Sightseeing Highlights Hamburg
- International Maritime Museum Hamburg
- Elbe Philharmonic Hall
- Hamburg Harbor, Port of Hamburg
- Hamburg Fish Market
- Reeperbahn, ‘Grosse Freiheit’
- Jungfernstieg, Alster
- HafenCity
Hamburg — more infos
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Hamburg offers a Savings Card: the HAMBURG Card
Enjoy free public transport and up to 50% discounts on museums, musicals and tourist attractions with the Hamburg CARD.
Hamburg CARD ─ Save Money with the Hamburg CARD
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Get started now and purchase the Hamburg CARD online (above link), at HVV ticket-vending machines, Hamburg’s tourist information offices or at your hotel. Choose between single and group tickets for one to five days and benefit from Hamburg’s best bargain.
Sightseeing Hamburg – do not miss these places
International Maritime Museum Hamburg
Hamburg’s maritime tradition has a new home in central HafenCity Hamburg, in Kaispeicher B, the city’s earliest surviving warehouse structure. The International Maritime Museum Hamburg along with the Scientific Institute for Maritime and Naval History openened here in 2008.
Its initiator is the publisher and collector Professor Peter Tamm. With 6,000 ship models, marine paintings, atlases, nautical equipment and much more, here he will be presenting the world’s largest collection of maritime icons, unique of its kind.
Website: https://www.imm-hamburg.de/international/en/
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Elbe Philharmonic Hall
A bold glass structure is rising above Kaispeicher A, the massive, monumental redbrick block at the western tip of HafenCity. This architectural vision will become reality in 2010 – the Elbe Philharmonic is Hamburg’s new hallmark.
The design by Swiss architects Herzog &de Meuron combines tradition and modernity just where the Hanseatic city is at its most authentic, directly on the water and in the heart of the city. One of the world’s finest concert venues is being built here, an international centre of musical culture, and at the same time a meeting place complete with plaza, hotel, apartments and green spaces.
The Elbe Philharmonic Hall will be a superb venue for classical music, but also for world, Jazz and Pop music. No bastion of elitism, then, but a hall for everybody. The concert programme will be drawn up jointly with Hamburg’s long-established Laeiszhalle, under artistic director Christoph Lieben-Seutter. Musical life will here possess a new base for holding classical, contemporary, jazz and pop concerts at top international level.
Website: https://www.elbphilharmonie.de/en/
The Reeperbahn – a string of entertainment in transition
The Reeperbahn – a string of entertainment in transition
The Reeperbahn is a living legend – once a seedy red-light quarter for seafarers and ne’er-do-wells, then during the 1960s and 1970s a springboard for Pop culture and the Beatles of the Wirtschaftswunder, but also a deeply Germanic eldorado for stolen moments of fl eeting, uninhibited sex tourism. Yet since the 1990s, the red-light district has been transformed into something quite different – offering drinking and clubbing en masse alongside art galleries, cabarets and theatres, established theatres, gaudy palaces for musicals and even classy restaurants.
The backbone of Hamburg’s amusement area is 930 metres long, strewn with nightclubs and bars, discotheques and pubs. Grosse Freiheit off it, Hans-Albers-Platz, Davidswache police station, as well as Spielbudenplatz with the Panoptikum waxworks and Operettenhaus are all musts on the tourist round.
Far more cramped but parallel to the Reeperbahn is Herbertstrasse, a street of brothels that is off limits for juveniles and female visitors. Yet the masses today stream past the red-light haunts and on into in-vogue clubs and restaurants, theatres and stage musicals. Alongside the Reeperbahn, the revamped Spielbudenplatz with two mobile platforms offers plenty of space for open-air gigs and public views. The remake of Spielbudenplatz makes the Kiez even more appealing.
Reeperbahn Festival
Over 12,000 visitors descended on the Kiez for the second Reeperbahn Festival in September every year for three days of top-class in Hamburg’s clubs on and around the Reeperbahn. Over100 bands playon more than 15 stages. Heavy media coverage made the event known throughout Europe. Music fans of all ages and in pursuit of all genres of music enjoy three stunning evenings in the various theatres and clubs. Unique in Europe, this feast of clubbing in the heart of the Reeperbahn amusement district is again on the horizon.
Website Reeperbahn Festival: https://www.reeperbahnfestival.com/en/
Hamburger Fischmarkt
Every Sunday this fish market gets 70 thousand visitors !!!
Virtually anything not nailed down firmly has been traded at Hamburg’s most traditional market since 1703. From dusty porcelain coffee pot to squawking family of live ducks, anything can be acquired down here in the shadow of the former fi sh auction hall.
Every Sunday morning, night birds from the Reeperbahn clutching fish rolls and hot coffee descend on the waterfront and hope that it will give them a second wind. For early risers, bargain hunters and simple tourists alike, brunch to Jazz, Pop or Rock music in the historic building is a popular option.
Fischmarkt Originals
At the Fischmarkt you can meet some very special people. Two of them are “Aale Dieter” and “Vogel Jakob”. They are both real originals from the Hamburg Fischmarkt. It’s due to them that the Hamburg Fischmarkt is a special experience every Sunday.
Where? At the bank of the Elbe river between Hafenstraße and Große Elbstraße
When? Every Sunday
From the 15th of March (summer): 5 A.M. – 9:30 A.M.
From the 15th of November (winter) 7 A.M. – 9:30 A.M.
Website: https://www.hamburg.com/sights/maritime/11747570/fish-market/
Jungfernstieg – a place to stroll
It is one of the most beautiful and exquisite shopping streets in the whole world.
Jungfernstieg on the Alster has long been Hamburg’s premier thoroughfare for strolling and shopping. Families would take their Sunday walks here, parading their unmarried daughters (or Jungfern).
Jungfernstieg remains something very special as always – the place in Hamburg to see and be seen. This is not simply a question of its ideal location on the banks of the Alster.
Today everything revolves here around shopping in large department stores and exquisite small shops. Shopping here becomes a culture. Large and small, select stores compete with one another in offering exclusive ranges. The wonderful Jungfernstieg is located between the Reesendammbridge and the Gänsemarkt.
In front of the Binnenalster (“Inner Alster Lake”) you will find Hamburg’s most popular promenade – the Jungfernstieg. Its name leads back to a civic rite. A long time ago families came to the Jungfernstieg on sundays for taking a walk with their unmarried ladies, the damsels (german word: “Jungfer”). The name “Jungfern”stieg resulted from this rite.
By the way, the Jungfernstieg was the first street in Germany which was asphalted. Demolition and rebuilding took away a bit of the former masterly architecture of the Jungfernstieg but there are still sights left in all their beauty – e.g. the gorgeous “Alsterarkaden”. It was renovated only some time ago. There are plenty of exquisite shops in the inner of the “Alsterarkaden”.
Also in the passage at the “Hamburger Hof” you will be able to buy many special products. The most traditional building is the Alster-Pavillon of course. At this place you can have a coffee and a phenomenal view over the Alster – and all this since 1799, a very long time. One of Hamburg’s former mayors Max Brauer was sure that this was the most beautiful restaurant in whole Germany.
Today you’ll find the Café Alex in the Alster-Pavillon. Right next to the Café there is the Alster-pier. It is just perfect to have a relaxing trip by ship after a shopping expedition. The Binnenalster makes downtown a special place. The fountain in the middle of the lake turned into a special landmark of Hamburg City.
Read what Tripadvisor travelers had to say: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g187331-d194653-Reviews-Jungfernstieg-Hamburg.html
Port of Hamburg is a magnet for tourists
In Hamburg, the port is not simply a factor in the economy, but also a great tourist attraction, being so centrally located. The comings and goings of the ships and the loading and discharge of goods at state-of-the-art container terminals are all equally fascinating. The port also houses long-established leisure and cultural facilities. Speicherstadt houses several museums and various entertainment centres. Soon the new HafenCity will be offering additional sightseeing highlights. The best way of discovering the port is on a round trip by boat – or by taking one of the ferry lines linking the North and South banks of the Elbe.
Port birthday: a bumper maritime festival mid of May
Every year Hamburg fetes its port with a bumper party – recalling the granting of privileges by Emperor Kaiser Frederick Barbarossa on May 7th 1189. Toll-free trading extending from the Lower Elbe to the North Sea for all ships from the port marked the start of an unparalleled success story. Even today, the port forms the core of the Hanseatic City and the River Elbe is its vital artery. More than 1.5 million people throng the port for the world’s largest waterfront party featuring a tall ships’ parade, a fireworks display and a ballet afloat by port tugboats.
From Baumwall as far as the St. Pauli landing- and the fish market, the throng dances, feasts and parties away three pulsating days between fairground booths and concert platforms.
Website Port of Hamburg: https://www.hafen-hamburg.de/
Website: Port Anniversay: https://www.hamburg.com/port-anniversary/
HafenCity Hamburg
HafenCity Hamburg, the largest urban development project in Europe, is being built on 155 hectares formerly used for the port. Lying directly on the Elbe and the port, a new district of the city is being created to provide a unique mix of culture and leisure, living and working downtown, shopping and eating out, its parks and public places, promenades and perspective views all right on the water.
READ more: HafenCity Hamburg
