Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
National parks
Bad Schandau
Saxon Switzerland National Park near Bad Schandau protects one of Germany's most dramatic landscapes: sandstone towers, table mountains, deep gorges, and forests along the Elbe River. Famous sights such as the Bastei Bridge, the Schrammste…
Castles
Wierschem
Eltz Castle (Burg Eltz) near Wierschem in Rhineland-Palatinate is the storybook medieval castle many travelers picture when they think of Germany: a cluster of towers and half-timbered upper stories rising from a rock in a deep, wooded sid…
Viewpoints
Bornich
The Lorelei (Loreley) near Sankt Goarshausen is the most famous rock on the Rhine River: a slate cliff about 130 meters high at the narrowest point of the Middle Rhine, inside the Upper Middle Rhine Valley UNESCO World Heritage Site. The l…
Churches & monasteries
Aachen
Aachen Cathedral (Aachener Dom) in the city of Aachen, right on Germany's border with Belgium and the Netherlands, is the church Charlemagne built as the heart of his empire around the year 800. It became Germany's first UNESCO World Herit…
Industrial heritage
Essen
The Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex (Zeche Zollverein) in Essen is the icon of Germany's Ruhr region and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001. Its red double-trestle winding tower is one of the most recognizable industrial struc…
Castles
Eisenach
Wartburg Castle above the town of Eisenach in Thuringia is one of the most historic castles in Germany and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999. Martin Luther hid here and translated the New Testament into German, Saint Elizabeth of Hun…
Landmarks
Trier
The Porta Nigra in Trier is a massive Roman city gate begun in 170 AD and the symbol of what is often called Germany's oldest city. Built from huge sandstone blocks and darkened by centuries of weathering, the "Black Gate" survived because…
Landmarks
Lübeck
The Holsten Gate (Holstentor) in Lübeck is the brick city gate that has become a symbol of northern Germany: two squat round towers with conical roofs flanking a stepped gable, completed in 1478. It guards the western entrance to Lübeck's…
Landmarks
Bremen
Bremen City Hall and the Roland statue on the city's Market Square form a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the showpiece of the old Hanseatic city of Bremen in northern Germany. Built from 1405 and later given a lavish Weser Renaissance faca…
National parks
Sassnitz
Jasmund National Park near Sassnitz on the island of Rügen is Germany's smallest national park and home to its most famous coastal scenery: brilliant white chalk cliffs up to 118 meters high, topped by ancient beech forests that are part o…
Castles
Nürnberg
Nuremberg Castle (Kaiserburg Nürnberg) crowns a sandstone ridge above the old town of Nuremberg in Bavaria and is the city's defining landmark. From the early 12th century until 1571, every emperor and king of the Holy Roman Empire stayed…
Old towns & squares
Bamberg
The Old Town of Bamberg in northern Bavaria is one of the best-preserved historic city centers in Germany and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993. Built across seven hills and a river island, it blends medieval street plans with Baroqu…
Palaces
Würzburg
The Würzburg Residence is the grand Baroque palace of the former prince-bishops of Würzburg and one of the finest palaces in Europe. Together with its Court Garden and Residence Square, it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1981.…
Churches & monasteries
Ulm
Ulm Minster in southern Germany is one of the country's greatest Gothic churches, and its 161.53-meter (530 ft) spire is the tallest church tower in Germany. For about 135 years it was the tallest in the world. Rising above the old town of…
Churches & monasteries
Speyer
Speyer Cathedral, known in German as the Kaiserdom, is the largest surviving Romanesque church in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1981. Rising above the Rhine in the Palatinate region, this massive red-sandstone basilica s…
Landmarks
Regensburg
The Stone Bridge in Regensburg (Steinerne Brücke) is the oldest surviving bridge in Germany and, together with the cathedral, the city's most famous landmark. Built in the 12th century, it carries walkers and cyclists across the Danube fro…
Palaces
Moritzburg
Moritzburg Castle near Dresden is one of the most photogenic palaces in Germany: a Baroque hunting lodge with four round, red-domed towers, set on an artificial island in a lake. Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, t…
Fortresses
Königstein (Sächsische Schweiz)
Königstein Fortress in Saxon Switzerland is one of the largest hilltop fortresses in Europe. Perched on a flat-topped sandstone mountain 240 meters (790 ft) above the Elbe River, it combines more than 50 historic buildings, a well cut over…
Palaces
Schwerin
Schwerin Castle is the fairy-tale palace of northern Germany. Rising from an island in Lake Schwerin, with golden domes, dozens of turrets, and terraced gardens reaching down to the water, it was the residence of the Grand Dukes of Mecklen…
Churches & monasteries
Maulbronn
Maulbronn Monastery in Baden-Württemberg is considered the best-preserved medieval monastery complex north of the Alps and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993. Behind its fortified walls lies a complete Cistercian abbey, with…
Mountains & peaks
Garmisch-Partenkirchen
The Partnach Gorge (Partnachklamm) in Garmisch-Partenkirchen is one of the most dramatic natural sights in the Bavarian Alps. For about 700 meters, the Partnach River squeezes through a limestone chasm up to 80 meters deep, and a walkway c…
Waterfalls
Triberg im Schwarzwald
The Triberg Waterfalls in the heart of Germany's Black Forest are among the country's most famous waterfalls. In the small town of Triberg, the Gutach River tumbles a total of 163 meters in a chain of cascades through a steep fir forest, w…
Castles
Cochem
Reichsburg Cochem (Cochem Imperial Castle) is the fairy-tale castle that crowns the hill above Cochem, one of the prettiest wine towns on Germany's Moselle River. With its slender octagonal keep, pointed turrets and battlements rising abov…
Gardens & parks
Konstanz
Mainau Island in Lake Constance, part of the city of Konstanz, is Germany's famous "Flower Island" and one of the top day trips in the south of the country. Its roughly 111 acres (45 hectares) hold rose and dahlia gardens, an arboretum beg…