Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Lakes
Kochel am See
Lake Kochel (Kochelsee) is a clear Alpine foothill lake in Upper Bavaria with views of the Herzogstand, Heimgarten and Jochberg mountains. It lies about 70 kilometers south of Munich and works as an easy day trip: you can swim, walk the sh…
Industrial heritage
Köln
The Cologne Cable Car (Kölner Seilbahn) has been carrying passengers across the Rhine in small four-seat gondolas since 1957, linking a station next to Cologne Zoo with the Rheinpark on the opposite bank. The six-minute ride is one of the…
Museums
Köln
Kolumba is the art museum of the Archdiocese of Cologne, built by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor on top of the ruins of a late Gothic church in the heart of Cologne's old town. If you are visiting Cologne and want something quieter than the…
Landmarks
Düsseldorf
The Königsallee in Düsseldorf, known locally as the "Kö," is Germany's most famous luxury shopping boulevard and one of the most elegant city streets in the country. A tree-lined canal runs down the middle, framed by stone bridges and foun…
Palaces
Garmisch-Partenkirchen
After hours of climbing in the Wetterstein mountains, the King's House on the Schachen first looks like a modest timber chalet with shutters and fretwork balconies. Only upstairs do you see why King Ludwig II built up here: the Turkish Hal…
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…
Viewpoints
Heidelberg
The Königstuhl in Heidelberg is the city's local mountain, rising 567.8 m (1,863 ft) directly behind Heidelberg Castle. A historic funicular climbs to the summit, where you'll find sweeping views over the Old Town, the Neckar Valley and th…
Churches & monasteries
Konstanz
Konstanz Minster (Konstanzer Münster) in Konstanz on Lake Constance served for more than a thousand years as the cathedral of one of the largest dioceses in the German-speaking world. Today, the Basilica of Our Lady is the landmark of the…
Museums
Bremen
The Kunsthalle Bremen is the city's leading art museum, set on the green ramparts park at the edge of Bremen's Old Town. Its collection spans six centuries, from Old Masters to French Impressionism, the pioneering painter Paula Modersohn-B…
Museums
Düsseldorf
The Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf is one of Germany's leading museums of 20th- and 21st-century art, spread across two buildings: K20 on Grabbeplatz in the Old Town, home to modern classics from Paul Klee to Jackson Pollo…
Other
Berlin
It all began as a bridle path. Around 1542 Elector Joachim II had a causeway laid across marshy ground so he could ride more comfortably from the Berlin City Palace to his Grunewald hunting lodge. That "Elector's causeway" became the Kurfü…
Landmarks
Baden-Baden
The Kurhaus of Baden-Baden is the grand neoclassical centerpiece of Germany's most famous spa town, on the edge of the Black Forest. Behind its white columned facade lies the legendary Casino Baden-Baden, which Marlene Dietrich called the…
Landmarks
Wiesbaden
The Kurhaus Wiesbaden is the grand spa house of Wiesbaden, the capital of Hesse, about 40 km west of Frankfurt. Opened in 1907 by Emperor Wilhelm II, the neoclassical building with its columned portico and the Latin inscription "Aquis Matt…
Monuments
Kyffhäuserland
The Kyffhäuser Monument (Kyffhäuserdenkmal) in northern Thuringia is one of Germany's largest national monuments, an 81-meter (266-foot) sandstone tower on a forested ridge above the Golden Meadow plain. It links the medieval legend of Emp…
Historic sites & memorials
Flossenbürg
The Flossenbürg Concentration Camp Memorial (KZ-Gedenkstätte Flossenbürg) in eastern Bavaria preserves the site of one of the major Nazi concentration camps, close to the Czech border roughly halfway between Nuremberg and Prague. Around 10…
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…
Museums
Halle (Saale)
A bronze disc with gold inlays, around 3,600 years old: the Nebra sky disc shows the oldest known concrete depiction of astronomical phenomena. The original is kept in Halle, at the State Museum of Prehistory. Around the disc, the museum t…
Industrial heritage
Duisburg
Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord is a former steelworks in Duisburg that has been transformed into a public park, one of the most striking examples of industrial heritage in Europe. Across some 445 acres (180 ha), rusting blast furnaces stand…
Coast & islands
Helgoland
The Lange Anna ("Long Anna") is a free-standing sea stack of red sandstone off the northwest tip of Helgoland, Germany's only high-sea island, and the island's best-known landmark. At roughly 47 meters tall, it is one of the most photograp…
Landmarks
Leipzig
Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (Central Station) is the largest terminal station in Europe by covered floor area and one of Germany's most impressive railway buildings. A sandstone facade 298 meters wide, soaring halls and a three-level shopping mal…
Industrial heritage
Leipzig
The Leipzig Cotton Mill (Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei) in the Plagwitz district is an industrial monument that now thrives as an art district. On about ten hectares of red-brick halls, artists work in studios while galleries and workshops o…
Castles
Kahla
Perched on a hilltop 395 metres above sea level, Leuchtenburg dominates the Saale valley so strikingly that it is known as the "Queen of the Saale Valley". Its history is anything but regal: over 800 years it has been a seat of power, a pr…
Landmarks
Insel Hiddensee
The Dornbusch Lighthouse is the landmark of Hiddensee, a car-free Baltic Sea island just west of Rügen in northeastern Germany. White with a red lantern, it crowns the hilly north of the island above the village of Kloster. Climb its 102 s…
Industrial heritage
Westerhever
The Westerheversand Lighthouse near the village of Westerhever is the icon of the Eiderstedt peninsula on Germany's North Sea coast and one of the country's most photographed lighthouses. Its red-and-white striped tower rises from a man-ma…