Germany · Berlin & the North · Travel guide
What a long weekend on the Elbe really costs, why harbour ferry 62 is the best harbour tour in the city, and how to get into the Elbphilharmonie without booking a year ahead.
Photo: Sameh Swaiss / Pexels
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Estimates for orientation, not booking prices. Getting there means train or car from Switzerland, return, per person. Hotels vary strongly by season: current prices are behind the links below.
Money & payment: You pay in euros (EUR). Germany is fonder of cash than Switzerland: bakeries, kiosks and small restaurants often say "cash only", though cards work almost everywhere from about EUR 10. Tip 5 to 10 percent by rounding up and naming the total when you pay. Getting there: By train (DB), car or plane, 1 to 8 hours depending on the destination.
Nine options in three price ranges, each among the best-rated on Booking.com.
Budget
Hostel and hotel in one, colourful, loud, with a shared kitchen and Astra in the fridge, between the Schanze and the Reeperbahn. Double rooms with private bathroom from CHF 80, dorms from CHF 30. For anyone out on St. Pauli in the evening and sleeping in the next morning.
Budget chain right by the Michel, Landungsbrücken and Speicherstadt ten minutes on foot, Reeperbahn 15. Small, well-designed rooms, lobby bar with harbour atmosphere. The best location in the city for the price, so book early.
Design hostel right at the Hauptbahnhof, practical for the night train and the airport S-Bahn, with a bar and the Kunsthalle opposite. Dorms from CHF 30, private rooms from CHF 75. The surroundings towards Steindamm are rough in the evening, but the walk to the Alster is short.
Mid-range
Hotel in the style of a seamen's home with bunks instead of rooms, a rooftop sauna with harbour views and the restaurant Heimat. Elbphilharmonie and Speicherstadt ten minutes on foot, U4 outside the door. For design travellers who do not mind HafenCity being quiet at night.
Former seamen's home from 1858 on the hill above the Landungsbrücken, with the best harbour view in the mid-range and the Tower Bar on the 12th floor. Rooms in the old building are more charming than in the extension; be sure to book the harbour side. Reeperbahn five minutes, Speicherstadt 15.
Lean-luxury chain with small, cleverly furnished rooms, a roof terrace and a bar, in the middle of the old town between the town hall, the Hauptbahnhof and the Speicherstadt. No restaurant, no frills, but quiet and everything on foot. Good value for money during the week.
Luxury
Hamburg's grand hotel since 1897, right on the Binnenalster, with antiques, the two-star restaurant Haerlin and a lobby where Hamburg's merchants drink their coffee. Rooms facing the Alster are the more expensive ones and the right ones. For the classic Hanseatic option.
New building from 2018 right on the shore of the Aussenalster, round, white, with a rooftop pool and spa above the treetops. Two-star restaurant Lakeside, city centre in 15 minutes on foot or by Alster steamer. For calm and water instead of harbour noise.
The hotel inside the Elbphilharmonie, rooms on floors 9 to 20 with views of the harbour or the city, access to the Plaza without a ticket. Pool and spa; the rooms with a water view are worth the trip. For anyone who comes for a concert and wants to take the lift afterwards.
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The small boats pass through the canals of the Speicherstadt under the low bridges and then out to the container terminals. One hour CHF 20 to 25 from the Landungsbrücken; at low tide the Speicherstadt is left out, so check the tide tables.
Plaza at 37 metres free, time slot reserved online for CHF 2. The one-hour guided tour of the foyers and the Grand Hall costs CHF 18 and is the only way to see the hall without a concert. Concert tickets from CHF 15 to 30 for the back seats.
The largest model railway in the world in the Speicherstadt, with an airport, Switzerland, Italy and South America, CHF 20, and three hours pass quickly. Without an online time slot you queue for up to two hours; evening slots from 7 pm are emptier.
Guided walk along the Reeperbahn, Grosse Freiheit and Hans-Albers-Platz with Beatles history and an explanation of the red-light district, two hours from CHF 25, better in the evening than the afternoon. Former bouncers and local characters lead the tours, and the tone is direct.
Sunday from 5 to 9.30 am (from 7 am in winter) in Altona: market criers, crates of fruit, Fischbrötchen, live music in the fish auction hall and breakfast for CHF 15 to 20. Free; take the S-Bahn to Reeperbahn or Königstrasse, then ten minutes on foot.
The largest warehouse district in the world, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, most beautiful at dusk when it is lit up. The Speicherstadtmuseum (CHF 6) explains the coffee, tea and carpet trade, and the International Maritime Museum (CHF 17) fills a rainy day. Guided walk from CHF 15.
The tower of the main church of St. Michaelis for CHF 8, 452 steps or a lift, the best view over the harbour and the city. Then walk to the Landungsbrücken and through the Old Elbe Tunnel of 1911 to Steinwerder for free, where you get the classic view of Hamburg.
The Alster steamers cross the Binnenalster and Aussenalster in an hour, past the villas of Harvestehude, CHF 20. Cheaper and nicer: a pedalo, canoe or stand-up paddleboard from the rental stations on the Aussenalster for CHF 15 to 25 an hour.
The Holstentor, the old town island, St. Mary's Church and Niederegger marzipan, 45 minutes by regional train, included with the Deutschlandticket, otherwise CHF 30 return. Guided day tour from Hamburg from CHF 60; on your own is simpler.
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Hamburg eats fish, bread and hearty food, and often standing up: Fischbrötchen at the harbour, Franzbrötchen at the bakery, Labskaus in a traditional restaurant. Add to that, with HafenCity and the Schanze, a young cooking scene with prices below Zurich but above Berlin.
A bread roll with Bismarck herring, matjes, fried fish or North Sea shrimps, onions and remoulade. The Hamburg national dish for CHF 4 to 8, shrimps the most expensive. Eaten standing, looking at the Elbe.
Tip:Matjes is the mildest way in, Bismarck the sourest; the gulls are faster than you.
Danish pastry dough with cinnamon and sugar, flattened and caramelised, Hamburg's answer to the croissant. CHF 1.80 to 3 at the bakery, with crumble or chocolate as variations.
Tip:The original is cinnamon only; everything else is playing around.
Salted beef, potatoes and beetroot mashed together, served with a fried egg, rollmop and gherkin. Looks like an accident, tastes like seafaring. CHF 16 to 22 in a traditional restaurant.
Tip:Order it once, share it, and then you will know whether you belong.
Fried pieces of yesterday's fish with sautéed potatoes and mustard sauce, the honest Hamburg leftovers dish, now a classic. CHF 18 to 26.
Tip:The lunch menu is often 30 per cent cheaper than in the evening.
Whole plaice fried in butter with bacon, onions and shrimps, named after the fishing village on the other side of the Elbe. CHF 22 to 32, in season May to October.
Tip:Plaice season is summer; in winter it comes out of the freezer.
Red berries, thickened, with vanilla sauce or pouring cream, the North German dessert. CHF 5 to 8 as a pudding.
Tip:With cream is the Hamburg way, with vanilla sauce the Danish one.
The St. Pauli beer with the heart-shaped anchor, CHF 3 to 5, and with it raw minced pork with onions on a bread roll, CHF 3 to 4. Together, the breakfast after a night on the Kiez.
Tip:Mett is raw and fresh: buy it only from a butcher or bakery, never in the afternoon.
Hamburg has snack bar culture too: Currywurst with chips for CHF 6 to 8, often until deep into the night, plus plate-sized schnitzel.
Tip:Erikas Eck is open from early until late, and the schnitzel feeds two.
Through markets and eateries with a guide, tastings included.
If you book through these links we earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you.
Hamburg calls itself a Free and Hanseatic City, and both words are a statement of intent. The Hammaburg was founded around 810 under Charlemagne as a missionary outpost against the Danes and Slavs, on the site where the Domplatz lies today. The rise began in 1189, when Emperor Frederick Barbarossa granted the city freedom from customs duties on the Elbe all the way to the North Sea, a privilege Hamburg still celebrates as the birth certificate of its port. In league with Lübeck, Hamburg became a centre of the Hanseatic League in the 13th century, which controlled trade between Novgorod, Bergen, Bruges and London. The city remained Protestant, republican and proud of its independence: no princes, no royal residence, just merchants who governed themselves from the town hall. The Great Fire of 1842 destroyed a third of the city centre; the town hall of 1897 and the Alster Arcades were built afterwards. In 1888 Hamburg joined the German customs union and in return built the Speicherstadt as a free port, for which 20,000 people were moved out of the Gängeviertel slums. From here five million Europeans emigrated to America with the Hapag line, and the BallinStadt museum remembers them. Operation Gomorrah in July 1943 destroyed large parts of the city in a firestorm and killed around 35,000 people. After the war Hamburg became a media city and container port, the Beatles played in St. Pauli from 1960 to 1962, and the storm surge of 1962 cost 315 lives and made Helmut Schmidt famous. Since 2008 HafenCity has been growing on former port land, in 2017 the Elbphilharmonie opened after ten years of construction and 866 million euros in costs, and the Speicherstadt has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2015.
Swiss and Eurowings fly several times a day from Zurich to Hamburg (HAM), 1 hour 30 minutes, return from CHF 90 (about EUR 96), usually CHF 130 to 220. The airport is inside the city: S1 to the Hauptbahnhof in 25 minutes, CHF 3.50, no shuttle needed. easyJet flies from Basel and Geneva. The ÖBB Nightjet links Zurich and Basel with Hamburg overnight, departure in the evening, arrival around 9 am at the Hauptbahnhof or in Altona, couchette from CHF 80, sleeper from CHF 150 each way. By day the ICE runs direct from Basel SBB to Hamburg in around 7 hours, from Zurich with a change in Basel in 8 hours, saver fares from CHF 40 each way if you book early; the Swiss Half Fare Card is only valid as far as the border. You do not need a car: 900 kilometres from Zurich, 9 hours, and in Hamburg car parks cost CHF 25 to 35 a day inside a low-emission zone. In the city you use the HVV: day ticket CHF 8, 9 am day ticket for groups of up to five CHF 14, and the ticket is also valid on the harbour ferries, which sets Hamburg apart from every other port city. You walk the city centre between the town hall, the Speicherstadt and the Landungsbrücken; St. Pauli and the Schanze are one U-Bahn stop further, Blankenese is 20 minutes by S-Bahn. StadtRAD rental bikes are free for the first 30 minutes.
The district around the Hauptbahnhof with Steindamm and St. Georg has the most cheap hotels and is unpleasant in the evening, especially towards Hansaplatz. Better: Neustadt around the Michel (central, quiet, everything on foot), HafenCity (new buildings, Elbphilharmonie outside the door, silent at night), St. Pauli and the Schanze (loud, lively, close to the harbour, Reeperbahn within earshot), Ottensen and Altona (neighbourhood life, S-Bahn to the centre in 8 minutes) or the Aussenalster for the refined option with Rotherbaum and Harvestehude. The honest prices: hostel bed CHF 30 to 45 (about EUR 32 to 48), Motel One and Ibis CHF 90 to 140, mid-range CHF 120 to 180, Vier Jahreszeiten and Fontenay from CHF 400. Hamburg is a trade fair and musical city: when a big musical opens, a cruise season starts or the Hafengeburtstag harbour festival comes round in May, the same rooms cost double. The Hafengeburtstag (first weekend in May) and the Cruise Days (every two years in September) are spectacular, but book four months ahead for them. The culture and tourism tax is 3 to 6 per cent depending on the room rate. Weekends are more expensive than weekdays because Hamburg is a city-break destination; a Sunday-to-Tuesday stay easily saves 30 per cent compared with Friday to Sunday.
The classic harbour cruise from the Landungsbrücken costs CHF 22 to 28 (about EUR 24 to 30) for an hour with microphone commentary and jokes. Harbour ferry 62 runs the same route to Finkenwerder on a normal HVV ticket; you get off at Neumühlen, walk along the Övelgönne Elbe beach and take the boat back. For the Speicherstadt and its canals you need a barge; the small boats are worth it, CHF 20 to 25, high tide permitting. The Elbphilharmonie Plaza at 37 metres is free; online you reserve a time slot for a CHF 2 fee and skip the queue. Concerts in the Grand Hall are often sold out, but not always: the presale starts in June and December, weekday concerts and the remaining tickets at the box office from 60 minutes before the start are your chance, tickets from CHF 15 to 30 for the back tiers, which are acoustically almost as good. Miniatur Wunderland is the most visited attraction in Germany and genuinely worth seeing, CHF 20, but without an online time slot you wait two hours; the evening slots from 7 pm are emptier. The Michel tower costs CHF 8 and the view is better than from the Plaza. The Old Elbe Tunnel, the Fischmarkt, Planten un Blomen with its water light concerts in summer, the Alster circuit and the Blankenese stairways are free. Taxis are expensive, CHF 15 to 20 for ten minutes; night buses and the U-Bahn run all night at weekends.
Hamburg has a maritime climate: it rains in every month, rarely for long, but horizontally. May to September is the best time, with 18 to 25 degrees, long evenings and Hamburgers living on the Elbe beach and the Alster. The Hafengeburtstag in early May brings tall ships, a tugboat ballet and a million visitors, the Schlagermove in July is carnival on St. Pauli, and the Dom (funfair on the Heiligengeistfeld) runs three times a year for a month each. October and November are grey, the hotels cheap, theatres and the Elbphilharmonie in full season. December has Christmas markets at the town hall and, as a Hamburg speciality, the "Santa Pauli" with mulled wine and striptease. January and February are cold, windy and the cheapest time, rooms from CHF 80 (about EUR 86). The Fischmarkt in Altona takes place only on Sundays from 5 to 9.30 am (from 7 am in winter), and the trick is to see it not as a market but as the end of the night: St. Pauli revellers come straight from the Reeperbahn, and at 6 am a band plays in the fish auction hall. Come at 7 am, eat a Fischbrötchen and then go to bed. At home, pack the rain jacket, not an umbrella, which turns inside out here.
Most people walk the Speicherstadt, the Landungsbrücken and the Reeperbahn and go home again. Hamburg gets better where it is everyday life. The Elbe beach at Övelgönne is a proper sandy beach with a view of the container terminals; you reach it on ferry 62 and walk downstream to the Strandperle, the best-known kiosk in the city. From there it is 40 minutes on foot or five minutes by S-Bahn to Blankenese, an old fishing village with a stairway quarter, 5,000 steps and villas on the slope, with the Süllberg at the top and views as far as Stade. Ottensen behind Altona station is the neighbourhood of shops, cafés and cinemas where Hamburgers would live if they could afford it. You walk round the Aussenalster in two hours on 7.4 kilometres, with sailing boats, rowers and the villas of Harvestehude, or you rent a pedalo or a stand-up paddleboard for CHF 20 (about EUR 21) an hour. Planten un Blomen is the city park of the centre, with a Japanese garden and water light concerts at 10 pm in summer. The Old Elbe Tunnel of 1911 takes you under the Elbe for free, and from Steinwerder you get the classic view of the Landungsbrücken. For a day trip Lübeck is worth it: 45 minutes by regional train, the Holstentor, marzipan and the old town island, free with the Deutschlandticket.
The Reeperbahn is 930 metres of amusement arcades, bars, musical theatres, kebab shops and sex shops, and at midnight on Saturday it is full of stag parties from Denmark. The real St. Pauli lies in the side streets: the Grosse Freiheit with clubs like the Grosse Freiheit 36 and the Indra, where the Beatles first played in 1960, Hans-Albers-Platz, the Paul-Roosen-Viertel with its small bars, the Karoviertel by the old slaughterhouse and the Schanze with the Rote Flora, the Piazza and the pubs on Schulterblatt. Herbertstrasse is closed to women and minors and is no sight for men either. Musicals (The Lion King, Disney productions) cost CHF 60 to 150 (about EUR 64 to 161) and for many Germans are the reason for the trip; if you go, take the ferry to the Theater im Hafen, it is included in the ticket. FC St. Pauli is a cult: home games at the Millerntor are sold out, a stadium tour costs CHF 15, and the pubs around the stadium are the real experience on match days. The drink here is Astra, the beer with the heart-shaped anchor, CHF 3 to 4 at a kiosk, CHF 4 to 5 in a bar. The Davidwache on the corner is the best-known police station in Germany. At night St. Pauli is busy and fine; pickpockets work outside the clubs, so keep your wallet at the front.
Flight from Zurich with Swiss or Eurowings, 1 hour 30 minutes, CHF 130 to 220 (about EUR 139 to 235) return, S-Bahn from the airport in 25 minutes for CHF 3.50. Or the ÖBB Nightjet from Zurich and Basel overnight, couchette from CHF 80 each way, arriving in the morning. The ICE from Basel takes 7 hours direct. You do not need a car in Hamburg; the HVV ticket is even valid on the harbour ferries.
Two full days for the Speicherstadt, HafenCity with the Elbphilharmonie Plaza, a harbour ferry, the Michel, the town hall and an evening on St. Pauli. With the Fischmarkt on Sunday morning, Blankenese, the Alster circuit, Miniatur Wunderland and a concert it becomes four days. Hamburg is compact and distances are shorter than in Berlin, but when it rains you will happily lose half a day in a café, and that is fine.
The Plaza is free; reserve a time slot online for CHF 2 (about EUR 2). Concerts in the Grand Hall sell out when the presale opens in June and December, but on weekdays, for lesser-known orchestras and in the Recital Hall you can get tickets from CHF 15 to 30. Remaining tickets are sold at the box office from 60 minutes before the start. The back tiers are acoustically almost as good; the hall is a vineyard, not a shoebox.
May to September, when the Elbe beach, the Alster and the beer gardens come alive. The Hafengeburtstag in early May is the biggest festival, but hotels then cost double. October to March is grey and cheap, with the cultural season in full swing; December has the Christmas markets. It rains in every month, so pack the rain jacket. Weekdays are considerably cheaper than weekends.
You can skip the big cruise with commentary for CHF 25 (about EUR 27): HVV ferry 62 from the Landungsbrücken sails the same Elbe to Finkenwerder for the price of a day ticket, with views of the docks, the Elbphilharmonie and the container terminals. What is worth it is the barge trip through the Speicherstadt and its canals, because only the small boats fit under the bridges, CHF 20 to 25, and go at high tide.
Hamburg is the most expensive big German city after Munich, but still around 30 per cent cheaper than Zurich: lunch CHF 14 to 18 (about EUR 15 to 19), beer CHF 4.50, mid-range double room CHF 120 to 180, Fischbrötchen CHF 5 to 7. Compared with Berlin you pay 10 to 20 per cent more for hotels. Expect CHF 110 to 140 per person per day including hotel, with concert and musical extra.
Hamburg · Rügen · Berlin
Pick up the campervan in Hamburg, drive via Lübeck to the Baltic, spend five nights between chalk cliffs and beach chairs on Rügen, then head to Berlin and hand the van back there. Ten days in the north without a single hotel change.
Hamburg · Sylt
Nightjet to Hamburg, two days on the Elbe and Alster, then three hours on the Marschbahn across the Hindenburgdamm to the island. Four days of wind, mudflats and beach chairs, all by bus and bike.
The biggest port festival in the world celebrates the charter of 1189 that gave Hamburg customs-free passage on the Elbe: for three days stages, stalls and fairground rides line around six kilometres from the Fischmarkt to the HafenCity, and more than a million visitors come. The highlights happen on the water: the arrival parade of tall ships, naval vessels and cruise liners on Friday, the tugboat ballet on Saturday afternoon, in which tugs weighing many tonnes dance to waltz music, and the fireworks on Saturday evening. Everything on the shore is free; harbour cruises cost around CHF 25 to 40 (EUR 25 to 40) and are the best thing you can do during the parades. The Landungsbrücken get so crowded in the afternoon that S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations are temporarily closed. Hotels are full and pricier this weekend, but the city is big enough that you will still find rooms outside St. Pauli.
For travellers: The departure parade on Sunday afternoon is less crowded than the arrival parade; for a good view without the crush, try the Altonaer Balkon or the Dockland ferry pier.
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What a week on Germany's largest island really costs, why you should see the chalk cliffs from below instead of from the Königsstuhl, and when the Sellin pier is yours alone.
What a week on the most expensive island in Germany really costs, how to get there by car train or rail, and why October beats July if you want Sylt for the wind, the mudflats and the dunes rather than the champagne.
