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How do you say

I drove to the mountains

vs

I drove in the mountains

?

In google translate they both are

Ich bin in die Berge gefahren

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The two statements precisely reflect the difference between dative and accusative for certain prepositions (including in) in German:

I drove to the mountains

indicates a direction/destination and therefore uses the accusative case:

Ich bin in die Berge gefahren.

I drove in the mountains

indicates a location where the action took place and therefore uses the dative case:

Ich bin in den Bergen gefahren.

(Note that the latter sounds slightly incomplete because "fahren" on its own is somewhat indefinite in German. You may want to use "Auto fahren" (here: "Auto gefahren") to come closer to the English "to drive".)

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  • For me, even 'in den Bergen Auto gefahren' sounds strange, but perhaps the English version is similarly unusual. Anyway, as for me 'in den Bergen Auto fahren' is pragmatically doubtful, I translated it in a way that perhaps doesn't correspond to the English sentence but is at least normal German. Would you say "Ich gehe / ich fahre (Auto) in der Stadt"?
    – Ralf Joerres
    Jan 26, 2020 at 21:44
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    @RalfJoerres: Yes, why wouldn't I? "Ich bin an Ampeln und Staus gewöhnt, weil ich häufig in der Stadt Auto fahre."; "Ich bin gestern in den Bergen Auto gefahren, abends war mir ganz schwindelig von den Serpentinen."
    – O. R. Mapper
    Jan 26, 2020 at 22:23
  • Nevertheless for me 'ich bin häufig in der Stadt mit dem Auto unterwegs' sounds more natural than 'ich fahre häufig in der Stadt Auto'. An isolated 'ich fahre in der Stadt' is completely anacceptable. The reason is that fahren as well as gehen need local complements naming the destinations of the movement. If you just want to talk about the activity of driving without destination you normally change the predicate, and for me the most normal one would be 'mit einem Fahrzeug irgendwo unterwegs sein'. Beside that, an uncompleted fahren means nicht (zu Fuß) laufen.
    – Ralf Joerres
    Jan 28, 2020 at 15:26
  • @RalfJoerres: "Nevertheless for me 'ich bin häufig in der Stadt mit dem Auto unterwegs' sounds more natural than 'ich fahre häufig in der Stadt Auto'." - if, for some reason, you need to express that it's you who drives, "mit dem Auto unterwegs" leaves a bit of ambiguity, otherwise the two options appear to me as equally acceptable. "An isolated 'ich fahre in der Stadt' is completely anacceptable." - I agree, this usually follows some context, such as a sentence that already establishes what kind (vehicle) of "fahren" is meant.
    – O. R. Mapper
    Jan 29, 2020 at 6:57
  • In some situations, the ambiguity you are talking about is resolved by 'am Steuer sitzen' or 'selbst fahren', but, talking about Ampeln and Staus I suppose one would understand that the situation is seen from a driver's perspective. You are right, that's not absolutely 'clean-cut'.
    – Ralf Joerres
    Jan 29, 2020 at 17:34
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I drove to the mountains = Ich bin in die Berge gefahren - um z.B. Urlaub zu machen, oder für ein Wochenende.

I drove in the mountains = Ich war mit dem Auto in den Bergen unterwegs.

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