Describing a whole trip
Use Reise when the full travel experience matters: planning, route, destination, impressions, and return. It is broader than one ride.
Unsere Reise durch Deutschland dauerte zwei Wochen.
dieA2DE-EN
noun
Reise
Translation
journey; trip; travel
Reise is a journey or trip. It usually focuses on the whole travel experience, not just the drive, flight, or holiday time.
Teacher note
Reise is the broad noun for a trip. Fahrt often focuses on the ride or drive. Urlaub focuses on time off or vacation.
Usage scenarios
Polite wishes and travel stories
Reise appears in common wishes such as Gute Reise and in stories about where someone went, what happened, and what they learned.
Gute Reise und komm gesund zurueck.
Choose the right translation
trip
Natural for everyday travel: eine Reise nach Berlin.
journey
Good when the route, experience, or story matters.
travel
Use as a general noun, especially in compounds and broad statements.
Usage guide
Reise is the whole trip or journey. It can be short or long, private or professional, local or international, but it usually frames the travel as an experience.
German often uses machen with Reise: eine Reise machen. For planning, use eine Reise planen; for booking, use eine Reise buchen; for describing motion, use reisen.
Do not use Reise for every movement from A to B. Fahrt is often better for the ride, drive, train journey, or commute itself.
How to study this entry
Plan an imaginary three-day Reise in German. Write where you go, how long it lasts, and one thing you do each day. Use Reise for the whole plan and avoid switching to Urlaub unless you mean time off.
Make a transport contrast drill. Write one sentence about the train ride with Fahrt and one sentence about the whole journey with Reise. If both English translations say trip, add a note explaining what German distinguishes.
Review Reise through compounds. Pick three from Reiseplan, Reiseziel, Reisepass, Reisebuero, and Reisekosten. For each compound, write what practical question it answers: where, document, agency, cost, or plan.
For listening or reading, watch the verbs around Reise. Planen, buchen, machen, antreten, absagen, and verschieben each tell you a different phase of the trip. Marking the verb gives you more information than translating Reise again.
Write a postcard-style sentence and a booking-style sentence. The postcard can use schön or unvergesslich; the booking sentence should use buchen, Reisedaten, or Kosten. This separates emotional travel talk from practical travel administration.
Word forms and word building
Die Reise is feminine, and the plural is die Reisen. The related verb is reisen, to travel.
Reise builds many practical compounds: Reiseplan, Reisepass, Reisebuero, Reiseziel, Reisezeit, and Reisekosten.
Reisende means traveler. It is formed from the participle of reisen and is common in announcements and formal travel language.
Meaning boundaries
Reise vs Fahrt
Fahrt focuses on the ride or drive. Reise focuses on the whole trip.
Reise vs Urlaub
Urlaub is vacation time. Reise is the trip you may take during that time.
Reise vs Ausflug
Ausflug is usually a short excursion or day trip. Reise can be larger and more planned.
Register
Reise is neutral and flexible. It works in everyday speech, travel writing, and formal booking contexts.
Memory guide
Use a timeline: Fernweh before the trip, Reise during the trip, Erinnerung after the trip. This keeps the travel cluster clear.
Practice with verbs: eine Reise planen, buchen, machen, absagen. Those verbs are more useful than memorizing journey, trip, travel.
When translating trip, ask whether you mean the whole experience or the transport segment. Whole experience points to Reise.
Patterns that sound natural
eine Reise machen
to take a trip
Wir machen im Mai eine Reise nach Italien.
We are taking a trip to Italy in May.
auf Reisen sein
to be traveling
Er ist oft auf Reisen.
He is often traveling.
eine Reise planen
to plan a trip
Sie plant eine Reise durch Deutschland.
She is planning a trip through Germany.
Common learner trap
Using Reise when you only mean the ride by car or train.
Use Fahrt for the ride itself: die Fahrt nach München.
Try it yourself
You mean a two-week trip through Germany, not just the train ride. Reise or Fahrt?
Reise, because you mean the whole trip.
Examples
Unsere Reise nach China war unvergesslich.
Our trip to China was unforgettable.
Ich plane eine Reise im Herbst.
I am planning a trip in autumn.
Gute Reise!
Have a good trip.