Natural features
Bastei Bridge, Saxon Switzerland
Lohmen, Saxony
A stone bridge built in 1851 linking towering sandstone pillars 194 m above the River Elbe, in Saxon Switzerland National Park.
Travel tips in Germany
Historic sites
Berlin Wall Memorial and East Side Gallery
Gesundbrunnen, Berlin
Two places to understand the Berlin Wall, which divided the city from 1961 to 1989.
Historic sites
Brandenburg Gate, Berlin
Mitte, Berlin
Berlin's most famous landmark: a neoclassical gate of 1791, topped by the Quadriga, a chariot drawn by four horses.
Historic sites
Burg Eltz
Treis-Karden, Rhineland-Palatinate
A storybook castle hidden in a wooded valley above the Moselle, owned by the same family for more than 850 years and never destroyed.
Buildings
Cologne Cathedral
Altstadt Nord, North Rhine-Westphalia
One of the greatest Gothic cathedrals in the world, begun in 1248 and finished only in 1880.
Historic sites
Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site
Dachau, Bavaria
The first Nazi concentration camp, opened in 1933 and the model for those that followed.
Buildings
Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg
Hamburg-Mitte, Hamburg
Hamburg's concert hall, opened in 2017: a glass wave-like structure built on top of an old brick warehouse at the tip of the HafenCity docks.
Buildings
Frauenkirche, Dresden
Dresden, Saxony
Dresden's great baroque church, with its stone dome, collapsed after the bombing of the city in February 1945 and lay as a pile of rubble for nearly …
Historic sites
Heidelberg Castle and Old Bridge
Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg
The romantic red sandstone ruins of Heidelberg Castle rise above the old town and the River Neckar.
Natural features
Königssee and St Bartholomä
Schönau am Königssee, Bavaria
A long, emerald-green lake surrounded by steep mountains in Berchtesgaden National Park, often called Germany's most beautiful.
Natural features
Königsstuhl chalk cliffs, Rügen
Saßnitz, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Brilliant white chalk cliffs rising 118 m above the Baltic Sea, edged with ancient beech forest, in Jasmund National Park on the island of Rügen.
Historic sites
Marienplatz and Munich Old Town
Munich, Bavaria
The heart of Munich since the 12th century, overlooked by the neo-Gothic New Town Hall, whose Glockenspiel plays at 11 am and 12 noon (also at 5 pm f…
Tours and activities
Middle Rhine Valley and the Lorelei
Bornich, Rhineland-Palatinate
The stretch of the Rhine between Bingen and Koblenz is lined with steep vineyards, medieval castles on almost every hilltop, and pretty wine villages…
Attractions
Miniatur Wunderland, Hamburg
Hamburg-Mitte, Hamburg
The world's largest model railway, filling several floors of an old warehouse with incredibly detailed miniature worlds: Hamburg, the Alps, Scandinav…
Attractions
Museum Island, Berlin
Mitte, Berlin
Five world-class museums on an island in the River Spree, together a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Historic sites
Neuschwanstein Castle
Schwangau, Bavaria
The fairy-tale castle built from 1869 for King Ludwig II of Bavaria, perched on a crag above a gorge in the foothills of the Alps.
Buildings
Reichstag dome, Berlin
Tiergarten, Berlin
The home of the German parliament, the Bundestag, crowned by a glass dome designed by Norman Foster when the building was restored in 1999.
Historic sites
Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Bavaria
One of the best-preserved medieval towns in Europe, on the Romantic Road in Franconia.
Historic sites
Sanssouci Palace and Park, Potsdam
Potsdam, Brandenburg
The summer palace of Frederick the Great, built in 1747 on top of terraced vineyards, in a huge park of gardens, fountains, temples and more palaces,…
Natural features
Zugspitze
Grainau, Bavaria
Germany's highest mountain, at 2,962 m, on the border with Austria above Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Buildings
Aachen Cathedral
Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia
The first German site on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
Historic sites
Bremen Market Square and Town Hall
Bremen
Bremen's main square is surrounded by gabled merchants' houses, the Gothic cathedral and the ornate Town Hall, whose Renaissance façade and great hal…
Historic sites
Eagle's Nest (Kehlsteinhaus), Berchtesgaden
Berchtesgaden, Bavaria
A mountain house built for Hitler's 50th birthday on a ridge at 1,834 m above Berchtesgaden, now a restaurant with spectacular views over the Alps an…
Food and drink
Hofbräuhaus, Munich
Munich, Bavaria
The world's most famous beer hall, brewing beer for the Bavarian royal court since 1589 and on this site since 1607.
Historic sites
Hohenzollern Castle
Bisingen, Baden-Württemberg
A spectacular 19th-century castle on the summit of Mount Hohenzollern, the ancestral seat of the Prussian kings and German emperors.
Historic sites
Holstentor and Lübeck Old Town
Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein
Lübeck was the 'Queen of the Hanseatic League', the medieval trading network of the Baltic, and its old town, on an island ringed by water, is a UNES…
Natural features
Mainau Island, Lake Constance
Konstanz, Baden-Württemberg
The 'flower island' on Lake Constance (Bodensee), a garden island with a baroque palace, an arboretum, a butterfly house, an Italian rose garden and …
Historic sites
Nuremberg Imperial Castle and Old Town
Nürnberg, Bavaria
The Kaiserburg, the castle of the Holy Roman Emperors, stands on a sandstone rock above Nuremberg's old town, with views over the red roofs from its …
Historic sites
Porta Nigra, Trier
Trier, Rhineland-Palatinate
The largest Roman city gate north of the Alps, built around 170 AD from huge sandstone blocks without mortar, and darkened over the centuries, hence …
Historic sites
Quedlinburg
Quedlinburg, Saxony-Anhalt
A small town at the edge of the Harz mountains with more than 1,300 half-timbered houses spanning six centuries, one of the largest collections in Ge…
Natural features
Triberg Waterfalls, Black Forest
Triberg, Baden-Württemberg
Some of Germany's highest waterfalls, cascading 163 m in seven steps through the fir forest of the Black Forest.
Historic sites
Wartburg Castle, Eisenach
Eisenach, Thuringia
A medieval castle on a hill above Eisenach in Thuringia, founded in 1067 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Historic sites
Zollverein Coal Mine, Essen
Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia
Once the largest coal mine in Europe, closed in 1986 and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a symbol of the Ruhr region's change from heavy industr…