Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Gardens & parks
Erfurt
The egapark sits where Erfurt once kept its cannons: on the Cyriaksberg hill in the south-west of the city, around the former Cyriaksburg citadel. Today 36 hectares of themed gardens, seasonal flower beds and tropical plants grow here. In…
Lakes
Grainau
Eibsee is an emerald-green mountain lake near Grainau in the Bavarian Alps, set directly beneath the north face of the Zugspitze, Germany's highest mountain. Its clear water, a scatter of small wooded islands and the wall of rock rising al…
Nature parks
Aachen
The Eifelsteig is a 313 km (194 mile) long-distance hiking trail through the Eifel region in western Germany. In 15 stages it runs from Aachen-Kornelimünster to Trier, crossing North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate. Its motto is…
Nature
Schönau am Königssee
Above you rises the Watzmann east face, the highest rock wall in the Eastern Alps; in front of you, in the middle of summer, lies a grey, gritty snowfield among the boulders. The Eiskapelle at the foot of the east face is the lowest year-r…
Churches & monasteries
Marburg
St. Elisabeth's Church (Elisabethkirche) in Marburg is considered Germany's oldest purely Gothic hall church, and its two 80-meter towers rise above the old town on the Lahn River. Built from 1235 over the grave of Saint Elisabeth of Thuri…
Gardens & parks
Bayreuth
The Hermitage (Eremitage) on the eastern edge of Bayreuth is a park of about 52 hectares with palaces, grottoes and fountains. It reached its peak under Margravine Wilhelmine, who created one of the most unconventional Rococo gardens here:…
Churches & monasteries
Erfurt
Erfurt Cathedral (Erfurter Dom, St. Mary's Cathedral) and the neighboring Church of St. Severus rise side by side above Erfurt's vast Domplatz square, forming one of Germany's most striking city skylines. A broad flight of 70 steps leads u…
Zoos
Hannover
Hanover Zoo (Erlebnis-Zoo Hannover) is one of Germany's most popular zoos and a top day out in Lower Saxony. Instead of rows of cages, it is built around immersive themed worlds: you glide by boat through an African river landscape, watch…
Theme parks
Cleebronn
Erlebnispark Tripsdrill in Cleebronn, between Stuttgart and Heilbronn in southwest Germany, is widely described as the country's oldest amusement park. Instead of movie sets, it recreates a Swabian village of around 1880, complete with hal…
Churches & monasteries
Beuron
Beuron Archabbey (Erzabtei St. Martin zu Beuron) is a working Benedictine monastery in the scenic Upper Danube Valley in southwestern Germany, set among pale limestone cliffs and forests. Its Baroque abbey church and the richly painted Cha…
Historic sites & memorials
Gersheim
The European Archaeological Park of Bliesbruck-Reinheim straddles the German-French border in southeastern Saarland and Lorraine, and lets you step from Celtic times into Roman Germany within a single day. Across roughly 700,000 square met…
Museums
Lübeck
The European Hansemuseum in Lübeck is considered the world's largest museum devoted to the Hanseatic League, the medieval trading network that once dominated northern Europe. Set at the northern tip of Lübeck's UNESCO-listed old town, it t…
Palaces
Eutin
Eutin Castle (Eutiner Schloss) is a four-winged brick palace on a moated island in the Großer Eutiner See in Schleswig-Holstein, in the region known as Holstein Switzerland. Once a residence of the prince-bishops of Lübeck and later a summ…
Gardens & parks
Weinheim
In Germany you usually see giant sequoias as single specimens in a palace park. In the Weinheim Exotic Forest they grow as an entire forest, some now up to 60 m tall. This arboretum on the slope above the old town covers around 60 hectares…
Historic sites & memorials
Horn-Bad Meinberg
The Externsteine near Horn-Bad Meinberg are a striking group of sandstone pillars rising up to 130 feet (40 meters) from the Teutoburg Forest in northwestern Germany. With a medieval rock relief, carved grottoes and a viewing platform reac…
Industrial heritage
Fehmarn
The Fehmarn Sound Bridge (Fehmarnsundbrücke) links the Baltic island of Fehmarn with the mainland near Großenbrode and is nicknamed the "coat hanger" for its steel arch. Opened in 1963 and protected as a monument, the combined road and rai…
Gardens & parks
Wonsees
The Sanspareil Rock Garden (Felsengarten Sanspareil) in Wonsees, near Bayreuth in northern Bavaria, is one of the most unusual 18th-century gardens in Europe. Instead of clipped hedges and fountains, Margravine Wilhelmine of Bayreuth turne…
Churches & monasteries
Idar-Oberstein
Stroll through the old town of Oberstein, look up, and you will see a small white church that seems glued into an almost vertical rock face. The Felsenkirche (“rock church”) was built more than 500 years ago into a hollow in the castle roc…
Nature
Lautertal (Odenwald)
On the slopes of the Felsberg above Lautertal-Reichenbach lies a river of stone: thousands of dark-grey, rounded boulders spill through the beech forest like a frozen stream. The Felsenmeer (“sea of rocks”) in the Odenwald is just over 2 k…
Fortresses
Koblenz
Ehrenbreitstein Fortress towers above the Rhine in Koblenz and is one of the largest surviving fortresses in Europe. From its walls you look straight down on the Deutsches Eck, where the Moselle meets the Rhine, and far across the hills of…
Fortresses
Würzburg
Marienberg Fortress in Würzburg crowns a hill about 100 m above the Main River and is the city's most famous landmark. For nearly five centuries it was the seat of Würzburg's prince-bishops, before they moved into the grand Residence in to…
Fortresses
Kronach
Rosenberg Fortress rises steeply above the old town of Kronach in the Franconian Forest and in its long history was never taken by force. It is one of the best-preserved fortresses in Bavaria and shows within a compact area how military ar…
Fortresses
Saarlouis
Saarlouis Fortress is a fortified town on the Saar River designed by the French military engineer Vauban, and its hexagonal outline still shapes the city center today. King Louis XIV had it founded in 1680 to secure France's eastern border…
Fortresses
Singen (Hohentwiel)
The Hohentwiel in Singen is an extinct volcanic cone in the Hegau region near Lake Constance, crowned by the ruins of one of Germany's largest fortresses. Spread over about 9 hectares (22 acres), the ruins offer sweeping views across the H…