GERMANY · CENTRAL EUROPE
Fairy-tale castles, big rivers, and a restless capital.
Berlin and the Wall, Munich and the Alps, Neuschwanstein and the Rhine, Hamburg's harbour and Dresden's baroque. The best of Germany, city by city and castle by castle.
Only in Germany
Three German originals.
Half the world has a storybook castle, an Oktoberfest and a slab of the Wall behind glass. The originals are all here: the mad king's fairy tale above the Alpsee, the festival Munich has thrown since 1810, and the city the Cold War cut in two.
Above the Alpsee
Neuschwanstein
A fairy tale a king built for himself. Ludwig II raised Neuschwanstein on a crag over the Bavarian lakes and barely lived to see it finished. A century later it became the template for every storybook castle drawn since. The original still stands in the Alps, turrets and all.
- 1 From Munich: Neuschwanstein & Linderhof Castle Full-Day Trip
- 2 Neuschwanstein & Linderhof Castle-Fairytale Day Tour from Munich
- 3 Neuschwanstein Castle Tour from Munich
Munich & beyond
Beer Halls & Oktoberfest
Munich has thrown the same party since 1810. Six million people, a full litre at a time, under canvas the size of cathedrals. The rest of the year it runs on beer halls and chestnut-shaded gardens. Every other Oktoberfest on earth is an imitation of this one.
- 1 Cologne: Brewery Tour with 3 Kölsch Beer Tastings
- 2 Hamburg: St. Pauli Highlights Guided Tour with Beer for 18+
- 3 Bavarian Beer and Food Evening Tour in Munich
In Berlin
The Berlin Wall
The one city the Cold War cut clean in half. The painted slabs of the East Side Gallery, Checkpoint Charlie, the old death strip now a green ribbon through the middle of town. The hardest border of the last century, walked end to end through the capital that outlived it.
- 1 Berlin: Reichstag, Dome and Government District Guided Tour
- 2 Berlin: Government District around the Reichstag Guided Tour
- 3 Berlin: Reichstag, Plenary Chamber, Cupola & Government Tour
The Rhine
Forty castles in sixty-five kilometres.
The stretch between Koblenz and Bingen is a UNESCO valley where a medieval castle crowns nearly every hill and the vineyards run right down to the water. The Loreley rock leans over the river where it narrows. The boats run all day; take a seat on deck and let the country drift past.
Cruise the Rhine valley →Start here
The one the whole country agrees on.
Thousands of tours across Germany, and travellers book this one more than any other. If you only do a single thing, this is where the rest of the country says to start.
The classics
Germany's Most Popular Tours
The Reichstag dome, Neuschwanstein, a Hamburg harbour cruise, Dresden's opera house. The tours that sit at the top of almost every Germany list.
Where to go
Pick your part of Germany.
Berlin for the history and the late nights. Munich for the beer halls and the Alps. Cologne for the cathedral and the river. Dresden for the baroque, Hamburg for the harbour.
By experience
Or pick how you want to explore.
On foot for the old towns. By boat for the Rhine and the harbours. Plus beer halls, museums, bike routes and the slow trains that climb into the mountains.
One country, three trips
Which Germany are you here for?
Germany is really three trips in one. The restless capital and the north, the Alpine south, the river-and-cathedral west. Most first visits pick one and go deep. Here is how they divide.
Hamburg
More bridges than Venice and Amsterdam combined.
Hamburg runs on water. The red-brick warehouses of the Speicherstadt stand on their own canals, the container port works through the night, the Elbphilharmonie rises like a glass wave over the harbour, and the Reeperbahn never quite closes. The whole city leans toward the sea.
- 1 Hamburg: Sex and Crime in St. Pauli Tour for Ages 18 +
- 2 Hamburg: 90-Minute Evening Lights Harbor Cruise
- 3 Hamburg: 2-Hour XXL Port of Hamburg Cruise Tour
Facing the past
The history it refuses to bury.
No country reckons with its darkest century as openly. The documentation centres, the memorials set in the middle of the capital, the camps kept as they were found. Difficult, unflinching, and part of understanding the place.
On the Elbe
Dresden, rebuilt stone by stone.
Firebombed flat in 1945, then put back together piece by piece, down to the blackened original stones set among the new. The Frauenkirche, the Zwinger, the Semper opera house. Baroque Saxony, risen a second time.
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