Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
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…
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…
Nature
Andernach
First it bubbles, then it hisses, and suddenly a white column of water stands above the trees on the riverbank. The Andernach Geyser on the Namedyer Werth peninsula shoots its water 50 to 60 m into the air, making it the highest cold-water…
Museums
Mainz
The Gutenberg Museum in Mainz is one of the oldest printing museums in the world, dedicated to Johannes Gutenberg, the Mainz-born inventor of printing with movable metal type. While a new museum is being built on its historic site, the col…
Castles
Neustadt an der Weinstraße
Hambach Castle (Hambacher Schloss) near Neustadt an der Weinstraße is called the cradle of German democracy. In May 1832 about 25,000 people gathered here for the Hambach Festival, calling for freedom, a free press and German unity under b…
Viewpoints
Mörsdorf
The Geierlay suspension bridge near Mörsdorf in the Hunsrück hills of Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the longest rope suspension bridges in Germany and one of the region's most popular outdoor attractions. Stretching 360 meters (about 1,18…
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…
Churches & monasteries
Trier
Trier Cathedral (Trierer Dom) in Trier is considered the oldest cathedral in Germany and one of the most remarkable churches in Europe. Its fortress-like Romanesque walls hide masonry from the age of Emperor Constantine, and its story span…
Historic sites & memorials
Trier
The Trier Imperial Baths (Kaiserthermen) are among the most impressive Roman ruins north of the Alps. Begun around 300 AD as a monumental bathhouse for the imperial residence of Trier, they were never finished as baths and later became bar…
Churches & monasteries
Bernkastel-Kues
Deep in the forest, in the secluded Salm valley between Wittlich and the Volcanic Eifel, a tall Baroque church front suddenly appears among the trees. Himmerod Abbey was founded in 1134 by Bernard of Clairvaux, the most famous Cistercian o…
Lakes
Glees
Lake Laach (Laacher See) in the Eifel is a round, deep-blue crater lake ringed by forested slopes, right beside Maria Laach Abbey. It is the only water-filled caldera in Central Europe and a popular spot for walking, volcano geology and a…
Churches & monasteries
Mainz
Mainz Cathedral (Mainzer Dom, officially the Hoher Dom St. Martin) is the landmark of Mainz, the Rhineland-Palatinate capital on the Rhine River. Together with the cathedrals of Speyer and Worms, it is one of the three great Romanesque "im…
Museums
Koblenz
It all began with a priest who loved paintings: Joseph Gregor Lang collected over 200 pictures in his small parsonage in Neuendorf and left them to his home town in 1834. They became the Mittelrhein Museum, one of Germany's oldest civic mu…
National parks
Hilscheid
Hunsrück-Hochwald National Park in southwestern Germany, spanning the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland between Trier and Idar-Oberstein, is one of the country's newest national parks. Its quiet beech and spruce forests, hillside…
Theme parks
Haßloch
Plopsaland Deutschland in Haßloch, known as Holiday Park until June 2025, is a theme park in the Palatinate region of southwest Germany, a short drive from Mannheim and about an hour from Frankfurt Airport. Its roughly 40 hectares (100 acr…
Castles
Annweiler am Trifels
Trifels Castle (Reichsburg Trifels) near Annweiler am Trifels is one of the most storied castles in southwestern Germany. Perched on a sandstone summit in the Palatinate Forest, it served the Salian and Hohenstaufen emperors as a stronghol…
Nature parks
Bonn
The Rheinsteig is a roughly 320 km (200 mile) long-distance hiking trail on the right bank of the Rhine, running from Bonn to Wiesbaden. It links the Siebengebirge hills, the Upper Middle Rhine Valley and the Rheingau wine region, and it i…
Landmarks
Mainz
They rise from the meadow like weathered teeth: in the Zahlbach valley in south-west Mainz stands a long row of grey stone piers. Locals simply call them the Römersteine, the Roman stones. They are the remains of an aqueduct that brought w…
Palaces
Sankt Johann
Bürresheim Castle (Schloss Bürresheim) near Mayen in the Eifel region looks like a storybook illustration, with pointed turrets, half-timbered upper floors and a formal baroque garden. Built on a rocky spur above the Nette valley, it was n…
Palaces
Koblenz
Stolzenfels Castle (Schloss Stolzenfels) near Koblenz is a neo-Gothic palace high above the Rhine and a key example of Prussian Rhine Romanticism. It belongs to the UNESCO World Heritage site Upper Middle Rhine Valley and faces the mouth o…
Palaces
Edenkoben
Villa Ludwigshöhe near Edenkoben is the summer palace King Ludwig I of Bavaria built on the edge of the Palatinate Forest. Set above the vineyards of the German Wine Route, this neoclassical villa in Italian style offers sweeping views ove…
Churches & monasteries
Mainz
When the sun shines through the east choir, it bathes St Stephen's in deep blue: the stained-glass windows by Marc Chagall make the church on Stephansberg hill one of the most unusual church interiors in Germany. Chagall, a Jewish painter…
Museums
Speyer
Technik Museum Speyer is one of Germany's best places to get up close to giant aircraft and spacecraft. On the site of a historic airfield in the cathedral city of Speyer, you can walk through a Lufthansa Boeing 747, step out onto its wing…
Churches & monasteries
Worms
Worms Cathedral (Wormser Dom St. Peter) is the landmark of Worms, one of Germany's oldest cities, on the Rhine River in Rhineland-Palatinate. The smallest and most slender of the three Romanesque imperial cathedrals of the Rhineland, it ri…