Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
National parks
Berchtesgaden
Berchtesgaden National Park in the far southeast corner of Bavaria is Germany's only Alpine national park. Stretching from the emerald Königssee lake to the 8,900-foot summit of the Watzmann, it packs fjord-like scenery, high pastures, lim…
National parks
Schleiden
Eifel National Park near Schleiden in western Germany is North Rhine-Westphalia's only national park and an easy nature escape from Cologne, Bonn and Aachen. Its beech forests, winding reservoirs and open uplands sit close to the Belgian b…
National parks
Unstrut-Hainich
Hainich National Park in Thuringia, between Eisenach, Mühlhausen and Bad Langensalza, protects one of the largest unmanaged deciduous forests in Germany and is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its star attraction is the treetop walkwa…
National parks
Wernigerode
Harz National Park in central Germany, between Wernigerode, Bad Harzburg and the Brocken summit, is one of the country's largest forest national parks and the best place to experience real mountain wilderness in the north. Steam trains puf…
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…
National parks
Vöhl
Kellerwald-Edersee National Park in northern Hesse protects one of the last large old-growth beech forests in Central Europe, rising straight from the shores of the Edersee reservoir. Its steep slopes, gnarled oaks and quiet trails earned…
National parks
Wilhelmshaven
Lower Saxony Wadden Sea National Park stretches along Germany's North Sea coast from the Dutch border to Cuxhaven, taking in all seven East Frisian Islands. Its main UNESCO visitor center is in Wilhelmshaven, about an hour and a quarter fr…
National parks
Baiersbronn
Black Forest National Park at Ruhestein, on the scenic Black Forest High Road between Baden-Baden and Freudenstadt, is the first national park in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. Here the dark fir and spruce forests of the northern B…
National parks
Schwedt/Oder
Lower Oder Valley National Park near Schwedt in Brandenburg, about 1.5 hours northeast of Berlin by public transportation, is Germany's only river floodplain national park. Every winter the Oder River is allowed to flood the valley, turnin…
National parks
Zingst
Western Pomerania Lagoon Area National Park, on Germany's Baltic Sea coast around Zingst, the Darss peninsula, Hiddensee island and western Rügen, is the largest national park in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. It is famous for wind-sculpte…
Museums
Bamberg
Step into the Bird Hall and you are in a room that has barely changed in 200 years: white and blue cabinets on two levels, a gallery all round and more than a thousand colourful mounted birds. Bamberg's Natural History Museum in the island…
Churches & monasteries
Naumburg (Saale)
Naumburg Cathedral (Naumburger Dom) in the small town of Naumburg an der Saale is one of the great medieval churches of Europe and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2018. It is famous for twelve life-size statues of its founders…
Museums
Mettmann
In August 1856 two workers in a limestone quarry east of Düsseldorf were clearing out a small cave and tossed a few bones down the slope with the clay. Those bones gave a whole human species its name. The Neanderthal Museum stands just a f…
Caves
Sonnenbühl
The Nebelhöhle ("Fog Cave") near Sonnenbühl is one of the best-known show caves of the Swabian Jura (Schwäbische Alb) in southwestern Germany, just a few kilometers from fairy-tale Lichtenstein Castle. You descend 141 steps about 25 meters…
Mountains & peaks
Oberstdorf
The Nebelhorn is the signature mountain of Oberstdorf, the southernmost market town in Germany in the Allgäu Alps of Bavaria. A modern cable car lifts you from the edge of town to the 7,297-foot (2,224 m) summit, where on clear days you ca…
Museums
Berlin
A black steel roof, 64.8 metres square and weighing 1,260 tonnes, rests on just eight columns above a hall made entirely of glass. The Neue Nationalgalerie at the Kulturforum is the last work of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and the only buildi…
Museums
Berlin
The Neues Museum on Berlin's Museum Island is home to the world-famous bust of Nefertiti. It also houses the Museum of Prehistory and Early History, with the golden Berlin Gold Hat and Heinrich Schliemann's finds from Troy. Just as memorab…
Palaces
Potsdam
The New Palace (Neues Palais) in Potsdam is the largest palace in Sanssouci Park and one of the last great Baroque palaces built in Prussia. Frederick the Great commissioned it right after the Seven Years' War to prove his kingdom was anyt…
Landmarks
Hannover
Hanover's New Town Hall (Neues Rathaus) looks more like a palace than an office building: a grand early 20th-century structure crowned by a green copper dome and reflected in a park pond. Inside you'll find a soaring main hall with four ci…
Museums
Lübeck
Thomas Mann in marzipan, life-size: the Niederegger Marzipan Museum shows twelve famous figures modelled in almond paste, all of them fans of Lübeck marzipan. The small museum is on the second floor of Niederegger's flagship house on Breit…
Coast & islands
Norderney
When the first sea-bathing establishment on any East Frisian island opened on Norderney on 3 October 1797, the island was a poor fishing village. Two centuries later it is the best-known bathing island on the North Sea: white resort archit…
Historic sites & memorials
Schleiden
From the Urft dam the ridge above the water looks almost peaceful, until you notice the massive tower and the long rows of buildings. Here, in what is now Eifel National Park, the Nazi Party began building a training castle for its future…
Landmarks
Berlin
The Oberbaum Bridge in Berlin is a red-brick landmark spanning the River Spree between the districts of Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain. Built in the 1890s in a neo-Gothic style, it carries an elevated U-Bahn line, a road, and walkways, and f…
Landmarks
Berlin
The Berlin Olympic Stadium (Olympiastadion) is one of the most historic sports venues in the world. Built for the 1936 Olympics, it has since hosted the 2006 World Cup final, the 2015 Champions League final and the Euro 2024 final. On non-…