Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Old towns & squares
Nördlingen
Nördlingen's old town is almost perfectly round and sits in the middle of a meteorite crater: the Nördlinger Ries, formed by an impact around 15 million years ago. A fully preserved town wall encloses its lanes, half-timbered houses and ch…
Old towns & squares
Passau
Passau's Old Town sits on a narrow peninsula where the Danube and Inn rivers meet, with the smaller Ilz joining just opposite, which is why Passau is called the "City of Three Rivers." Pastel Baroque houses, the green-domed St. Stephen's C…
Old towns & squares
Pirna
Pirna's Old Town and Sonnenstein Castle make a rewarding stop on the Elbe River between Dresden and the sandstone cliffs of Saxon Switzerland. The market square still looks much as the painter Canaletto (Bernardo Bellotto) captured it in t…
Old towns & squares
Rostock
Rostock's old town is the historic core of the largest city in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, a Hanseatic port on the Warnow River just inland from the Baltic Sea. Brick Gothic churches, colorful gabled houses, medieval city gates and a li…
Old towns & squares
Schwäbisch Hall
Few old towns in Baden-Württemberg are built as steeply as Schwäbisch Hall. Half-timbered houses climb the slopes of the Kocher valley, lanes turn into staircases, and above the market square St. Michael's Church sits on top of a huge flig…
Old towns & squares
Stralsund
The Old Town of Stralsund is one of the top things to do on Germany's Baltic coast: a medieval Hanseatic port set on an island between the sea and three town ponds, crowned by a spectacular brick Gothic town hall and three giant churches.…
Old towns & squares
Tangermünde
High above the point where the Tanger flows into the Elbe lies a small town that looks almost as it did 400 years ago. Tangermünde has kept its town wall, its Gothic brick gates and a town hall whose display facade is considered a showpiec…
Old towns & squares
Tübingen
The old town of Tübingen is one of the most charming historic centers in southern Germany: colorful half-timbered houses lining the Neckar River, steep cobbled lanes, a painted town hall and a Renaissance castle on the hill above. Only a s…
Old towns & squares
Wismar
The Old Town of Wismar is one of the best things to do on Germany's Baltic coast: a remarkably intact Hanseatic port with a vast market square, towering red-brick Gothic churches and an old harbor where fishing boats still tie up. Together…
Old towns & squares
Bernkastel-Kues
Bernkastel-Kues is one of the most charming wine towns on the Moselle River and one of the best things to see in the Moselle Valley. Its medieval market square is lined with colorful half-timbered houses, a castle ruin watches over the old…
Old towns & squares
Hamburg
Blankenese is Hamburg's most picturesque Elbe suburb: a former fishing village on a hillside, with white villas, narrow lanes and a beach on the river. Its famous stair quarter with about 5,000 steps, the Süllberg hill with views of contai…
Old towns & squares
Dinkelsbühl
Dinkelsbühl is one of the best-preserved medieval towns in Germany, a postcard-perfect stop on Bavaria's Romantic Road between Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Nördlingen. Behind an almost complete ring of walls and four gate towers, you'll fi…
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…
Old towns & squares
Nürnberg
The Hauptmarkt in Nuremberg is the main square of the Old Town and one of the most famous market squares in Germany. Two of the city's icons, the Gothic Church of Our Lady (Frauenkirche) and the gilded Beautiful Fountain (Schöner Brunnen),…
Old towns & squares
Trier
The Hauptmarkt in Trier is the main market square of Germany's oldest city and one of the most photogenic squares in the Moselle region. Gabled houses from the Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque eras frame a market cross from the 10th centur…
Old towns & squares
Heidelberg
The Hauptstrasse in Heidelberg is the long, car-free main street of one of Germany's most romantic old towns. Running from Bismarckplatz almost to the Karlstor gate, parallel to the Neckar River, it links baroque mansions, churches, museum…
Old towns & squares
Görlitz
The Görlitz Old Town is one of the best-preserved historic centers in Central Europe and a highlight of any trip to eastern Germany. Its squares and lanes, lined with Late Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Art Nouveau buildings, came throug…
Old towns & squares
Potsdam
The Dutch Quarter (Holländisches Viertel) in Potsdam is a compact neighborhood of 134 red-brick gabled houses that looks as if it had been lifted straight out of Amsterdam. Built in the 18th century to lure Dutch craftsmen to Prussia, it i…
Old towns & squares
Frankfurt am Main
The Kleinmarkthalle in Frankfurt is the city's best-known indoor food market, a lively hall in the old town where regional produce, sausages, cheese, spices and international delicacies are sold side by side. If you want a taste of Frankfu…
Old towns & squares
München
Königsplatz in Munich is a neoclassical square in the Maxvorstadt district and a centerpiece of the "Athens on the Isar" that King Ludwig I wanted to build. The Propylaea to the west, the Glyptothek to the north and the State Collections o…
Old towns & squares
Lindau (Bodensee)
Lindau harbor, with its stone lion and white lighthouse guarding the entrance, is one of the most photographed sights on Lake Constance. It sits on Lindau Island in Germany's far southwestern corner of Bavaria, where Germany, Austria and S…
Old towns & squares
Münster
The Prinzipalmarkt in Münster is one of the most photogenic old-town streets in northern Germany: a curving row of tall sandstone gabled houses above a continuous arcade, framed by the Gothic tower of St. Lambert's Church. It is also a key…
Old towns & squares
Stuttgart
Schlossplatz in Stuttgart (Palace Square) is the city's grand central square and the best place to start exploring the capital of Baden-Württemberg. Framed by the baroque New Palace, the colonnaded Königsbau, the Old Castle and the glass c…