Introducing Rostock

Rostock was devastated in WWII and later pummelled by socialist architectural ‘ideals’. Its best feature is 13km northwest, where the Warnow River flows into the Baltic Sea: Warnemünde, which has one of Germany’s best beaches.

This large port city does have a small but attractive historic core – red-brick and pastel-coloured buildings harking back to the 14th- and 15th-century Hanseatic era – but you generally have to wade past a landscape of concrete eyesores to reach it. Perhaps the best feature is the vibrant energy provided by the thousands of university students.