Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
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…
Gardens & parks
Weimar
Park an der Ilm in Weimar is the landscape park that Johann Wolfgang von Goethe helped design, and one of the loveliest places to experience Germany's classical age. Stretching for about 120 acres (48 ha) along the Ilm River right next to…
Landmarks
Dresden
Pfunds Molkerei (Pfund's Dairy) in Dresden's Neustadt district has been called the most beautiful dairy shop in the world. The small sales room on Bautzner Straße is covered from floor to ceiling in hand-painted Villeroy & Boch tiles, maki…
Viewpoints
Heidelberg
The Philosophers' Walk in Heidelberg (Philosophenweg) is a hillside path on the north bank of the Neckar that offers the most famous view of the city. From the slopes of the Heiligenberg, you look straight across the river at the Old Bridg…
Waterfalls
Breitnau
The Ravenna Gorge (Ravennaschlucht) near Breitnau in the southern Black Forest is one of the region's most beautiful short hikes, framed by a soaring stone railroad viaduct at its entrance. Wooden walkways and stairs lead you past rushing…
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…
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…
Palaces
Raesfeld
Raesfeld Castle (Schloss Raesfeld) in the Münsterland region is a Renaissance moated castle with the tallest tower of any castle in Westphalia. It sits between moats and parkland, and an old deer park invites long walks. You can admire the…
Old towns & squares
Stuttgart
Schlossplatz in Stuttgart (Palace Square) is the city's grand central square and the best place to start exploring the capital of Baden-Württemberg. Framed by the baroque New Palace, the colonnaded Königsbau, the Old Castle and the glass c…
Lakes
Schluchsee
Lake Schluchsee in the southern Black Forest is the largest lake in the Black Forest and the second-largest body of water in the state of Baden-Württemberg after Lake Constance. Set at about 3,050 feet (930 m) between the Feldberg and the…
Old towns & squares
Bremen
The Schnoor in Bremen is the oldest surviving residential quarter of this Hanseatic city, a tangle of cobbled lanes and tiny gabled houses squeezed between the cathedral and the Weser River. It is one of the top things to do in Bremen and…
Churches & monasteries
Nürnberg
St. Lorenz in Nuremberg (St. Lawrence's Church) is the great Gothic church of the southern Old Town and one of the finest medieval churches in southern Germany. Its twin towers and huge rose window dominate the pedestrian zone, and inside…
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
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…
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…
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…
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…
Museums
Berlin
The Tränenpalast ("Palace of Tears") next to Friedrichstraße station in central Berlin was the departure hall of East Berlin's busiest border crossing during the Cold War. East Germans said goodbye here to relatives from the West, never su…
Waterfalls
Bad Urach
The Uracher Wasserfall (Urach Waterfall) near Bad Urach is one of the best-known waterfalls in the Swabian Jura, the limestone upland south of Stuttgart. In the quiet Maisental valley, the Brühlbach stream drops over a mossy ledge of calca…
Industrial heritage
Kochel am See
The Walchensee Hydroelectric Power Station in Kochel am See is one of Germany's great industrial landmarks and still produces electricity a century after it opened. Six enormous steel pipes carry water from Lake Walchensee down roughly 200…
Coast & islands
Rostock
Warnemünde is the seaside resort of the Hanseatic city of Rostock and one of the most popular beach towns on Germany's Baltic coast. It combines one of the widest sandy beaches in the country with a historic lighthouse, a striking 1960s se…
Gardens & parks
Oranienbaum-Wörlitz
Wörlitz Park (Wörlitzer Park) in Saxony-Anhalt is one of the first English-style landscape gardens on the European continent and the centerpiece of the Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000. Lakes, canal…
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…
Churches & monasteries
Würzburg
Würzburg Cathedral (Dom St. Kilian) in Würzburg, Bavaria, is one of the largest Romanesque churches in Germany and the seat of the city's bishops. Behind its four austere towers lies a surprising interior that blends white Baroque stucco w…