Water gives life – people strive for proximity to water – and find this in Hamburg as nowhere else.

This city on the water is incomparable and of unique character. Almost 2.500 bridges – far more than in Amsterdam, London and Venice combined – cross the innumerable watercourses between Elbe, Alster and Bille.

Its maritime flair, clean air and Hanseatic openness to the world make Hamburg the finest city in the world for many people.

With the North Sea and the Baltic not far away, the Hamburg metropolitan region is seen as one of Germany’s favorite vacation areas.

Sightseeing

Things to do and not to miss in Hamburg: Hamburg Sightseeing

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Architecture in Hamburg

Hamburg has been renowned for its bold urban planning for over a century. Such striking architectural designs as the Chilehaus dating from the 1920s or today’s HafenCity Hamburg also set new yardsticks for living and working in a big city.

Much has been done in recent years to make the city centre between the Alster and the port still more inviting. In the 1970s, the first spacious shopping passages were built there. Today the new Europa-Passage and the new layout for Jungfernstieg are in the same spirit.

Such renowned architectural practices as Bothe Richter Teherani or gmp von Gerkan, Marg and Partner are two of the standard-bearers for an ambitious architectural scene in Hamburg of a kind impossible to fi nd elsewhere in Germany and Europe.

Hamburg is Germany´s media capital

The media sector is among Hamburg’s largest employers. In the media business alone, round 63,000 people work in some 12,400 media companies. No other location can boast such a powerful and balanced structure of leading suppliers and service providers in all areas of the media.

Publications from Hamburg account for almost 50 percent of the countrywide paid circulation of daily and weekly newspapers and consumer magazines. The largest news agencies and television studios – first and foremost, Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (dpa) and the NDR’s radio and television studios – are the basis of Hamburg’s reputation as Germany’s news capital. Hamburg, moreover, is seen as the digital industry pioneer and the German advertising world’s creative powerhouse – with legion advertising and design agencies, fi lm studios and media service providers.

Publishers in Hamburg

Germany’s leading publishers do much to mold the public opinion from their bases in Hamburg. Topping the field are such nationally leading tabloids as the Axel Springer group’s “BILD”, “BILD am Sonntag” and Sport BILD, the daily “Die Welt” and “Welt am Sonntag”, the financial papers “Financial Times Germany” and “Manager Magazin”. For the worlds of politics and business, the news magazine “Der Spiegel“ is obligatory reading every Monday, while each Thursday the weekly “DIE ZEIT” is quite liable to trigger important debate about society. The Gruner + Jahr magazines “Stern”, “Brigitte” and “GEO” are seen as the flagships in their segments.

Additional high-circulation magazines and consumer titles are published by the large Hamburg-based media groups Jahreszeiten Verlag and Heinrich Bauer Verlag.

Climate & Temperatures in Hamburg

Best time to travel / Season

The best time to travel to Hamburg is probably during Spring/Summer.

Climate and Temperatures

For the most part Hamburg is a fairly wet and windy city, with winds blowing in moist air from the North Sea. Summers are warm but rainy, with occasional brief dry, sunny spells. Winters are cold, can be chilling to 28ºF (-2ºC) or below . January is the coldest month, that’s when the lakes in the city centre have been known to freeze enough for ice-skating. Starting in early December- Snowfall is mostly light Spring, when the city’s thousands of trees come into bloom is very pleasant.

Map

Hamburg Visitor Info & Getting Around

Population

City of Hamburg ~1.8 million

Elevation

At sea level

Airport

Hamburg Airport: https://www.hamburg-airport.de/en/

Public Transportation

HVV

The public transport network consists of the Schnellbahn, our rapid transit rail services, (U-/, S- and A-Bahn), regional rail (R-Bahn) and buses. In a port city like Hamburg you can also sail along to your destination on our harbor and river ferries.

Website HVV: https://www.hvv.de/en/

Tourist Information

Tourist Information at the Central Railway Station
U/S-Bahn Hauptbahnhof/
Kirchenallee Main Entrance

Tourist Information at the Harbor
St. Pauli Landungsbrücken
between jetty 4 and 5