Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Landmarks
München
The Allianz Arena in Munich is the home of FC Bayern and one of the most recognizable sports venues in the world. Its inflated, diamond-patterned skin glows red on match nights and can be seen for miles across the plains north of the city.…
Zoos
Münster
The Allwetterzoo Münster ("all-weather zoo") is a 30-hectare woodland zoo on the edge of Lake Aasee in Münster, the historic university city in northwestern Germany. Its name comes from covered walkways linking many of the animal houses, s…
Nature
Berchtesgaden
At the foot of the Untersberg, the Almbach stream has been cutting deep into limestone and dolomite since the end of the last Ice Age. In the Almbachklamm between Marktschellenberg and Berchtesgaden you follow a trail of about 3 km with 29…
Landmarks
Hamburg
The Alsterarkaden (Alster Arcades) in Hamburg are a row of white arches along the Kleine Alster canal, a few steps from the Rathausmarkt. The elegant ensemble in Italian style was built after the Great Fire of 1842 and is one of the most p…
Landmarks
Heidelberg
The Old Bridge in Heidelberg (Alte Brücke) is the red sandstone bridge that has defined the city's skyline since the 1780s. It spans the Neckar River between the Old Town and the Neuenheim district, and from its arches you get the classic…
Landmarks
Würzburg
The Old Main Bridge (Alte Mainbrücke) in Würzburg is the city's oldest crossing over the Main River and one of the most photographed spots in Franconia. Twelve Baroque statues of saints line the stone arches, with the old town and cathedra…
Landmarks
Frankfurt am Main
The Alte Oper (Old Opera) on Opernplatz is one of Frankfurt's most photographed buildings and one of Germany's leading concert halls. Its neo-Renaissance facade stands out among the skyscrapers of the banking district. You can see it in tw…
Churches & monasteries
Odenthal
Altenberg Cathedral does not stand in a city but in the middle of the wooded Dhünn valley, a good 20 kilometres north-east of Cologne. That makes the tall Gothic church rising between meadows and monastery buildings all the more surprising…
Castles
Bamberg
It appears on every old view of Bamberg: the round tower of the Altenburg, rising out of the woods west of the city. At about 400 metres above sea level, the castle is Bamberg's highest landmark. At the top you will find curtain walls, a g…
Nature parks
Jork
The Altes Land (Old Land), just south of the Elbe River, is the largest contiguous fruit-growing region in Northern Europe and one of the best day trips from Hamburg. In spring the orchards turn white and pink with blossom, in autumn there…
Museums
Berlin
The Altes Museum (Old Museum) on Berlin's Museum Island is Karl Friedrich Schinkel's neoclassical masterpiece, facing the Lustgarten, and the oldest building on the island. Behind an 87-meter colonnade you will find the Antikensammlung, th…
Castles
Baden-Baden
Hohenbaden Castle, known locally as the Old Castle (Altes Schloss), towers above the spa town of Baden-Baden in Germany's Black Forest. It was the ancestral seat of the Margraves of Baden, the family that gave its name to the whole region.…
Old towns & squares
Amberg
Amberg's old town in the Upper Palatinate lies on the Vils river about 55 km east of Nuremberg and has kept much of its medieval layout. An almost complete ring of walls encloses the market square, churches and the former electors' palace.…
Old towns & squares
Bad Münstereifel
In Bad Münstereifel the River Erft flows right through the old town, lined with walls and crossed by little bridges. Around it stands an almost completely preserved town wall with four gate towers, enclosing half-timbered houses, a Romanes…
Old towns & squares
Bautzen
Bautzen's Old Town sits on a granite bluff above the Spree River in eastern Saxony, crowned by medieval towers, bastions and Baroque townhouses. Often called the "city of towers," it is also the cultural capital of the Sorbs, a Slavic mino…
Old towns & squares
Celle
The old town of Celle is one of Germany's most complete half-timbered townscapes: around the market square, the Stechbahn and Zöllnerstraße, the town counts nearly 500 timber-framed houses with painted facades, carved beams and gilded insc…
Old towns & squares
Düsseldorf
The Altstadt (Old Town) of Düsseldorf is the historic heart of the city and one of Germany's liveliest nightlife districts. Packed into roughly half a square kilometer on the Rhine are churches, museums, a Renaissance town hall and around…
Old towns & squares
Freiburg im Breisgau
The old town of Freiburg im Breisgau is one of the most charming city centers in southern Germany, set at the edge of the Black Forest. Its lanes are crowned by the Gothic Freiburg Minster and laced with the famous Bächle, small water chan…
Old towns & squares
Friedrichstadt
Stepped gables of small bricks, canals with rowing boats, bridges over still water: stroll through Friedrichstadt and you might think you were in North Holland. In fact this small town lies between the Eider and Treene rivers in North Fris…
Old towns & squares
Goslar
The old town of Goslar on the northern edge of the Harz mountains has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1992, together with the Rammelsberg mine and the Upper Harz water management system. More than 1,500 half-timbered houses, slate-…
Old towns & squares
Hameln
On 26 June 1284, so the story goes, a stranger with a pipe walked through Hamelin and led 130 children out of town, never to be seen again. Nobody knows what really happened. What is certain is that the legend of the Pied Piper made this t…
Old towns & squares
Koblenz
Most visitors stand at the Deutsches Eck, look out over the Rhine and Moselle and then ride the cable car up to the fortress. Yet the real Koblenz is just a few steps inland: the Old Town is the city's original core, with three Romanesque…
Old towns & squares
Lüneburg
Lüneburg's old town is one of the finest examples of brick Gothic architecture in northern Germany, a place of stepped gables, leaning facades and cobbled squares built on the wealth of salt. The town hall on the market square, the long sq…
Old towns & squares
Monschau
In Monschau, grey slate roofs and black-and-white half-timbering are packed so tightly into the narrow Rur valley that there is barely room for streets. A castle and the ruin of a second defensive tower look down on the old town, while the…