
from the 14th to the 7th day before departure 50%,
6th to 2nd day before departure 70%,
from 1 day before departure or in the event of no-show 90% of the travel price.
Bookings close 4 weeks prior to each tour departure. Check out tour dates and availability section on this page for more details.
About 4 weeks prior to any tour departure, we will schedule a free Zoom online call for all tour participants. In this call, we will give you information on everything you need to know for traveling to Germany and joining the tour. From current entry or health restrictions in Germany to what to pack and what kind of weather to expect. You can also ask your own questions in this call.
If you have any additional questions about our tours, send an email to contact@myancestorsjourney.com
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Short on time?
Take a look at our 2-hour Bremen walking tour instead:
2-hour emigration-themed walking tour in Bremen
Join me on this emigration-themed 2-hour walking tour through 1,200 years of history in the city of Bremen.
Selling out fast!
Limited Spaces available!
Please note that bookings close 4 weeks before any of our tour departure date. Book now and secure your spot on the next tour!