Must-see attractions in Hamburg

  • Top Choice
    Mahnmal St-Nikolai

    St Nikolai church was the world’s tallest building from 1874 to 1876, and it remains Hamburg’s second-tallest structure (after the TV tower). Mostly…

  • Top Choice
    Fischmarkt

    Here's the perfect excuse to stay up all Saturday night. Every Sunday in the wee hours, some 70,000 locals and visitors descend upon the famous Fischmarkt…

  • Top Choice
    Elbphilharmonie

    Welcome to one of the most Europe's most exciting recent architectural creations. A squat brown-brick former warehouse at the far west of HafenCity was…

  • Top Choice
    Hamburger Kunsthalle

    A treasure trove of art from the Renaissance to the present day, the Kunsthalle spans two buildings linked by an underground passage. The main building…

  • R
    Top Choice
    Rathaus

    With its spectacular coffered ceiling, Hamburg’s baroque Rathaus is one of Europe’s most opulent, and is renowned for its Emperor’s Hall and Great Hall…

  • S
    Top Choice
    St Michaelis Kirche

    ‘Der Michel’, as it is affectionately called, is one of Hamburg’s most recognisable landmarks and northern Germany’s largest Protestant baroque church…

  • S
    Top Choice
    St Pauli Nachtmarkt

    Wednesday late afternoon and evening is a terrific time to be in St Pauli when the weekly night market takes over Spielbudenplatz with food stalls, live…

  • Top Choice
    Miniatur Wunderland

    Even the worst cynics are quickly transformed into fans of this vast miniature world that goes on and on. The model trains wending their way through the…

  • Top Choice
    Chilehaus

    One of Hamburg's most beautiful buildings is the crowning gem of the new Unesco-anointed Kontorhaus District. The brown-brick 1924 Chilehaus is shaped…

  • Top Choice
    Auswanderermuseum BallinStadt

    Sort of a bookend for New York's Ellis Island, Hamburg's excellent emigration museum looks at the conditions that drove about 5 million people to leave…

  • Top Choice
    Altonaer Balkon

    Thrill to some of Hamburg's best harbour views from this accurately named and quite pretty park.

  • Internationales Maritimes Museum

    Hamburg's maritime past – and future – is fully explored in this excellent private museum that sprawls over 10 floors of a revamped brick shipping…

  • B
    Bullenhuser Damm Schule

    During WWII, 20 Jewish children were chosen by Dr Josef Mengele at Auschwitz and sent to Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg for medical…

  • T
    Tanzende Türme

    Watching over the eastern gateway to St Pauli since 2011, the 'Dancing Towers' are a Hamburg icon. The two towers buck and weave by up to 3m from the…

  • M
    Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte

    Hamburg's history museum has lots of kid-friendly features: it's chock-full of intricate ship models, has a large model train set (which runs on the hour)…

  • S
    Süllberg Hill

    The best views of the Elbe (nearly 3km wide here) and its container ships are from the 75m-high Süllberg hill. To get to Süllberg, take the S-Bahn to…

  • M
    Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe

    The Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe is lots of fun. Its vast collection of sculpture, furniture, fashion, jewellery, posters, porcelain, musical instruments…

  • D
    Davidwache

    South of the Reeperbahn stands the star of many a German crime film and TV show, the Davidwache. This brick police station, festooned with ornate ceramic…

  • H
    HafenCity InfoCenter

    You can pick up brochures and check out detailed architectural models and installations that give a sense of the immensity of the project; there's a scale…

  • K
    Krameramtswohnungen

    In an alley off Krayenkamp 10 are the Krameramtswohnungen, a row of tiny half-timbered houses from the 17th century that, for nearly 200 years, were…