Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Industrial heritage
Dortmund
Zollern Colliery (Zeche Zollern) in Dortmund is often called the "Palace of Work," and with good reason. Its brick buildings with gables and turrets, two winding towers and an Art Nouveau machine hall make it one of the most beautiful form…
Landmarks
Leipzig
The Mädler Passage (Mädlerpassage) is one of the most beautiful shopping arcades in Germany and a highlight of any walk through central Leipzig. Between Grimmaische Straße and Neumarkt, boutiques, cafes and restaurants line a glass-roofed…
Churches & monasteries
Magdeburg
Magdeburg Cathedral (Magdeburger Dom), dedicated to Saints Maurice and Catherine, is the landmark of Magdeburg, the capital of Saxony-Anhalt, and the first cathedral in Germany designed in the Gothic style from the start. It is also the bu…
Churches & monasteries
Mainz
Mainz Cathedral (Mainzer Dom, officially the Hoher Dom St. Martin) is the landmark of Mainz, the Rhineland-Palatinate capital on the Rhine River. Together with the cathedrals of Speyer and Worms, it is one of the three great Romanesque "im…
Castles
Marburg
Marburg Castle (Landgrafenschloss) crowns the hill above the medieval old town of Marburg in Hesse, about an hour north of Frankfurt by train. Begun in the 11th century, it became the first seat of the Landgraves of Hesse and hosted the 15…
Monuments
Laboe
The Laboe Naval Memorial (Marine-Ehrenmal Laboe) is a memorial to sailors of all nations lost at sea and, with its 72-meter (236-foot) brick tower, the landmark of the Kiel Fjord. From the viewing platform you look out over the Baltic Sea,…
Landmarks
Darmstadt
Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt, about 30 km south of Frankfurt, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of Europe's key landmarks of Art Nouveau (called Jugendstil in German) and early modernism. From 1899, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse bro…
Museums
Stralsund
The Meeresmuseum (Sea Museum) in Stralsund is the original home of the German Oceanographic Museum foundation and a favorite stop on Germany's Baltic coast. It sits in the heart of Stralsund's UNESCO-listed old town inside a former medieva…
Churches & monasteries
Merseburg
Merseburg Cathedral, dedicated to St. John and St. Lawrence, rises above the Saale River in Merseburg, between Halle and Leipzig. Joined directly to Merseburg Palace, it is a highlight of Germany's Romanesque Road and holds remarkable trea…
Museums
Dresden
The Bundeswehr Military History Museum in Dresden is one of Germany's major history museums and a striking piece of architecture. Star architect Daniel Libeskind drove a giant wedge of steel and glass straight through a 19th-century Saxon…
Museums
München
The Museum Brandhorst in Munich's Maxvorstadt district is a contemporary art museum in one of the most eye-catching buildings in Germany. Its facade of thousands of colorful ceramic rods, designed by Sauerbruch Hutton, makes it easy to rec…
Museums
Hamburg
The Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (the Museum of Arts and Crafts, or MK&G) is one of Europe's major design museums, and it sits right next to Hamburg's main train station. It is an easy first stop when you arrive by train, or a good…
Museums
Frankfurt am Main
The Museum für Moderne Kunst (MMK) in Frankfurt is one of Germany's most important museums of contemporary art. Its main building in the old town, Hans Hollein's wedge-shaped "slice of cake", is a landmark in itself. One thing to know befo…
Museums
Berlin
The Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (Natural History Museum) is the largest natural history museum in Germany and one of the best things to do in central Berlin. In its glass-roofed main hall you stand beneath the skeleton of Giraffatitan, re…
Museums
Düsseldorf
Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf is the city's big art museum, set in the brick Ehrenhof complex on the banks of the Rhine, a short walk north of the Old Town. Under one roof it brings together Flemish Baroque painting including Rubens, th…
Museums
Cloppenburg
The Cloppenburg Museum Village (Museumsdorf Cloppenburg) is Lower Saxony's open-air museum and one of the oldest and largest of its kind in Germany. On about 20 hectares it shows more than 50 original buildings from the 16th to the early 2…
Churches & monasteries
Naumburg (Saale)
Naumburg Cathedral (Naumburger Dom) in the small town of Naumburg an der Saale is one of the great medieval churches of Europe and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2018. It is famous for twelve life-size statues of its founders…
Caves
Sonnenbühl
The Nebelhöhle ("Fog Cave") near Sonnenbühl is one of the best-known show caves of the Swabian Jura (Schwäbische Alb) in southwestern Germany, just a few kilometers from fairy-tale Lichtenstein Castle. You descend 141 steps about 25 meters…
Museums
Berlin
The Neues Museum on Berlin's Museum Island is home to the world-famous bust of Nefertiti. It also houses the Museum of Prehistory and Early History, with the golden Berlin Gold Hat and Heinrich Schliemann's finds from Troy. Just as memorab…
Palaces
Potsdam
The New Palace (Neues Palais) in Potsdam is the largest palace in Sanssouci Park and one of the last great Baroque palaces built in Prussia. Frederick the Great commissioned it right after the Seven Years' War to prove his kingdom was anyt…
Landmarks
Hannover
Hanover's New Town Hall (Neues Rathaus) looks more like a palace than an office building: a grand early 20th-century structure crowned by a green copper dome and reflected in a park pond. Inside you'll find a soaring main hall with four ci…
Museums
Dresden
The Panometer Dresden is a former gasometer in the Reick district where artist Yadegar Asisi shows enormous 360-degree panoramas. The name blends "panorama" and "gasometer." If you are looking for unusual things to do in Dresden, this imme…
Museums
Uhldingen-Mühlhofen
The Pfahlbaumuseum Unteruhldingen (Lake Dwellings Museum) on the northern shore of Lake Constance is one of the most memorable things to do in southern Germany: wooden boardwalks lead you through reconstructed Stone Age and Bronze Age vill…
Landmarks
Dresden
Pfunds Molkerei (Pfund's Dairy) in Dresden's Neustadt district has been called the most beautiful dairy shop in the world. The small sales room on Bautzner Straße is covered from floor to ceiling in hand-painted Villeroy & Boch tiles, maki…