Country guide
Germany runs from the Baltic and North Sea coasts in the north down to the Alps in the south, and its 16 states have kept enough separateness that the country r...
Photograph · Llez · CC BY-SA 3.0
Reviewed by Elena Voss · Roavina Travel Editor
Germany runs from the Baltic and North Sea coasts in the north down to the Alps in the south, and its 16 states have kept enough separateness that the country reads as a set of destinations rather than one. Over 83 million people live in them, more than any other European Union member. Berlin is the capital and the largest single city, Frankfurt is the financial centre, and the largest urban area is neither - it is the Ruhr, a belt of western towns that have grown into each other. Choosing between the Bavarian south, the Rhine, the Hanseatic north and the eastern cities is the actual planning decision; the distances are short and the places are not variations on one another.
Checked 2026-08-25
Every city catalogued in this country so far, ranked by how much there is to see.
Photograph · Thomas Wolf, www.foto-tw.de · CC BY-SA 3.0
Photograph · Thomas Wolf, www.foto-tw.de · CC BY-SA 3.0 de
Ranked by importance — sitelinks, pageviews and heritage status, not editor preference.
95 places match
Category
Typical visit duration
Interests
Altes Museum is a neoclassical museum on Berlin’s Museum Island and one of the most important buildings in the city’s historic centre. Karl Friedrich Schinkel designed the building, which opened in 1830 for the Prussian royal collection of classical antiquities.
Bode-Museum
The Bode-Museum stands on the northern tip of Museum Island in Berlin, its domed structure visible across the Spree river. Opened in 1904 and originally named the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, it was renamed in 1956 after its first director, Wilhelm von Bode.
The Alte Nationalgalerie is a prominent art museum on Berlin's Museum Island, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Its neoclassical temple design, completed in 1876, houses nineteenth-century paintings and sculptures.
Haus der Kunst is a major contemporary art institution in Munich, located beside Englischer Garten. It presents temporary exhibitions rather than maintaining a permanent collection, so each visit is shaped by the programme on view.
The Pinakothek der Moderne is a major museum of modern and contemporary art in Munich, Germany. It forms part of the city's museum quarter, located in the Maxvorstadt district near the other Pinakothek museums.
The Neue Pinakothek is an art museum in Munich, Germany. It forms part of the city's museum quarter alongside the Alte Pinakothek and Pinakothek der Moderne.
Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is Germany's central Holocaust memorial, and it is two things at one address rather than one.
Gedenkstätte Berlin-Hohenschönhausen
The Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial is a museum and memorial site located in the Lichtenberg district of Berlin. It occupies the grounds of a former Soviet and later Stasi remand prison that operated during the German Democratic Republic period.
Gropius-Bau
Martin-Gropius-Bau is a Berlin exhibition house in a landmark nineteenth-century building near Potsdamer Platz and the former Berlin Wall corridor.
Gemäldegalerie am Kulturforum
The Gemäldegalerie Berlin, locally known as Gemäldegalerie am Kulturforum, is a major art museum in Berlin, Germany.
The Märkisches Museum is a museum in Berlin dedicated to the history and culture of the city and its surrounding Mark Brandenburg region.
Villa Stuck is the former home and studio of painter Franz von Stuck in Munich’s Bogenhausen district. The late nineteenth-century villa now functions as a public museum, preserving the setting in which Stuck lived and worked.
Jüdisches Museum
The Jewish Museum Berlin is a major cultural institution dedicated to two millennia of German-Jewish history and culture.
Lenbachhaus is a Munich art museum housed partly in the former Italianate villa of painter Franz von Lenbach. Historic rooms connect with a modern extension whose golden-bronze aluminium facade gives the building a distinctive appearance.
Museum für Fotografie
Museum of Photography, or Museum für Fotografie, is a Berlin museum devoted to photographic art, history, and preservation. It belongs among the city’s visual-arts destinations because photography is treated as both an artistic medium and a record of changing societies.
Archenhold-Sternwarte
Archenhold Observatory, known locally as Archenhold-Sternwarte, is a public astronomical observatory located in Berlin's Treptower Park. It was established in 1896 and houses what was once the world's longest movable refracting telescope.
Bayerisches Nationalmuseum
The Bavarian National Museum, known locally as Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, stands as one of Munich's principal cultural institutions. Located on the Prinzregentenstraße, this museum occupies a substantial purpose-built structure designed in historicist style.
Alliierten-Museum
The Allied Museum in Dahlem presents the history of the Western powers in Berlin from 1945 to 1994.
Zoo Berlin
Berlin Zoological Garden, known locally as Zoo Berlin, is a major zoological garden in Berlin, Germany. It is one of the city's most prominent attractions and features among Berlin's top ten visitor destinations according to official tourism sources.
Museum Brandhorst is a contemporary art museum in Munich's Maxvorstadt district. It opened in 2009 and houses the collection of Udo and Anette Brandhorst, featuring works from the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
DDR-Museum
The DDR Museum is an interactive Berlin museum about everyday life in the former German Democratic Republic. Rather than presenting East German history only through cases of documents, it invites visitors into reconstructed domestic spaces and hands-on displays.
Musikinstrumenten-Museum
Berlin Musical Instrument Museum, known locally as Musikinstrumenten-Museum, is a specialist Berlin museum devoted to musical instruments.
Kunstgewerbemuseum
Berlin’s Museum of Decorative Arts, the Kunstgewerbemuseum, explores the history of applied art and design through objects made for use, display and ceremony. It forms part of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and brings together craftsmanship across several centuries.
BMW Welt is a major visitor destination in Munich associated with the Bavarian automaker. The facility serves as a delivery center, exhibition space, and brand experience venue.
Museum Berlin-Karlshorst is a memorial and historical museum in Berlin’s eastern Karlshorst district. It occupies the building where German armed forces signed the unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945, bringing the Second World War in Europe to its end.
Seven to ten days works for Berlin plus one connected region, or for a focused Rhine, Bavaria or northern-city route. Germany’s rail network makes multi-city travel practical, but changing bases every night still reduces useful time.
Germany’s Federal Foreign Office is the official visa reference. Review its nationality-specific entry rules and the Schengen application guidance for the passport and route being used.
Intercity and high-speed trains connect Germany’s major cities, with regional services completing shorter journeys. Deutsche Bahn publishes the integrated timetable; airport choice should follow the route rather than defaulting to one national gateway.
May through September favours outdoor city and countryside travel, while December has a distinct seasonal-market pattern. Alpine, North Sea and urban conditions differ enough that the intended region should determine clothing and reservations.
Germany uses the euro (EUR). Cash and card practices are not stated as a single national rule in the cited source, so travellers should carry a backup and check the payment method before ordering or boarding.
For Germany, 112 reaches medical and fire services and 110 reaches police. Type C and F plugs use 230 V, and mains tap water is recorded as safe.
