Summer Festivals 2025 with Optional Berlin - WAIT LIST!, July 03 to 15, 2025
Since 2011, our Summer Festivals Tours have become a tradition. For July 2025, we're offering 12 days in Northwestern Germany and at a castle in nearby Denmark – with an optional 5-day extension to Berlin.
 
The Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival is one of Europe’s largest, spanning two months and presenting a wide variety of artists and repertoire – as many as four on a given day in a multitude of venues. Our base of operations for seven nights will be a 5-star hotel overlooking the harbor in the beautiful seaside town of Lübeck and just across the street from the principal concert hall. We will attend the festival’s opening concert, which will feature Christoph Eschenbach conducting the NDR Symphony in a major work “by one of his favorite composers” with a “major guest soloist.” That’s all we could learn this far in advance . . . thanks to an inside link with Maestro Eschenbach’s personal assistant. Two additional SHMF concerts will be combined with sightseeing excursions from Lübeck.
 
Our other festival offers a very different experience: four nights lodged in a castle hotel on a private island where the performers we’ll be hearing are staying as well. There will be multiple chamber music performances each day and open conversations with the artists.
 
Of course, there will be a variety of guided tours scattered throughout our 11 days together.
 
Following the Festivals Tour, you will have the option of continuing with us for five additional nights in Berlin where you may choose from three operas (a Strauss rarity, a new work by Rebecca Saunders, plus a Verdi favorite) and ballets by Jiří Kylián, at the Staatsoper unter der Linden and the Deutsche Oper Berlin. A variety of daytime sightseeing programs will be available as well. Our 4-star hotel is in the historic city center, just a short walk from the major museums and Staatsoper and a no-transfer ride on the UBahn from the Deutsche Oper.
 
Take a look at the itinerary below; if you would like to request space on the tour, please click on the “Reservation” button. We will then follow up with a reservation form and invoice for your deposit. Your reservation will be confirmed only with our receipt of your deposit.

 
This program is limited to 20 participants with space allotted on a first-come basis.
 
 
INCLUSIONS
AND PRICES

Prices per person
for the basic 12-day tour:

  $4,975
sharing a double/twin


$5,935
single occupancy




for the Berlin Extension:
 
$1,450
sharing a double/twin

$1,750
single occupancy




Prices are stated in
U.S. Dollars

calculated on an exchange rate of $1.10 to the Euro




Prices include:

Accommodation in these
 4- and 5-star hotels


Radisson Blu Senator
 
7 nights

Hindsgavl Castle

 4 nights

- plus -
Arcotel John F Berlin
5 nights (for extension)




Breakfast each day

  9 lunches or dinners
(drinks included)

Airport transfers
* see important note below

Ground transport by
private coach

  Tours with expert guides as described to the right

Admission to at least 8
festival performances

 Additional festival
performances,
as available, at additional cost



Details and pricing for the optional day tours will be provided later



* Please Note:
On July 4 there will be a single transfer by private coach, departing Hamburg Airport
no later than 4:00 PM. Be sure to make your travel plans accordingly;
there are numerous options on every major airline group arriving before 3:00 PM. If you arrive too late to take the group transfer, you or your travel insurance will be responsible for the cost of a private transfer to Lübeck.

Provided transfers to the
Hamburg or Berlin airport
at the end of the tour
will be individualized.




Prices for the Berlin Extension include:
transportation to Berlin,
five-night
accommodation
,
Schwerin visit and lunch,
Bach to Bowie Tour,

Farewell Luncheon,
and airport transfer.
All performances and additional sightseeing programs are optional,
at additional cost
.
YOUR ITINERARY

 

Thursday July 3: Depart for Hamburg  - United/Lufthansa, /Delta/KLM/Air France, and British Air/American all offer one-change schedules from Houston or most other major hubs, both ways, whether returning from Hamburg on the 15th or Berlin on the 20th. (You will find a list of flight options, all with only a single change of planes, below this tour description.)
 
Friday July 4: Choose a flight scheduled to arrive in Hamburg no later than 3:00 PM; we must depart by coach to Lübeck not later than 4:00 PM, to check-in and get settled before our welcome dinner. Odds are good that Maestro Eschenbach will accept our invitation to join us for dinner in Lübeck.
 
Saturday July 5: Old Town Lübeck tour and opening night of the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, featuring the NDR (North German Radio) Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Christoph Eschenbach. We have back-channel information that there will be a “major international” guest artist and that the featured symphony will be by one of the Maestro’s “favorite composers,” meaning probably Mahler or Bruckner. The concert takes place at the Musik- und Kongresshalle, (MuK), where the Lübeck Philharmonic and the NDR Orchestra perform.
 
Sunday July 6: Travel to Hindsgavl Castle, stopping along the way for a visit of Gottorf Castle, including a guided tour of the “Globe of Gottorf,” the first ever planetarium. We’ll arrive at Hindsgavl, the site of a congenial festival of chamber music on Denmark’s picturesque ‘Garden Island,’ as Funen is known, in time for dinner and this evening’s concert(s).
 
July 7 – 10: Three additional days at Hindsgavl, one of Europe’s finest chamber music festivals, will feature conversations with the artists and at least two, sometimes three concerts each day. Admission is included for them all, as is dinner each evening. The castle’s beautiful grounds include pavilions, streams, and ponds as well as orchards and gardens that supply ingredients for the castle chefs (breakfast and a preconcert dinner are included each day on site). You might even spot wild deer in the forest and around the palace! The castle also provides expansive views of the ‘Little Belt,’ a strait separating the island of Funen from Jutland. Hans Christian Andersen was a frequent visitor to Hindsgavl, and even wrote poems about its Tea pavilion.
 
The principal concerts during our stay at Hindsgavl include an all-Brahms chamber music program and an afternoon solo recital, both featuring an original 1859 Blüthner piano; an evening of duets by Handel for soprano and countertenor; and the Chiaroscuro Quartet playing works by Beethoven and Brahms. Additional performances are yet to be announced.

Two day trips are planned in Denmark: one to Odense, the charming town where both author Hans Christian Andersen and composer Carl Nielsen were born; the other (optional) takes us to Århus, one of the most beautiful cities in Denmark, where ancient and modern keep very comfortable company.

July 10 – 15: We return to Lübeck for an additional five days of music and sightseeing. We will attend two Festival concerts in venues nearby; you will also have an opportunity to hear the Lübeck Philharmonic play Richard Strauss's Aus Italien and the Glière Horn Concerto on a free day (optional and not part of the Festival).
 
On our way to Lübeck from Hindsgavl, we visit the famous “rum” town of Flensburg, boasting Scandinavian flair, quaint alleys, and a small idyllic harbor.

During our days in Lübeck, we will drive to Plön, where we’ll have lunch and tour its charming Old Town before attending a concert in nearby Rendsburg-Büdelsdorf by the Festival Symphony Orchestra (program TBA). The wooden concert venue is next to “Kunstwerk Carlshütte,” which comprises a gigantic foundry, historic buildings, sprawling park with ancient trees, and an exhibit cafe. 250 artists from around the world display their works here each summer as part of “NordArt,” the largest curated annual exhibition of international contemporary art in Europe. You will have time to explore the exhibition and enjoy a snack before the concert.

Another included concert takes place in Lüneburg, one of the few cities in North Germany whose historic center was not destroyed during World War II. The venue for the concertfeaturing the NDR Chorusis the Libeskind Auditorium, an acute-angled geometric building featuring impressive acoustics and special strip lights in the walls for an outstanding concert atmosphere.

If there is sufficient interest, we will offer Rostock as an optional excursion.
 
Tuesday July 15: Return to the States from Hamburg airport.

– or –
The Berlin Extension

July 15 – 20: Continue with us to Berlin for an additional five days. We’ll make a stop in Schwerin for lunch and to visit the UNESCO World Heritage Residence Ensemble and palace museum.

In Berlin, there is an included walking tour: “Bach to Bowie – Music made in Berlin;” and a farewell meal prior to the evening performance on the 19th.

Everything else, tours and performances, is optional.

Sunday July 20: Return home or set off on additional travels.

The Berlin Performances (optional):

  • July 16: Verdi – La Traviata starring Jeanine de Bique and conducted by Jeremie Rhorer at the Staatsoper
  • July 18: Rebecca Saunders – Lash at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where it will have been premiered in June
  • July 18: Jiří Kylián–two ballets: Gods and Dogs and Angels’ Atlas, at the Staatsoper
  • July 19: Strauss – Die schweigsame Frau, conducted by Christian Thielemann at the Staatsoper

The Berlin Tours (optional):
(our licensed local guide is Christoph Eschenbach's personal assistant, Zenaida,
who opened doors at the Schleswig Holstein Festival for us!)

  • Potsdam with Sanssouci palace and gardens, Cecilienhof Mansion, and Museum Barberini, plus one of the most beautiful old market squares in all of Germany
  • Introduction to Berlin walk
  • “1920s Berlin – the gloom and the glamor of an era”





Suggested Flight Options, all involving a single change of planes, each way.

 IAH-HAM                                         HAM-IAH                                            BER-IAH
 
                                 UA/LH via FRA/MUC/LHR (additional options via EWR)                    

15:20 – 11:35                                       07:30 – 13:15                                        07:20 – 16:30
15:35 – 13:05                                       09:45 – 16:30                                        07:45 – 13:35
15:35 – 14:05                                       11:00 – 17:15                                        08:45 – 17:45
16:20 – 11:20                                                                                                     08:50 – 16:30
16:30 – 12:30                                                                                                     09:45 – 17:45
                 16:30 – 14:30                                                                                                                                            

 
  AF/KL/DL via AMS/CDG
 
15:20 – 11:35                                      06:10 – 13:25                                       06:00 – 13:25
15:50 – 11:20                                      06:00 – 13:35                                       06:15 – 13:35
 
 BA/AA via LHR
 
15:35 – 13:35                                      10:50 – 19:05                                       11:20 – 19:05
Hindsgavl Castle
Hindsgavl Castle
Lübeck
Lübeck
Castle Surroundings
Castle Surroundings
Lübeck
Lübeck
 Hotel overlooking the River Trave
Hotel overlooking the River Trave
View of Flensburg
View of Flensburg
View of Lübeck with MuK
View of Lübeck with MuK
Hindsgavl Festivalgoers
Hindsgavl Festivalgoers
Odense Old Town
Odense Old Town
View of Lüneburg
View of Lüneburg
Plön Church Steeple
Plön Church Steeple
NordArt 2024
NordArt 2024
Libeskind Auditorium
Libeskind Auditorium