Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Coast & islands
Sankt Peter-Ording
St. Peter-Ording on the Eiderstedt peninsula in Schleswig-Holstein has one of the most spectacular beaches in Germany: about 12 kilometers long and, at low tide, up to 2 kilometers wide in places. Wooden stilt houses rise from the sand, a…
Churches & monasteries
Bremen
St. Peter's Cathedral in Bremen (St. Petri Dom) is the twin-spired church that towers over the city's Market Square, right beside the UNESCO-listed Town Hall. Its roots go back to the 8th century, and today the Lutheran cathedral combines…
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…
Churches & monasteries
Münster
St. Paul's Cathedral in Münster (St.-Paulus-Dom) is the seat of the Diocese of Münster and, together with the historic town hall, the defining landmark of this university city in Westphalia. Its twin Romanesque towers, Gothic interior and…
Museums
Stuttgart
Bright green window bands, pink and blue tubular handrails and striped sandstone and travertine walls that recall an ancient building: when James Stirling's Neue Staatsgalerie opened in 1984, architects argued fiercely about it. Today it i…
Fortresses
Neubrandenburg
Neubrandenburg calls itself the Town of Four Gates, and with good reason. An almost complete medieval wall still rings the old town, with four brick gates whose ornate gables are among the finest examples of north German Brick Gothic. The…
Lakes
Starnberg
Lake Starnberg (Starnberger See) is Munich's favorite lake, stretching about 12 miles (19.5 km) south from the town of Starnberg toward the Alps, only 15 miles (25 km) from the city. Germany's fifth-largest lake is lined with villas, beach…
Waterfalls
Sonthofen
The Starzlachklamm near Sonthofen is a narrow limestone gorge at the foot of the Grünten mountain in the Allgäu region of southern Bavaria. Secured walkways and bridges lead past waterfalls, swirling potholes and steep rock walls packed wi…
Museums
Berlin
The Stasi Museum in Berlin's Lichtenberg district occupies Building 1 of the former headquarters of East Germany's Ministry for State Security. From here Erich Mielke ran the secret police for more than three decades. Today you can walk th…
Lakes
Wunstorf
Steinhuder Meer is the largest lake in Lower Saxony, about 30 kilometers northwest of Hannover, and a favorite day trip for cyclists, sailors and families. Covering roughly 29 square kilometers but only a few meters deep, it feels like a s…
Churches & monasteries
Waldsassen
The Waldsassen Basilica (Stiftsbasilika Waldsassen) is a lavish Baroque church in the small town of Waldsassen in northeastern Bavaria, just a few miles from the Czech border. Built for a powerful Cistercian monastery, it surprises visitor…
Churches & monasteries
Quedlinburg
St. Servatius Collegiate Church in Quedlinburg sits on a castle hill above one of Germany's best-preserved medieval towns and is among the country's finest Romanesque churches. King Henry I and his wife Mathilde are buried in its crypt, an…
Viewpoints
Stuttgart
The Stuttgart TV Tower (Fernsehturm Stuttgart) is a city landmark and a milestone in engineering history: completed in 1956, it was the world's first TV tower built of reinforced concrete with an observation pod, and it became the model fo…
Coast & islands
Sylt
Sylt is Germany's largest North Sea island and its most famous beach destination, tucked against the Danish border in Schleswig-Holstein. Think nearly 40 kilometers of sandy beach facing the open sea, the glowing Red Cliff at Kampen, shift…
Lakes
Lenggries
The Sylvenstein Reservoir (Sylvensteinspeicher) near Lenggries is a turquoise mountain lake in the Isarwinkel region of Upper Bavaria, framed by the Karwendel range. It lies about 75 kilometers south of Munich on the road between Bad Tölz…
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…
Museums
Mannheim
The Technoseum in Mannheim is Baden-Württemberg's state museum of technology and work, and one of Germany's major science and technology museums. Spread over six levels, it tells the story of industrialization and everyday technology throu…
Lakes
Tegernsee
Lake Tegernsee is one of the most popular Alpine lakes in Upper Bavaria, set in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps about 30 miles (50 km) south of Munich. Five villages ring its shores, including the town of Tegernsee with its former monas…
Historic sites & memorials
Berlin
Teufelsberg in Berlin is one of the capital's most unusual attractions: a hill built from World War II rubble, topped by a former Cold War listening station with huge white radar domes, Europe's largest street art gallery and a panoramic v…
Caves
Pottenstein
The Devil's Cave (Teufelshöhle) near Pottenstein is the largest of roughly 1,000 caves in Franconian Switzerland, a craggy hill region in northern Bavaria about an hour's drive from Nuremberg. A guided tour leads through lofty halls filled…
Churches & monasteries
München
The Theatinerkirche, or Theatine Church of St. Cajetan, on Odeonsplatz in Munich is Bavaria's first Baroque church and one of the best-known landmarks of the old town. Its yellow facade, huge dome and twin towers define the city skyline. A…
Theme parks
Erding
Therme Erding, just northeast of Munich, is widely described as the largest thermal spa in the world – a vast indoor and outdoor complex of thermal pools, a wave pool, water slides and saunas. Only about 9 miles (14 km) from Munich Airport…
Lakes
Cloppenburg
A reservoir in the lowlands sounds like concrete banks, but the Thülsfeld Reservoir in the Oldenburger Münsterland looks more like a Swedish archipelago: branching bays, sandy beaches, pine woods, bog and one of the largest heathlands in L…
Zoos
Nürnberg
At Nuremberg Zoo you spend most of the day walking through a forest. The zoo sits on the Schmausenbuck hill in the east of the city, inside the Lorenzer Reichswald, and uses old sandstone quarries, ponds and slopes as backdrops for the ani…