Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Old towns & squares
Nördlingen
Nördlingen's old town is almost perfectly round and sits in the middle of a meteorite crater: the Nördlinger Ries, formed by an impact around 15 million years ago. A fully preserved town wall encloses its lanes, half-timbered houses and ch…
Old towns & squares
Passau
Passau's Old Town sits on a narrow peninsula where the Danube and Inn rivers meet, with the smaller Ilz joining just opposite, which is why Passau is called the "City of Three Rivers." Pastel Baroque houses, the green-domed St. Stephen's C…
Old towns & squares
Pirna
Pirna's Old Town and Sonnenstein Castle make a rewarding stop on the Elbe River between Dresden and the sandstone cliffs of Saxon Switzerland. The market square still looks much as the painter Canaletto (Bernardo Bellotto) captured it in t…
Old towns & squares
Rostock
Rostock's old town is the historic core of the largest city in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, a Hanseatic port on the Warnow River just inland from the Baltic Sea. Brick Gothic churches, colorful gabled houses, medieval city gates and a li…
Old towns & squares
Schwäbisch Hall
Few old towns in Baden-Württemberg are built as steeply as Schwäbisch Hall. Half-timbered houses climb the slopes of the Kocher valley, lanes turn into staircases, and above the market square St. Michael's Church sits on top of a huge flig…
Old towns & squares
Stralsund
The Old Town of Stralsund is one of the top things to do on Germany's Baltic coast: a medieval Hanseatic port set on an island between the sea and three town ponds, crowned by a spectacular brick Gothic town hall and three giant churches.…
Old towns & squares
Tangermünde
High above the point where the Tanger flows into the Elbe lies a small town that looks almost as it did 400 years ago. Tangermünde has kept its town wall, its Gothic brick gates and a town hall whose display facade is considered a showpiec…
Old towns & squares
Tübingen
The old town of Tübingen is one of the most charming historic centers in southern Germany: colorful half-timbered houses lining the Neckar River, steep cobbled lanes, a painted town hall and a Renaissance castle on the hill above. Only a s…
Old towns & squares
Wismar
The Old Town of Wismar is one of the best things to do on Germany's Baltic coast: a remarkably intact Hanseatic port with a vast market square, towering red-brick Gothic churches and an old harbor where fishing boats still tie up. Together…
Landmarks
Trier
Where grass now grows over the terraces, up to 18,000 people once cheered in Roman Trier. The Trier Amphitheatre at the foot of the Petrisberg hill was built in the second half of the 2nd century AD and staged gladiator fights, animal hunt…
Coast & islands
Wittdün auf Amrum
Amrum is one of the three large North Frisian islands and is famous for the Kniepsand, a sand beach up to 1.5 kilometers wide. Behind the beach rise dunes, heath and pine forest, and inland lie thatched-roof Frisian villages. The island is…
Historic sites & memorials
Perl
The Roman Villa Borg in Perl-Borg is an archaeological open-air museum in the far west of Saarland, just a few miles from Luxembourg and France. On original foundations, archaeologists have fully rebuilt a Roman country estate, or villa ru…
Historic sites & memorials
Kempten (Allgäu)
The Cambodunum Archaeological Park in Kempten preserves the remains of one of the most important Roman towns in what is now southern Germany. On a hill above the Iller River in the Allgäu region, you can walk through a rebuilt Gallo-Roman…
Museums
Nebra (Unstrut)
The Nebra Sky Disc visitor center (Arche Nebra) in Saxony-Anhalt is the best place to understand one of the most important archaeological finds in the world, a Bronze Age bronze disc inlaid with gold astronomical symbols. A striking golden…
Churches & monasteries
München
The Asam Church (St. Johann Nepomuk) on Sendlinger Straße in Munich is one of the most striking Baroque churches in southern Germany. In the heart of the old town, a few minutes from Marienplatz, a narrow facade hides a tiny space packed w…
Caves
Attendorn
The Atta Cave (Atta-Höhle) in Attendorn is one of the largest and most beautiful show caves in Germany, tucked into the wooded Sauerland hills about 80 km east of Cologne. A guided tour of roughly 40 minutes takes you past rust-tinted flow…
Museums
Ingolstadt
The Audi museum mobile in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, tells the story of the four-ring brand inside a striking round glass building at the Audi Forum, next to the company's headquarters and main plant. About 100 cars, motorcycles and bicycles tra…
Churches & monasteries
Augsburg
High up in the south wall of the nave are five stained-glass windows older than almost anything you will see in other churches: the Prophet Windows of Augsburg Cathedral date from the late 11th or early 12th century and are relics of the o…
Museums
Augsburg
For generations of German children, TV time began with a box lid slowly opening. Behind it, Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver, the Urmel or Kater Mikesch danced on strings. The Augsburger Puppenkiste has performed since 1948 in the his…
Landmarks
Augsburg
Augsburg Town Hall (Augsburger Rathaus) is the landmark of one of Germany's oldest cities and one of the finest Renaissance civic buildings north of the Alps. Designed by Elias Holl, the 187-foot building with its twin onion-domed towers a…
Museums
Zwickau
Drive an Audi and you are driving a piece of Zwickau's history. This is where August Horch founded his first car company in 1904, and when he fell out with the supervisory board and was no longer allowed to use his own name, he simply call…
Churches & monasteries
Erfurt
The Protestant Augustinian Monastery (Augustinerkloster) in Erfurt is where Martin Luther lived as a monk from 1505 to 1511. It sits in the old town of Thuringia's capital and combines Luther history, a Gothic church, historic monastery bu…
Museums
Wolfsburg
The Autostadt in Wolfsburg is Volkswagen's combined theme park, car museum and new-car delivery center, set in a 69-acre (28 ha) landscaped park on the Mittelland Canal right next to the company's main factory. You can explore brand pavili…
Churches & monasteries
Bamberg
Bamberg Cathedral (Bamberger Dom) is the crown of Bamberg's UNESCO-listed old town and one of Germany's great imperial cathedrals. Its four towers rise from Cathedral Hill above a sea of red roofs in this beautifully preserved Franconian c…