Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Mountains & peaks
Wernigerode
The Brocken is the highest mountain in northern Germany at 1,141 meters (3,743 feet) and the best-known peak of the Harz Mountains in Saxony-Anhalt. Most visitors ride a historic steam train to the summit, where wild granite moorland, swee…
National parks
Neuschönau
Bavarian Forest National Park is Germany's oldest national park and one of the wildest woodlands in Central Europe. Stretching along the Czech border in eastern Bavaria, it protects mountain forests around the peaks of Rachel, Lusen and Fa…
Mountains & peaks
Feldberg (Schwarzwald)
The Feldberg is the highest mountain in Germany's Black Forest and in the state of Baden-Württemberg, rising to about 1,494 meters (4,902 feet). Its bald, grassy summit offers views that on clear days stretch from the Vosges in France to t…
Lakes
Titisee-Neustadt
Lake Titisee in Germany's Black Forest is one of the country's most famous lakes and a favorite day trip from Freiburg. Carved by an Ice Age glacier and surrounded by dark fir forests at about 845 meters (2,770 feet) above sea level, it of…
Landmarks
Erfurt
The Krämerbrücke (Merchants' Bridge) in Erfurt is a medieval stone bridge lined on both sides with half-timbered houses, still lived in and filled with small shops. Erfurt bills it as the longest continuously built-up and inhabited bridge…
National parks
Tönning
The Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park is Germany's largest national park by far, covering about 4,400 square kilometers (1,700 square miles) of tidal flats, salt marshes and sandbanks along the North Sea coast. Part of the Wadden…
Coast & islands
Helgoland
Heligoland (Helgoland) is Germany's only offshore island in the open North Sea, a tiny outcrop of red sandstone about 48 km (30 miles) from the mainland. Visitors come for the dramatic cliffs and the 47-meter Lange Anna sea stack, nesting…
Monuments
Rüdesheim am Rhein
The Niederwald Monument above Rüdesheim am Rhein is one of Germany's best-known national monuments, crowned by a giant bronze Germania gazing out over the vineyards of the Rheingau. Built to celebrate the founding of the German Empire afte…
Old towns & squares
Frankfurt am Main
The Römerberg in Frankfurt is the city's historic town hall square and the most photographed spot in Germany's banking capital. Framed by the stepped gables of the Römer, Frankfurt's city hall since 1405, and a row of colorful half-timbere…
Viewpoints
Mettlach
The Saarschleife near Mettlach is the symbol of Saarland, Germany's smallest non-city state, and one of the most dramatic river views in the country. Here the Saar River doubles back on itself in a near-perfect hairpin bend through a deep,…
Old towns & squares
Berlin
Gendarmenmarkt in Berlin is widely considered the most beautiful square in the German capital. Framed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel's Konzerthaus and two near-identical domed churches, the French and the German Cathedral, it feels more like a…
Landmarks
Berlin
Potsdamer Platz in Berlin tells the story of the 20th century in a single square. In the 1920s it was one of the busiest traffic hubs in Europe; after World War II it became a no-man's-land cut in two by the Berlin Wall; and since the 1990…
Museums
Berlin
The Jewish Museum Berlin in the Kreuzberg district is one of the most visited museums in the German capital and among the largest Jewish museums in Europe. It traces Jewish life in Germany from medieval communities to the present day, insi…
Churches & monasteries
Berlin
The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church (Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche) on Breitscheidplatz in western Berlin is one of the city's most powerful landmarks: the bomb-damaged tower of a 19th-century church, flanked by a modern church whose wall…
Historic sites & memorials
Berlin
The Topography of Terror in Berlin is a free documentation center on the exact site where Nazi Germany ran its machinery of persecution. From 1933 to 1945 this block housed the headquarters of the Gestapo, the SS leadership, and the Reich…
Gardens & parks
Berlin
Tempelhofer Feld in Berlin is the former airfield of Tempelhof Airport, now one of the largest inner-city open spaces in the world. Locals come here to skate and cycle down old runways, fly kites, barbecue, and watch the sunset over more t…
Churches & monasteries
München
The Frauenkirche in Munich, officially the Cathedral of Our Dear Lady, is the city's best-known landmark and one of the first things to see on any visit to the Bavarian capital. Its twin brick towers with their rounded green caps have defi…
Gardens & parks
Kassel
Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe in Kassel is Europe's largest hillside park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2013. A giant copper Hercules statue crowns the hilltop, and below it a chain of cascades, waterfalls and a fountain more than 50 mete…
Historic sites & memorials
Weimar
The Buchenwald Memorial (Gedenkstätte Buchenwald) on the Ettersberg hill above Weimar preserves the site of one of the largest Nazi concentration camps on German soil. Between 1937 and 1945, about 277,800 people from some 50 countries were…
Landmarks
München
The Hofbräuhaus am Platzl in Munich is probably the most famous beer hall in the world and a must on many first trips to Bavaria. In the heart of the Old Town, a few minutes' walk from Marienplatz, locals, regulars' clubs and visitors from…
Historic sites & memorials
Dachau
The Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site (KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau), just northwest of Munich, preserves the grounds of the first long-running concentration camp set up by the Nazis. Between 1933 and 1945, more than 160,000 people were im…
Landmarks
Hamburg
The St. Pauli Piers (Landungsbrücken) in Hamburg are the city's floating harbor terminal and one of the top things to do in Hamburg. Behind a long stone hall crowned with green copper domes, ferries, harbor cruise boats and launches come a…
Industrial heritage
Hamburg
The Old Elbe Tunnel (Alter Elbtunnel, officially St. Pauli Elbtunnel) in Hamburg has carried people beneath the Elbe River since 1911. You ride vintage elevators down a domed shaft, walk through two tiled tubes about 24 meters (80 feet) be…
Gardens & parks
Hamburg
Planten un Blomen is Hamburg's central city park, a free green space of about 47 hectares (116 acres) stretching from Dammtor station past the trade fair grounds to St. Pauli. The Low German name simply means "plants and flowers." With a J…