Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Theme parks
Meckenbeuren
Ravensburger Spieleland in Meckenbeuren, between Ravensburg and Friedrichshafen near Lake Constance, is a theme park built around the games and characters of the famous German puzzle and board game maker Ravensburger. It is aimed squarely…
Landmarks
Hamburg
The Reeperbahn in Hamburg's St. Pauli district is Germany's most famous nightlife street: about 930 meters of clubs, bars, theaters, musicals and neon, with a red-light history that earned it the nickname "the most sinful mile in the world…
Churches & monasteries
Regensburg
Regensburg Cathedral (Dom St. Peter) is the finest Gothic church in Bavaria and the centerpiece of Regensburg's UNESCO-listed Old Town on the Danube. Its twin spires rise 105 m above the medieval rooftops, and inside you will find one of t…
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
Eisenach
The Rennsteig is Germany's oldest and most-walked ridge trail. Roughly 170 km (105 miles) long, it runs from Hörschel near Eisenach, on the Werra river, along the crest of the Thuringian Forest and the Thuringian Slate Mountains to Blanken…
Castles
Altenburg
Emperor Frederick Barbarossa stayed six times between 1165 and 1185 on a porphyry rock above the town of Altenburg, and in 1455 two Saxon princes were kidnapped from here. Today Altenburg Castle shows princely living quarters, a Baroque ba…
Palaces
Bad Mergentheim
In the middle of the spa town of Bad Mergentheim on the river Tauber stands a palace from which one of Europe's most powerful religious orders was governed for almost 300 years. From 1527 to 1809, Mergentheim Residential Palace was the hea…
Palaces
Rastatt
Rastatt Palace (Residenzschloss Rastatt) is the oldest Baroque residence on the Upper Rhine, built in the style of Versailles for the Margraves of Baden-Baden. Its pink facade and huge forecourt make a good stop for anyone looking for thin…
Gardens & parks
Köln
Rheinpark is the large park on the east bank of the Rhine in Cologne's Deutz district, and it offers some of the best views of the cathedral and old town. Lawns, flower gardens with waterfalls, an open-air stage and the cable car station s…
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…
Viewpoints
Düsseldorf
The Rheinturm in Düsseldorf is the city's tallest structure at 240.5 m (789 ft) and its best-known landmark. This telecommunications tower rises right on the Rhine between the state parliament and the MedienHafen, and its observation deck…
Museums
Hamburg
The Rickmer Rickmers is a green three-masted sailing ship from 1896 that now serves as a museum ship at the St. Pauli Landungsbrücken in Hamburg. It is one of the best things to do in Hamburg's harbor: you can go aboard, explore an exhibit…
Historic sites & memorials
Bad Homburg vor der Höhe
The Saalburg Roman Fort near Bad Homburg, just north of Frankfurt, is the only Roman fort on the Limes frontier that has been almost completely rebuilt. Walls, gates, and buildings of a 2nd-century army camp stand again on the forested Tau…
Museums
Homburg
The Schwarzenacker Roman Museum in Homburg is an open-air archaeological museum in Saarland where you walk through the excavated remains of a Gallo-Roman village. Reconstructed houses, columns and a Baroque garden bring the everyday life o…
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…
Museums
Köln
The Romano-Germanic Museum in Cologne (Römisch-Germanisches Museum) tells the story of how a Roman colony on the Rhine became one of Germany's great cities, with a world-class collection of Roman glass, sculpture and everyday objects. Befo…
Gardens & parks
Feldafing
Rose Island (Roseninsel) is the only island in Lake Starnberg, a short boat ride from the shore at Feldafing, about 30 km (19 miles) southwest of Munich. King Maximilian II of Bavaria turned it into a romantic retreat with a rose garden an…
Coast & islands
Kampen (Sylt)
The Red Cliff (Rotes Kliff) near Kampen on the island of Sylt is the most striking cliff on Germany's North Sea coast and one of the island's best-known photo spots. Along roughly four kilometers between Kampen and Wenningstedt, rust-red g…
Theme parks
Rust
Outside lie the fields of the Upper Rhine plain; inside is an island in the North Atlantic, home to trolls, mermaids and a blue octopus in a horned helmet. Rulantica is the water park of Europa-Park in Rust, its name a blend of Rust and At…
Lakes
Heimbach
Green slopes, bays, sailing boats and a dam holding back the water at a height of 77.4 metres: the Rursee, officially the Rurstausee, holds 203 million cubic metres and is the second-largest reservoir in Germany after the Bleiloch reservoi…
Caves
Saalfeld/Saale
The Saalfeld Fairy Grottoes (Saalfelder Feengrotten) in Saalfeld, Thuringia, are a former alum slate mine that has been open to visitors since 1914 and holds the Guinness World Records title of the world's most colorful show grottoes. Unde…
Zoos
Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken Zoo sits on the southern slope of the Eschberg hill and is the most visited zoo in Saarland. More than 1,000 animals live across its hilly grounds, including gorillas, giraffes, Humboldt penguins, meerkats and cheetahs. It make…
Viewpoints
Ensdorf
The Saar Polygon (Saarpolygon) in Ensdorf is a walk-up steel landmark on a former coal spoil heap and the best-known monument to the end of hard coal mining in Saarland. Depending on where you stand it looks like a gate, a triangle or a cr…
Industrial heritage
Berchtesgaden
The Berchtesgaden Salt Mine (Salzbergwerk Berchtesgaden) is Germany's oldest working salt mine and one of the top things to do in the Berchtesgaden Alps, close to the Austrian border near Salzburg. Miners have extracted salt here continuou…