Thuringia is small but packed: Erfurt, Weimar, Gotha and Eisenach line up like beads on a string along the rail line across the state. Add Wartburg Castle, a UNESCO World Heritage Site; Classical Weimar, the town of Goethe and Schiller; the Buchenwald Memorial on the Ettersberg; and, in the south, the colorful dripstones of the Saalfeld Fairy Grottoes.
On this page you'll find our top sights in Thuringia, a weekend itinerary through Erfurt, Weimar and Eisenach, tips on getting there, and below that every Thuringian sight in the tripto.de catalog. Hours and prices are listed on each place's page – check with the operator before you go. Important: Goethe's House in Weimar closes on November 2, 2026, for about three years of renovation.
Our picks for a first visit — each with a short reason why.
Castles
Eisenach
Wartburg Castle above the town of Eisenach in Thuringia is one of the most historic castles in Germany and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999. Martin Luther hid here and translated the New Testament into German, Saint Elizabeth of Hun…
1. A World Heritage castle above Eisenach with Luther's study, the palace with St. Elisabeth's mosaics and the Festival Hall. Go before 2027, when the hall and palace roof will be under renovation.
Landmarks
Erfurt
The Krämerbrücke (Merchants' Bridge) in Erfurt is a medieval stone bridge lined on both sides with half-timbered houses, still lived in and filled with small shops. Erfurt bills it as the longest continuously built-up and inhabited bridge…
2. Europe's longest bridge lined with inhabited buildings – 32 half-timbered houses. From the tower of St. Giles' Church you look down on the bridge roofs.
Churches & monasteries
Erfurt
Erfurt Cathedral (Erfurter Dom, St. Mary's Cathedral) and the neighboring Church of St. Severus rise side by side above Erfurt's vast Domplatz square, forming one of Germany's most striking city skylines. A broad flight of 70 steps leads u…
3. Climb 70 steps to the cathedral and St. Severus: stained-glass windows up to 18.6 meters tall, choir stalls from 1329 and the Gloriosa bell.
Museums
Weimar
The Duchess Anna Amalia Library in Weimar is home to one of the most beautiful library halls in the world: the oval, three-story Rococo Hall, lined with books, portraits, and marble busts. Goethe ran the library for more than three decades…
4. The oval Rococo Hall with about 40,000 books, reopened after the 2004 fire. Timed tickets only – book early; closed November 3–6, 2026.
Historic sites & memorials
Weimar
The Buchenwald Memorial (Gedenkstätte Buchenwald) on the Ettersberg hill above Weimar preserves the site of one of the largest Nazi concentration camps on German soil. Between 1937 and 1945, about 277,800 people from some 50 countries were…
5. The memorial at the site of one of the largest concentration camps on German soil. Free admission; allow at least three hours. Exhibitions closed Mondays.
Palaces
Gotha
Friedenstein Palace (Schloss Friedenstein) in Gotha, Thuringia, is described by its foundation as the largest palace built in 17th-century Germany. Set on a hill above the town and never destroyed, the early Baroque complex holds lavish du…
6. Germany's largest 17th-century palace, with a cabinet of curiosities and the Ekhof Theater's working wooden stage machinery. Kids up to 12 get in free.
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…
7. A former alum slate mine with colorful dripstones and the Fairy Cathedral grotto. It's 8 to 10°C underground all year, so bring a jacket.
Monuments
Kyffhäuserland
The Kyffhäuser Monument (Kyffhäuserdenkmal) in northern Thuringia is one of Germany's largest national monuments, an 81-meter (266-foot) sandstone tower on a forested ridge above the Golden Meadow plain. It links the medieval legend of Emp…
8. An 81-meter national monument with a stone Barbarossa and an equestrian statue of Wilhelm I. Climb 247 steps to the dome – on clear days you can see the Brocken.
Climb the 70 cathedral steps to the cathedral and St. Severus. It opens at 10 a.m. Monday to Saturday; the guided tour for individual visitors starts daily at 2 p.m.
Places: Erfurt Cathedral
Walk through the old town to the Krämerbrücke, browse the shops and look at the arches from the banks of the Gera.
Places: Merchants' Bridge (Krämerbrücke)
Take the train to Weimar, about 25 kilometers away, for the Rococo Hall of the Duchess Anna Amalia Library – book your time slot online in advance.
Places: Duchess Anna Amalia Library
The free park with Goethe's Garden House starts right behind the library. Through November 1, 2026, it's worth stopping at Goethe's House on Frauenplan.
Places: Goethe House (Weimar)
Cathedral Hill in the morning, then the bridge and the tower of St. Giles' Church (Tuesday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.).
Allow 30 to 45 minutes for the hall, or about an hour and a half with the Cranach exhibition.
Places: Duchess Anna Amalia Library
Bus line 6 from Weimar Hauptbahnhof reaches the Ettersberg in about 20 minutes. Reserve a free timed ticket for the main exhibition.
Places: Buchenwald Memorial
From the station it's about a 20-minute walk up through the palace park. Allow two to three hours for the palace and the Ekhof Theater.
Places: Friedenstein Palace
Continue by train to Eisenach and take the city bus to the castle. The interior tour takes about 90 minutes; in winter, tickets are sold until 3 p.m.
Places: Wartburg Castle
By train: Erfurt is an ICE hub with fast connections from Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt and Leipzig, usually without changing trains. Weimar is on the ICE line between Frankfurt, Erfurt and Leipzig, Eisenach on the Frankfurt–Erfurt line, with Gotha in between. From Erfurt Hauptbahnhof, a streetcar runs to Domplatz.
To the sights: City buses run from Eisenach station to Wartburg Castle, and line 6 runs from Weimar to the Buchenwald Memorial. In Saalfeld, bus line A goes from the station to the Fairy Grottoes. The Kyffhäuser Monument is easiest by car via the A38 and B85; from April to October an on-demand bus runs from nearby towns if you book at least an hour ahead.
Tickets: The Deutschland-Ticket (€63 a month) covers regional trains, streetcars and buses, but not ICE or IC trains.
Fall is a lovely time in Thuringia, when the Thuringian Forest around Wartburg Castle turns color. During Thuringia's fall school break, October 14–23, 2026, the Kyffhäuser Monument offers free family tours Wednesday to Friday. Erfurt celebrates its Merchants' Bridge Festival on the third weekend of June, and Gotha's Ekhof Festival runs in July and August.
In Advent, Erfurt's Domplatz hosts the Christmas market; there are no cathedral tours on Advent weekends. Winter hours are shorter: from November 2, 2026, Wartburg Castle sells tickets only until 3 p.m., and the Kyffhäuser Monument is open only Friday to Sunday from November to February. Try to see the Wartburg before 2027 – tours are limited during the renovation, and the whole castle reopens on May 4, 2028.
Two days cover Erfurt and Weimar; add Gotha and Wartburg Castle in Eisenach for a long weekend. Plan an extra half day to full day each for the Fairy Grottoes and the Kyffhäuser Monument.
Only through November 1, 2026. From November 2, the house on Frauenplan closes for about three years of renovation. The permanent exhibition of the Goethe National Museum next door stays open.
The Festival Hall and the palace roof will be renovated in 2027. The castle stays open, but from January to March 25, 2027, and from November 1, 2027, you'll only see a special exhibition, Luther's study and the Dirnitz. The full castle reopens on May 4, 2028.
Yes, visiting is free. Only the cathedral tour, the bell tour up to the Gloriosa and the treasury cost extra, €8 each.
Favorites include the Saalfeld Fairy Grottoes and their adventure forest, the Kyffhäuser Monument with castle ruins and the Barbarossa legend, the “Animals in the Tower” exhibition at Friedenstein Palace and Wartburg Castle's kids' audio guide. At Buchenwald, the museum, cells and crematorium are not recommended for children under 12.
Take the train to Eisenach, then the city bus to the Wartburg stop, or hike up through the woods. By car, park below the castle and walk the steep path or take the castle shuttle.
Castles
Eisenach
Wartburg Castle above the town of Eisenach in Thuringia is one of the most historic castles in Germany and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999. Martin Luther hid here and translated the New Testament into German, Saint Elizabeth of Hun…
Landmarks
Erfurt
The Krämerbrücke (Merchants' Bridge) in Erfurt is a medieval stone bridge lined on both sides with half-timbered houses, still lived in and filled with small shops. Erfurt bills it as the longest continuously built-up and inhabited bridge…
Historic sites & memorials
Weimar
The Buchenwald Memorial (Gedenkstätte Buchenwald) on the Ettersberg hill above Weimar preserves the site of one of the largest Nazi concentration camps on German soil. Between 1937 and 1945, about 277,800 people from some 50 countries were…
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…
Other
Kyffhäuserland
The Barbarossa Cave (Barbarossahöhle) near Rottleben in northern Thuringia is one of only two accessible anhydrite caves in the world and the only anhydrite show cave in Western Europe. Instead of stalactites, you will see glassy blue-gree…
Museums
Weimar
The Bauhaus Museum Weimar tells the story of the 20th century's most influential design school in the very city where it was founded in 1919. Housed in a stark concrete cube that opened for the Bauhaus centenary, it holds the oldest Bauhau…
Viewpoints
Unstrut-Hainich
The Hainich Treetop Walk (Baumkronenpfad Hainich) in Hainich National Park is one of the best-known canopy walkways in Germany and a fine stop if you want to see an ancient beech forest from above. A 540-meter path winds through the canopy…
Nature
Eisenach
At its narrowest point, only 68 centimetres separate the rock walls. Walking through the Drachenschlucht (Dragon Gorge) on the southern edge of Eisenach, you follow metal gratings above a rushing stream, with mossy cliffs rising high on bo…
Gardens & parks
Erfurt
The egapark sits where Erfurt once kept its cannons: on the Cyriaksberg hill in the south-west of the city, around the former Cyriaksburg citadel. Today 36 hectares of themed gardens, seasonal flower beds and tropical plants grow here. In…
Churches & monasteries
Erfurt
Erfurt Cathedral (Erfurter Dom, St. Mary's Cathedral) and the neighboring Church of St. Severus rise side by side above Erfurt's vast Domplatz square, forming one of Germany's most striking city skylines. A broad flight of 70 steps leads u…
Museums
Weimar
Goethe's House in Weimar (Goethes Wohnhaus) is Germany's most famous writer's home. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the towering figure of German literature, lived here on the Frauenplan square for most of five decades, worked on "Faust" in it…
Palaces
Rudolstadt
Heidecksburg Palace (Residenzschloss Heidecksburg) in Rudolstadt is a Baroque palace that stands about 200 feet (60 m) above the old town, on a ridge above the Saale river in Thuringia. It was the residence of the counts and princes of Sch…
Museums
Weimar
The Duchess Anna Amalia Library in Weimar is home to one of the most beautiful library halls in the world: the oval, three-story Rococo Hall, lined with books, portraits, and marble busts. Goethe ran the library for more than three decades…
Monuments
Kyffhäuserland
The Kyffhäuser Monument (Kyffhäuserdenkmal) in northern Thuringia is one of Germany's largest national monuments, an 81-meter (266-foot) sandstone tower on a forested ridge above the Golden Meadow plain. It links the medieval legend of Emp…
Castles
Kahla
Perched on a hilltop 395 metres above sea level, Leuchtenburg dominates the Saale valley so strikingly that it is known as the "Queen of the Saale Valley". Its history is anything but regal: over 800 years it has been a seat of power, a pr…
Museums
Eisenach
The Luther House in Eisenach (Lutherhaus Eisenach) is one of the oldest surviving half-timbered houses in Thuringia and one of Europe's most important Reformation sites. According to tradition, young Martin Luther lived here as a schoolboy…
Landmarks
Weimar
A white, almost square cube with a taller middle section, in a residential street on the edge of the Ilm park: at first glance the Haus Am Horn looks unremarkable. Yet it is the only Bauhaus building actually built in Weimar and one of the…
National parks
Unstrut-Hainich
Hainich National Park in Thuringia, between Eisenach, Mühlhausen and Bad Langensalza, protects one of the largest unmanaged deciduous forests in Germany and is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its star attraction is the treetop walkwa…
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…
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…
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…
Palaces
Weimar
Schloss Belvedere is a Baroque summer palace perched on a wooded hill about four kilometers south of central Weimar. Surrounded by an orangery, a Russian garden and a sprawling landscape park, it is part of the Classical Weimar UNESCO Worl…
Palaces
Gotha
Friedenstein Palace (Schloss Friedenstein) in Gotha, Thuringia, is described by its foundation as the largest palace built in 17th-century Germany. Set on a hill above the town and never destroyed, the early Baroque complex holds lavish du…