Travel to Germany

The ICE pulls out of Cologne in the morning with the cathedral spires behind it, and by early afternoon you can be in a Munich beer garden or walking along the Berlin Wall. Germany is big, but fast trains and the flat-rate Deutschlandticket for regional transport make it easy to combine cities, rivers, mountains and coast in one trip.

Our Germany travel tips are sorted by place and by what you want to do: Berlin, Cologne, Munich and Bavaria, Saxony and the Ore Mountains, City Trips, Sustainable Travel, Things to Do and See, Where to Eat and Drink and Where to Stay.

Visa and Entry Requirements for Germany

Germany is part of the Schengen Area. Citizens of the EU, the EEA and Switzerland can enter with a passport or national ID card. Travelers from many other countries, including the US, the UK, Canada and Australia, can stay without a visa for up to 90 days in any 180-day period, counted across the whole Schengen Area. Everyone else needs a Schengen visa before the trip. Check the rules for your nationality on the EU’s official travel portal.

If you arrive from outside the Schengen Area, the EU’s Entry/Exit System (EES) registers your fingerprints and a facial photo at the first border crossing instead of stamping your passport. Allow extra time at passport control in Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin.

ETIAS, the travel authorization for visitors who don’t need a visa, has not started yet, and the EU has not announced a start date. Once it runs, it will cost €20 and stay valid for three years or until your passport expires. Apply only on the official EU website, never through agencies that charge extra.

Germany has run temporary police checks at all nine of its land borders since September 2024 and has extended them until March 2027. Carry your passport or ID card even on a train or bus from a neighboring Schengen country.

Important Cultural Information

Germany is a federal country of 16 states, and regional identity runs deep. People in Cologne, Munich, Hamburg and Dresden speak different dialects, eat different food and celebrate different festivals. Say Guten Tag when you walk into a shop or a small restaurant and Tschüss or Auf Wiedersehen when you leave. In the north you’ll hear Moin at any time of day, and in Bavaria Grüß Gott. In the big cities most people under 50 speak good English.

Germans are direct. A blunt answer is not meant as rudeness, and small talk with strangers is rarer than in the US. Punctuality matters, and so do the rules: wait for the green light at crossings, stay off the bike lanes, and return your bottles. Most plastic bottles and cans carry a deposit (Pfand) that you get back at the machines in any supermarket.

Sunday is a day of rest. Shops close, apart from those in train stations and airports, and neighbors expect quiet. Showing Nazi symbols or giving the Hitler salute is a crime, also as a joke.

Berlin and Cologne have large LGBTQ+ scenes, and their summer Pride events, called Christopher Street Day (CSD), are among the biggest in Europe.

Money in Germany

Germany uses the euro, which 21 EU countries share since Bulgaria joined in January 2026. Cards and mobile payments now work in most supermarkets, chain stores, hotels and city restaurants. In 2025, according to the Bundesbank, people in Germany paid for more of their everyday purchases without cash than with cash for the first time.

Cash still matters more here than in most of Western Europe. Bakeries, Imbiss stands, beer gardens, kiosks, Christmas market stalls and many small restaurants take cash only, or only the German girocard. Carry €50 to €100 in notes and ask before you order if you want to pay by card.

ATMs are called Geldautomat. Use machines at banks (Sparkasse, Volksbank, Deutsche Bank and others) and skip the standalone machines in tourist areas, which often charge high fees. When a card terminal offers to charge you in your home currency, choose euros.

Service is included in restaurant prices, but rounding up or adding about 5 to 10 percent is normal. Tell the server the total you want to pay when you hand over the money instead of leaving coins on the table.

Banks, ATMs and Cards

The savings banks (Sparkasse) and the cooperative banks (Volksbank and Raiffeisenbank) have the most ATMs, even in small towns. Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, Postbank and HypoVereinsbank share their machines in the Cash Group network. German ATMs show any fee for a foreign card on screen before you confirm, so you can cancel if it looks high, and your own bank may charge on top.

Visa and Mastercard are accepted in most hotels, chain stores and city restaurants, American Express less often. Some smaller shops and cafes take only the girocard or set a minimum amount for card payments, so look for the card logos at the door. To change cash, Reisebank branches at main stations and airports are the easiest option, but taking euros from an ATM usually gets you a better rate.

Health, Insurance and Emergencies

Call 112 for an ambulance or the fire service and 110 for the police. Both numbers are free from any phone. For a doctor outside office hours when it isn’t an emergency, call 116117. Pharmacies (Apotheke) are marked with a red A, and one pharmacy in every area stays open at night on a rota posted in every pharmacy window.

Visitors from the EU should bring their European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), which covers necessary treatment in the public system. Everyone else, and EU visitors who want cover for repatriation or private treatment, should take travel insurance. If you hike or camp in the south, ask your doctor about the vaccine against tick-borne encephalitis (TBE), which occurs in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg.

If you’re looking for travel insurance, we are an affiliate of SafetyWing, a travel medical insurance provider.

Wi-Fi and Internet in Germany

The three big mobile networks are Telekom, Vodafone and O2, and 1&1 is building a fourth. 4G covers almost the whole country and 5G the cities, but you’ll still hit dead spots on some train lines and in rural areas. Prepaid SIM cards are sold in supermarkets, drugstores and electronics stores, but you have to verify your identity before the card works, which can be fiddly with a foreign passport. An eSIM bought before the trip is often the simpler option. With an EU SIM card you roam at home prices.

Hotels, cafes and ICE trains have free Wi-Fi, and so do many city centers and main stations. Use a VPN on public networks, like ExpressVPN.

Arrival in Germany

Frankfurt (FRA) is Germany’s largest airport and Lufthansa’s main hub, with long-haul flights from all over the world. Its long-distance train station puts you on an ICE to Cologne, Stuttgart or Munich without going into the city first, and S-Bahn trains reach Frankfurt’s main station in about 15 minutes.

Munich (MUC) is Lufthansa’s second hub and the best airport for Bavaria and the Alps. The S1 and S8 suburban trains take about 40 minutes to the city center.

Berlin Brandenburg (BER) replaced Tegel and Schönefeld in 2020. The FEX airport express reaches Berlin Hauptbahnhof in under 25 minutes, and you need an ABC ticket for the ride. Here is how to find your way through BER without stress.

Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Cologne/Bonn and Stuttgart also have international flights, and budget airlines fly into most regional airports.

Germany borders nine countries: Denmark, Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands. Trains connect it with all of them. ICE trains run from Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris, Eurostar (formerly Thalys) runs from Paris and Brussels to Cologne, and Nightjet sleepers arrive from Vienna, Zurich and Amsterdam. FlixBus covers most long-distance bus routes.

If you drive in, consider Europcar for car hire.

Areas of Germany

Germany has 16 states, three of them city-states (Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen). Most first trips combine Berlin with Munich or Cologne, and the regions below are where travelers spend most of their time.

Berlin

Berlin is the capital and the city that shows you 20th-century history most directly. Walk from the Brandenburg Gate past the Reichstag to the Holocaust Memorial, then see the remaining stretches of the Wall at Bernauer Strasse and the East Side Gallery. Here are the best places to see the Berlin Wall. Museum Island has five museums on one island in the Spree, and neighborhoods such as Kreuzberg, Neukölln and Prenzlauer Berg are where you eat, drink and go out. The clubs are famous for long nights and strict doors.

Give Berlin at least three days. The city is spread out, so plan by area and use the U-Bahn and S-Bahn. To stay in the former East, read our reasons to book a hotel in East Berlin.

Bavaria and Munich

Bavaria is the largest German state and the one most visitors picture: beer halls, lederhosen, onion-domed churches and the Alps. Munich, the capital, mixes art museums, the English Garden and beer gardens with the Oktoberfest each fall. Start with our list of things to see and do in Munich.

South of Munich, the Bavarian Alps run along the Austrian border. You can take the train to Garmisch-Partenkirchen and climb or ride up the Zugspitze, Germany’s highest mountain at 2,962 meters. Here is what hiking the Zugspitze involves. Further west stands Neuschwanstein Castle, and in the north, Franconia has Nuremberg, Bamberg and Würzburg with their old towns, breweries and wine.

Cologne and the Rhine

Cologne’s twin-spired cathedral stands right next to the main station, so it’s the first thing you see when you arrive by train. The city is known for Kölsch beer served in small glasses, its brewhouses and the biggest street carnival in Germany. Start with our guide to visiting Cologne.

South of Bonn, the Rhine cuts through a gorge of vineyards and castles. The Upper Middle Rhine Valley between Bingen and Koblenz, with the Lorelei rock, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and best seen from a riverboat or the train along the bank. The Moselle valley and the wine regions of Rhineland-Palatinate are close by. See our sustainable itinerary through Rhineland-Palatinate. Upstream on the Main, Frankfurt has the skyline, the museums and a compact old town you can walk on a four-hour walking tour of Frankfurt.

Hamburg and the North

Hamburg is a port city of canals, warehouses and the Elbphilharmonie concert hall. Go to the Fischmarkt early on a Sunday, walk through the Speicherstadt warehouse district and take a public harbor ferry for the price of a transit ticket. Read about Hamburg’s water and green spaces.

The rest of the north is coast. The North Sea islands, such as Sylt, have wide beaches and the Wadden Sea tidal flats, while the Baltic coast of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has seaside resorts, chalk cliffs on Rügen and the old Hanseatic towns of Stralsund and Wismar.

Saxony and Dresden

Dresden was rebuilt after its destruction in 1945, and the Frauenkirche, the Zwinger and the Semperoper stand again along the Elbe. Here is how to combine the city with the river valley around it: Dresden and the Elbland. Leipzig, an hour away by train, is the city of Bach and of the 1989 protests.

Southeast of Dresden, the sandstone towers of Saxon Switzerland line the Elbe toward the Czech border. Along the border to the southwest lie the Ore Mountains, with mining towns, wood carving workshops and Christmas traditions that the rest of the country copies. Read why you should visit the Ore Mountains.

The Black Forest and Baden-Württemberg

The Black Forest covers the southwest corner of the country, between the Rhine and Lake Constance. Expect dark fir forest, farmhouses with huge roofs, waterfalls at Triberg and long-distance trails such as the Westweg. Freiburg is the sunny university town at its edge, and Baden-Baden has the spa baths. Stuttgart, the state capital, has the Mercedes-Benz and Porsche museums, and Heidelberg the castle ruins above the Neckar. Lake Constance, shared with Austria and Switzerland, is good for cycling and swimming in summer.

Düsseldorf, the Ruhr and Aachen

Düsseldorf, about 25 minutes from Cologne by train, has the Königsallee shopping boulevard, the modern MedienHafen on the Rhine and an old town full of bars pouring dark Altbier. North of it, the Ruhr was Germany’s coal and steel region, and its old industrial sites now hold museums, concerts and walking trails. The Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex in Essen is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the blast furnaces of the Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord are lit up in color at night. At the western border, Aachen Cathedral, where Charlemagne is buried, was the first German site on the UNESCO list.

Central Germany: Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt and the Harz

Central Germany is where you follow Luther, Goethe and the Bauhaus. Goethe and Schiller lived and worked in Weimar, where the Bauhaus school was also founded, Erfurt has a medieval old town with the Krämerbrücke, a bridge lined with houses, and above Eisenach stands the Wartburg Castle, where Luther translated the New Testament. Lutherstadt Wittenberg and the Bauhaus buildings in Dessau are in Saxony-Anhalt. The Harz mountains rise to 1,141 meters at the Brocken, and the steam trains of the Harz narrow-gauge railways climb to the summit, though services are sometimes suspended because of storms or forest fire risk, so check the timetable. Quedlinburg, on the edge of the Harz, has hundreds of half-timbered houses and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as is the old mining town of Goslar.

Potsdam, Brandenburg and the Spreewald

Potsdam, a short S-Bahn ride from Berlin, has Sanssouci and the other palaces and parks of the Prussian kings, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Southeast of Berlin, the Spreewald is a maze of canals and forest where you can tour by punt or kayak and try the local pickled gherkins. Brandenburg’s lakes and forests make easy day trips by regional train with the Deutschlandticket.

Bremen and Lower Saxony

Bremen’s market square, with its town hall and the Roland statue, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the narrow lanes of the Schnoor quarter are a short walk away. Look for the bronze statue of the Town Musicians from the Grimm fairy tale next to the town hall. In Lower Saxony, the Lüneburg Heath turns purple when the heather blooms from August to early September, Hanover has the baroque Herrenhausen Gardens, and most of the East Frisian Islands in the North Sea are car-free.

Transportation in Germany

Trains are the easiest way to travel between cities. Deutsche Bahn runs the long-distance network. ICE high-speed trains link all major cities, with top speeds of up to 300 km/h, and Intercity (IC) trains fill the gaps. Book Sparpreis fares early for the lowest prices, as they are tied to one train, while Flexpreis tickets let you take any train on the day. Delays and missed connections are common, so plan a buffer before flights and important appointments. Interrail and Eurail passes are valid on DB trains. Read more about Interrail and Eurail passes.

The Deutschlandticket costs €63 per month since January 2026 and covers all local and regional transport in the country: regional trains (RE and RB), S-Bahn, U-Bahn, trams and buses. It does not cover ICE, IC or EC trains. It is a monthly subscription that you can cancel, sold in the DB Navigator app and by local transport operators, and it pays off quickly if you ride regional trains for more than a few days. The price for 2027 has not been set.

Inside the cities, U-Bahn, S-Bahn, trams and buses run often and late. Buy and validate your ticket before you ride. Inspectors check often, and riding without a ticket costs a fine. Many cities sell a Welcome Card that combines transport with discounts at museums and sights.

Driving is useful in the countryside, the Alps and the Black Forest. Cars pay no motorway toll, and some Autobahn sections have no speed limit, but traffic jams are common around the cities. Many city centers are low-emission zones that require a green sticker (Umweltplakette). For a rental car, consider renting a car with Europcar.

Where to Stay in Germany

You’ll find every kind of place to stay, from hostels and apartments to design hotels and old grand hotels. In the countryside, family-run guesthouses (Gasthof or Pension), farm stays and holiday apartments give you the best value. Many hotels include a breakfast buffet with bread rolls, cheese and cold cuts, but check when you book.

Prices jump during the Oktoberfest in Munich, the Carnival in Cologne and Düsseldorf, the Christmas market season, and the big trade fairs in Frankfurt, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Munich and Berlin. Book early for those dates. Berlin, Cologne, Hamburg and many other cities charge a city tax on top of the room rate.

What to Eat and Drink in Germany

German food changes from region to region. Dishes to try:

• Currywurst – sliced sausage with curry ketchup, the Berlin street snack.
• Bratwurst – grilled sausage. Nuremberg’s are finger-sized and served by the half dozen or dozen.
• Schweinshaxe and Schweinebraten – crispy pork knuckle and roast pork with dumplings, the beer hall classics in Bavaria.
• Weisswurst and Brezel – white veal sausage with sweet mustard and a pretzel, a Bavarian late breakfast.
• Käsespätzle and Maultaschen – cheese noodles and filled pasta pockets from Swabia.
• Fischbrötchen – a bread roll with pickled herring (Matjes) or smoked fish, sold at every harbor in the north.
• Königsberger Klopse – meatballs in a white caper sauce with potatoes.
• Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte – Black Forest cake with cherries, cream and kirsch.

For traditional food, look for a Gasthaus, a Wirtshaus or a Brauhaus, which brews its own beer. Afternoon coffee and cake (Kaffee und Kuchen) is a daily ritual. Every region has its own beer, from Kölsch in Cologne and Alt in Düsseldorf to the wheat beers and lagers of Bavaria. Germany also makes some of the best Riesling in the world, along the Moselle, the Rhine and in the Palatinate. Learn what to order in our guide to traditional beer and food in Cologne.

Vegetarian and vegan food is easy to find in the cities. In rural inns, the menu usually has at least one meat-free dish. Imbiss stands sell sausages, Döner kebab and fries, and a Döner from a good shop is the cheapest filling meal in most cities.

Things to Do and See in Germany

• Berlin’s history – the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag dome (free with advance registration), the Wall memorial at Bernauer Strasse and Museum Island.
• Neuschwanstein Castle – King Ludwig II’s castle in the Allgäu. Tours run on timed tickets, so book online well ahead in summer.
• The Rhine and Moselle – castles, vineyards and wine villages, by boat, by train or by bike.
• Cologne Cathedral – climb the 533 steps of the south tower for the view over the city and the Rhine.
• The Alps – the Zugspitze, the Königssee near Berchtesgaden and hut-to-hut hiking in summer.
• Old towns – Bamberg, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Regensburg, Quedlinburg and Lübeck have medieval centers that survived the war.
• Saxony – Dresden’s baroque center, the sandstone rocks of Saxon Switzerland and the Ore Mountains.
• The coast – beaches, islands and tidal flats on the North Sea and the Baltic.

Shopping in Germany

Every big city has its main shopping street, among them the Kurfürstendamm and the KaDeWe department store in Berlin, the pedestrian zone around Marienplatz and Maximilianstrasse in Munich, the Königsallee in Düsseldorf, the Zeil in Frankfurt and the Mönckebergstrasse in Hamburg. Look for wood carvings, nutcrackers and Christmas pyramids from the Ore Mountains, cuckoo clocks from the Black Forest, kitchen knives from Solingen, Riesling from the Moselle and the Rhine, and beer steins in Bavaria. Drugstore chains such as dm and Rossmann are good for cheap toiletries, and flea markets, such as the Sunday market at Berlin’s Mauerpark, are worth a browse.

Each state sets its own opening hours. Most shops open from Monday to Saturday and close by 20:00, smaller shops often earlier, and almost everything closes on Sundays and public holidays. Shops in the main train stations and airports are the exception, and in Berlin the late-night kiosks (Spätis) sell drinks and snacks.

Visitors who live outside the EU can get the VAT back on goods bought in shops that offer tax-free shopping, as long as the receipt totals at least €50.01. Ask for the export form when you pay, then show the form, the receipt, the unused goods and your passport to customs when you leave the EU, before you check in your bags. The goods must leave the EU by the end of the third month after the month you bought them, and the refund company keeps a fee.

Nightlife in Germany

Berlin has the most famous club scene in Europe. There is no general closing time, so clubs in Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg and Neukölln often run from Saturday night into Monday. Door policies are strict and hard to predict, many clubs ban photos and put a sticker over your phone camera, and some take cash only. The bars of Kreuzberg, Neukölln and Prenzlauer Berg are the easier start to a night out.

In Hamburg, the nightlife centers on the Reeperbahn in St. Pauli, with live music clubs and bars, and the Schanzenviertel nearby. In Cologne, the Kölsch brewhouses of the old town fill up in the evening, and the Belgian Quarter and the Zülpicher Strasse near the university keep going late. Munich’s evenings start in the beer halls and beer gardens, Düsseldorf’s old town calls itself the longest bar in the world, and Frankfurt’s Sachsenhausen has the apple wine taverns. Leipzig has a lively mix of bars and clubs at lower prices.

You can buy beer and wine from the age of 16 and spirits from 18. Drinking in the street is legal in most places, but some cities ban it in certain areas or on public transport, so look out for signs.

Festivals in Germany

Oktoberfest. The world’s largest beer festival fills Munich’s Theresienwiese for about 16 days. It usually starts on a Saturday in the second half of September and ends on the first Sunday in October, or on 3 October when that falls later. A one-liter Mass of beer costs around €15 to €16 in recent years, and the big tents fill up by midday on weekends. Read our tips for attending Oktoberfest and our guide to the food at Oktoberfest.

Carnival. The carnival season opens on 11 November at 11:11, but the street carnival happens in the week before Ash Wednesday. It starts with Weiberfastnacht on Thursday and peaks with the Rose Monday parades in Cologne, Düsseldorf and Mainz. Expect costumes, crowds and drinking in the street from morning on. Here are our tips for the Carnival in Cologne.

Christmas markets. Most Christmas markets open in the second half of November and run until just before Christmas. Nuremberg’s Christkindlesmarkt and Dresden’s Striezelmarkt are the most famous, but every town has one. Bring cash for the mulled wine (Glühwein), which comes with a mug deposit.

Wine festivals take over the villages along the Rhine, the Moselle and in the Palatinate from late summer into the fall, and Stuttgart has its own beer festival, the Cannstatter Wasen, at the same time as the Oktoberfest.

Safety Tips for Germany

Germany is a safe country to travel in. It ranked 28th in the 2026 Global Peace Index, and violent crime against travelers is rare. Pickpockets work the main train stations, the Christmas markets, Oktoberfest and crowded trains, so keep your phone and wallet out of reach. At night, the areas around some big-city main stations feel rough, though they are rarely dangerous for visitors.

In the cities, the biggest everyday risk is the bike lane. Cyclists ride fast and expect you to keep out of their way. In the Alps, check the weather and start hikes early to be down before the afternoon thunderstorms.

Conclusion

With one week, combine Berlin with Munich or with Cologne and the Rhine, and travel between them by ICE. With two weeks, add the Bavarian Alps and Neuschwanstein, Dresden and Saxon Switzerland, or a few slow days on the Rhine and the Moselle. On a second trip, head for the North Sea and Baltic coasts, the Black Forest and Lake Constance, or the old towns of Thuringia and the Harz.

Before you book, check the entry rules and the EES registration at your first Schengen border. Book Sparpreis train tickets early, check whether the Deutschlandticket fits your route, and reserve your room well ahead for the Oktoberfest, the Carnival, the Christmas markets and the big trade fairs. Our things to do and see in Germany section has the ideas to fill the days.