Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Mountains & peaks
Oberwiesenthal
The Fichtelberg above Oberwiesenthal is the highest mountain in Saxony at 3,986 feet (1,214.88 m), and in Cold War times it was the highest peak in East Germany. Its summit, crowned by the Fichtelberghaus with its lookout tower and a centu…
Theme parks
Potsdam
Filmpark Babelsberg in Potsdam is a movie-themed amusement park next to Studio Babelsberg, where films have been made since 1912. Instead of roller coasters, it offers live stunt shows with fire and explosions, original film sets, fairy-ta…
Old towns & squares
Ulm
Just a few hundred metres from the Minster, the River Blau splits into several arms shortly before it flows into the Danube, and between them half-timbered houses, footbridges and little bridges crowd together. The Fishermen's and Tanners'…
Old towns & squares
Flensburg
Flensburg Harbor and the old town around it are the maritime heart of Flensburg, Germany's border city on the Baltic Sea just south of Denmark. At the head of the Flensburg Fjord, historic sailing ships, the steamship Alexandra and old mer…
Gardens & parks
Köln
Flora and the Botanical Garden in Cologne's Riehl district make up one of the city's loveliest free green spaces: a historic park with a grand festival hall, flower parterres and greenhouses, right beside Cologne Zoo. If you want a calm wa…
Viewpoints
Dortmund
You see it long before the stadium when you arrive in Dortmund: the Florianturm, "Florian" to the locals, rises from the Westfalenpark high above the city. When it opened in 1959 it was Germany's tallest TV tower for about a decade, and th…
Coast & islands
Wyk auf Föhr
Föhr is Germany's largest island that can only be reached by boat or plane, and its mild climate has earned it the nickname "Frisian Caribbean". This green North Sea island offers a long sandy beach at Wyk, thatched Frisian villages, medie…
Lakes
Schwangau
Lake Forggensee near Füssen in the Bavarian Allgäu is Bavaria's largest reservoir, with the Alps as a backdrop and Neuschwanstein Castle just beyond its shore. It is a lovely add-on to a visit to the castle: you can take a boat trip, walk…
Landmarks
Halle (Saale)
It all began with four thalers and 16 groschen found in a poor box. With that donation the pastor and theologian August Hermann Francke opened a school for poor children in 1695, and three years later he laid the foundation stone of an orp…
Museums
Bad Windsheim
The Franconian Open-Air Museum in Bad Windsheim (Fränkisches Freilandmuseum) is the largest open-air museum in Bavaria and shows how people in Franconia once lived and worked. Across 45 hectares, more than 120 historic buildings from all o…
Churches & monasteries
Chiemsee
Fraueninsel (Frauenchiemsee) is a tiny, car-free island on Lake Chiemsee in Bavaria, about an hour southeast of Munich, and home to one of the oldest convents in the German-speaking world. Fishermen's cottages, flower gardens and a white B…
Churches & monasteries
Freiberg
A cathedral that was never the seat of a bishop, yet one of the most richly furnished churches in Saxony: the Cathedral of St. Mary on Untermarkt in Freiberg owes its treasures to silver mining. It holds a 13th-century portal with a firm p…
Churches & monasteries
Freiburg im Breisgau
Freiburg Minster (Freiburger Münster) is the landmark of Freiburg im Breisgau and one of the finest Gothic churches in Germany. Built of red sandstone on the edge of the Black Forest, it is crowned by an openwork spire that the Swiss histo…
Museums
Neu-Anspach
Hessenpark in Neu-Anspach is the open-air museum of the German state of Hesse and one of the top family day trips from Frankfurt. Spread across about 65 hectares (160 acres) in the Taunus hills, it brings together more than a hundred histo…
Museums
Kassel
The Fridericianum in Kassel is one of the first public museums in continental Europe and the historic home of documenta, the world-famous exhibition of contemporary art. Behind its columned Neoclassical facade on Friedrichsplatz, the build…
Landmarks
Baden-Baden
The Friedrichsbad in Baden-Baden is a grand 19th-century bathhouse and one of the most beautiful historic thermal baths in Europe. Behind its Renaissance Revival facade in the old spa quarter, you follow a fixed ritual – the Roman-Irish ba…
Churches & monasteries
Fritzlar
Around 723 the missionary Boniface felled a mighty oak near Geismar that was sacred to the Germanic god Donar, and used its wood to build a chapel dedicated to St Peter. The town of Fritzlar grew out of this foundation, and on that spot no…
Churches & monasteries
Fulda
Fulda Cathedral (Fuldaer Dom) is a baroque cathedral in the center of Fulda in Hesse, and the burial place of Saint Boniface, the "Apostle of the Germans". With its two tall west towers, white stucco interior and the crypt where pilgrims h…
Gardens & parks
Berlin
The Gardens of the World (Gärten der Welt) in Berlin take you on a botanical trip around the globe without leaving the city. In the eastern district of Marzahn you can wander through a Chinese garden with a lotus pond and pavilions, a tran…
Industrial heritage
Oberhausen
The Gasometer Oberhausen is a former gas holder turned into Europe's tallest exhibition hall, and one of the top things to do in Germany's Ruhr region. Standing 383 feet (117.5 m) high beside the Rhine-Herne Canal, it hosts large-scale nat…
Historic sites & memorials
Lohheide
The Bergen-Belsen Memorial in Lohheide, Lower Saxony, marks the site of a prisoner-of-war camp, a Nazi concentration camp and a postwar camp for displaced persons. It is known around the world as the place where Anne Frank and her sister M…
Historic sites & memorials
Berlin
The Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial is the former central remand prison of the Stasi, East Germany's secret police. Political prisoners were interrogated and psychologically broken here, in a restricted zone that did not appear on East Be…
Historic sites & memorials
Rasdorf
Point Alpha on the former border between Hesse and Thuringia is one of the best places in Germany to grasp what the Cold War looked like on the ground. A US Army observation post and the East German border fortifications face each other ac…
Historic sites & memorials
Oranienburg
The Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial in Oranienburg, about 35 km north of central Berlin, preserves the site of one of the major Nazi concentration camps and of the Soviet special camp that followed it. It is one of the most visit…