Using “nach” or “zu” for landmarks and similar

Question

I had a little disagreement in my German class the other day regarding the use of nach and zu. We were practicing using nach and I said

Ich fahre nach Disneyland.

My teacher made this cringy face of being not sure if that’s correct. I asked my boyfriend, who is a native speaker, and he was also confused. His answer at least was that it was either nach Disneyland or zu dem (zum) Disneyland (as he would definitely say zum Fantasialand). I swear that at some point I’ve learned that you use nach for landmarks.

So, what alternatives are correct or preferrable? And what about other examples, like LAX, Walmart or the Grand Canyon (in case it would depend on a gender of what the landmark is or so).

Edit: For this purpose lets maybe forget about using the prepositions with gehen. This definitely will make more sense using ins, as in @dot_Sp0T's comment. I'm more thinking about using them with verbs such as fahren oder fliegen.

Answer 1

According to Duden – Richtiges und gutes Deutsch (2007), the preposition „in“ (with the accusative case) expresses the direction and means „in etwas hinein“ (“into something”). It could be the reply to „Wohin … ?“ (“Where … to?”). It is used before nouns with article:

in den Wald gehen
in die Stadt fahren
in die Schweiz reisen
in die USA fliegen
Ich fahre ins Phantasialand. („Phantasialand“ is usually used with article: „das Phantasialand“)

However, before nouns without article, the preposition „in“ indicates the position. It could be the reply to „Wo … ?“ (“Where … ?”).

Therefore, before nouns without article, the preposition „nach“ is used for expressing the direction and means „in einen Ort hinein“ (“into a place”):

nach Frankfurt fahren
nach Italien reisen
nach Amerika fliegen
Ich fahre nach Disneyland. („Disneyland“ is usually used without article.)

The preposition „zu“ expresses the direction and means „auf etwas zu“ (“toward something”). It is especially used before names:

zum Arzt gehen
Tom geht zu Eva.
Der Bus fährt zum Zoo. (The bus goes to the zoo, not necessarily into the zoo.)

Answer 2

Native speaker here.

When it comes to movement, I would use the following rules:

• "nach" only in conjunction with countries, cities, and other such places. "Nach Paris" is correct, "nach Disneyland" isn't.
• "zu" means to a place, but not necessarily into it. "Ich fahre zum Disneyland", "Ich fahre zum Supermarkt", also used with persons: "Wir fahren zu Oma"
• "in" always implies entering. Hence "ich gehe in den Supermarkt" is correct, but "ich fahre in den Supermarkt" implies literally driving your car into the building, causing destruction, confusion and havoc. "Wir fahren in die Oma" is also a disturbing mental picture.

So, use "zu" in conjunction with "fahren", and "in" when using "gehen" and implying that you are actually entering the place. Note that "fahren" always implies a vehicle, so "fahren" in conjunction with "in" is rarely correct (e.g. "Der Zug fährt in den Bahnhof"). Note, however, that "gehen" does not imply walking all the way there, "Ich gehe ins Museum" only means you're visiting the museum and does not imply you'll walk the entire way.

With "zu", entering is optional, "Ich fahre zum Supermarkt" literally means you will drive to the store, but also allows the interpretation that you will then leave the car and enter the store. That depends on the context, however: "Ich fahre zum Supermarkt und hole Jonas ab" simply means you will go pick Jonas up at the supermarket.

Answer 3

Preposition is one of the most difficult things. It's hardly possible putting this into a rule or explaining it properly.
There are already some question on this site, addressing this or a similar topic:

• Is there a rule which preposition to use for a place?
• Preposition for “going to your house”

Regarding your actual questions:
If you go "nach" Disneyland/Phantasialand, you will enter a country which doesn't exist. Good luck.¹
If you go "zum" Disneyland/Phantasialand, it sounds a little odd as if you were to go there but wouldn't enter, but it's fine though.
If you go "ins" Disneyland/Phantasialand, you will have a lot of fun. I live close to Phantasialand, so I can assure you this is what people say.

In case of Grand Canyon it's the same. You can use both "zum" and "in" and the latter sounds a little better. "In" really says that you will go into that canyon. "Zum" implies that, too, but it's actually saying that you just go there. If that makes sense?!

It's a little different for Walmart though. "Nach" is still wrong, that's for sure. But you can use both "zum" and "in", at least with the verb "to go". I'm not quite sure about using "in" with "to drive". Here's an example with McDonalds:

A: Komm wir fahren zum Macces.
B: DriveIn oder gehen wir in den Macces?

Nobody would say that we "drive" into McDonalds. I guess you don't want to damage your car. But you can "go" to and into it.
And though, you sometimes hear

Ich fahre in den Aldi, kann ich dir was mitbringen.
Komm, wir fahren innen(=dialect for "in den") Macces. ²

Some backseat driver will comment this, but that's not really funny.
Conclusion: Both "zum" and "in" is fine with Walmart, McDonalds and Aldi.

Finally, I'm not sure if this is a brave statement, but I think "nach" is restricted to countries or cities. I'm almost sure people will disagree about this in comments.

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¹ Just noticed that the other answer says that "Ich fahre nach Disneyland" would be fine. It sounds horrible to me and if someone said that to me, I would ask if Disneyland is a country on its own of late. Even in a sentence like "Den Zug von Lüttich nach zum Disneyland nehmen" I wouldn't use "nach".
Compare:

• "Ich fahre nach Frankfurt", but "Ich fahre zum Frankfurter Flughafen"
• "Ich fahre nach Paris", but "Ich fahre zum Disneyland"

Since other people say that "nach" is fine, I guess that it really depends on your dialect. But for me "nach" isn't fine at all.

² With McDonalds it only sounds acceptable with the dialectal version "innen". Using standard German is a little strange for McDonalds, but absolutely fine for Aldi.

Answer 4

nach = it comes with:

1. countries: Ich fahre nach Deutschland.
2. cities: Ich gehe bald nach London. (countries with Der, Die, Das, we use 'in')

zu = it comes with:

1. persons: Ich gehe zu Khaled.
2. places: Ich gehe zur Universität.