Neuschwanstein at nine. Beer hall by six.
Which castle coach leaves Munich early enough to beat the queue. Where the Spree boats actually turn round. What a Reeperbahn night costs before the first round. Every tour in Germany, reviewed and priced.
Six German days that fill up first.
A castle in the Alps, a walk through the Third Reich, a brewery cellar, a river at dusk, an old town on foot and the four weeks a year the markets are lit. Start here and the rest of the trip arranges itself.
Three ways to reach Neuschwanstein.
Every Neuschwanstein tour →
Ludwig II built it into a gorge above Hohenschwangau, two hours south of Munich, and every version of the day is a trade between coach time, castle time and how much of Bavaria you see on the way.
Neuschwanstein and Linderhof in one run
Two of Ludwig’s three palaces in a day: the gorge castle in the morning, the gilded little Linderhof after lunch, Alpine road between them.
Neuschwanstein, unhurried
One castle, one long look. Time for the Marienbrücke view over the gorge and the walk down through Hohenschwangau instead of a second palace.
From Füssen, with the gorge on foot
Staying in Füssen or Garmisch cuts three hours of coach out of the day and puts you at the ticket centre before the Munich buses arrive.
Germany’s most popular tours.
The full German catalogue →The bookings more travellers take than anything else in the country, and what each one actually gets you.
1
Reichstag, Dome and Government District Guided Tour
A guided Berlin Parliament District tour with Reichstag Plenarsaal and dome access plus rooftop views, political context, and great guide storytelling.
From · $18
Read our review →
2
Sex and Crime in St. Pauli Tour for Ages 18 +
from $29
3
1-Hour City Tour by Boat with Guaranteed Seating
from $25
4
TV Tower Standard Entrance Ticket
from $33
5
Neuschwanstein & Linderhof Castle Full-Day Trip
from $94
6
1.5-Hour Harbor and Speicherstadt Day Cruise
from $40
7
Semperoper Tickets and Guided Tour
from $18
8
Boat Tour Along the River Spree
from $34
Berlin explains itself on foot, then by boat.
The Reichstag dome needs your passport details days ahead. The Wall needs a guide who can point at what is gone. The Spree needs nothing but a seat and a beer. Berlin is the one German city where the tour is the point.
Sachsenhausen and Dachau are day trips from the two biggest cities.
Sachsenhausen sits an hour north of Berlin at Oranienburg; Dachau is twenty minutes out of Munich on the S2. Both memorial sites are free to enter and both are large, so most visitors go with a guide who knows the ground and the timeline. Tours run in English and in German, usually five to six hours door to door, and include the train or coach out and back.
Munich runs on Marienplatz, the Viktualienmarkt and a cellar bench.
The glockenspiel at eleven, white sausages before noon, and an afternoon that ends under chestnut trees with a litre in front of you. Munich is also the gateway south — every Alpine and castle day in this catalogue leaves from here.
In Hamburg the harbour is the sight, and it runs all night.
Container cranes at dusk from a barge, the warehouse canals of the Speicherstadt, then the Reeperbahn doing what it has done since the port men came ashore. Book the harbour cruise for the evening light and leave St Pauli until after it.
- 1Sex and Crime in St. Pauli Tour for Ages 18 +from $29
- 21.5-Hour Harbor and Speicherstadt Day Cruisefrom $40
- 390-Minute Evening Lights Harbor Cruisefrom $27
Dresden was rebuilt stone by stone. Saxon Switzerland was never touched.
The Frauenkirche came back out of its own rubble and the Zwinger courtyards behind it are the finest baroque in the country. An hour upriver the Elbe cuts through sandstone towers, and the Bastei bridge crosses the gap between two of them.
What a day out in Germany costs.
Half the catalogue costs less than dinner. Three bands, what each one buys you, and the options travellers take most in each.
City walks, night watchman rounds, river hours and museum entry — the everyday best of the country.
Food tours, brewery cellars, evening harbour cruises and the guided history walks that need a proper guide.
The full-day runs south: castles, the Zugspitze, the Romantic Road, and private cars with a driver.
Only in Germany.
Old towns and river cruises exist all over Europe. The lantern round, the four-week market and the litre glass under a chestnut tree are German inventions and stay that way.
The Night Watchman Round
Before street lighting, a watchman walked the walls with a halberd, a horn and a lantern, calling the hour and checking for fire. Rothenburg never let the job die and a dozen other towns have brought it back — Dresden, Leipzig, Nuremberg, Bamberg. It runs after dark, it costs less than a museum ticket, and the man in the cloak is usually the best storyteller in town.
- 1The Original Night Watchman Tour in Lantern Light★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 6,653 reviews
- 2Night Watchman’s Tour of St. Pauli in German★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 4,818 reviews
- 31.5-Hour Public Tour with Night Watchman Bremme★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 3,116 reviews
The Christmas Market
Nuremberg’s Christkindlesmarkt has been trading since at least 1628 and the modern German market still keeps to its calendar: the stalls go up in the last week of November and come down on Christmas Eve. Glühwein arrives in a mug you pay a deposit on, the gingerbread is soft and the wooden ornaments are carved in the Erzgebirge. Outside those four weeks there is nothing to see.
- 1Original Munich Christmas Market Tour with Festive Wine and Food★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 85 reviews
- 2Munich Christmas Market Food Tour with Tastings★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 54 reviews
- 3Christmas Markets Food & Drink Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 50 reviews
The Cellar and the Bench
The 1516 Reinheitsgebot left Germany with regional beers rather than national ones: Kölsch in thin glasses in Cologne, Altbier across the river in Düsseldorf, dark Rauchbier in Bamberg, Helles by the litre in Munich. A brewery tour here means the copper, the cellar and four or five tastings — and you sit at whatever table has space.
- 1Brewery Tour with 3 Kölsch Beer Tastings★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 3,108 reviews
- 2Brewery Tour with Alt Beer Tastings★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 1,523 reviews
- 3Classic Mike’s Bike Tour daily @ 11.30 incl Beer Garden & Surfers★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,246 reviews
German cities keep their best hours for the evening.
More Germany after dark →Sex and Crime in St. Pauli Tour for Ages 18 +
Read our review →
The Original Night Watchman Tour in Lantern Light
Read our review →Book these before you fly to Germany.
Most of Germany can be booked from the hotel the night before. These cannot — they run on registration deadlines, timed slots and a calendar that does not care when your flight lands.
- 01Reichstag, Dome and Government District Guided TourThe dome and the plenary chamber need registration with passport details in advance — there is no walk-up queue.
- 02Neuschwanstein & Linderhof Castle Full-Day TripCastle entry is a timed slot and the summer slots are gone long before the coach leaves Munich.
- 03Semperoper Tickets and Guided TourTours run between rehearsals and performances, so the calendar changes weekly and the good days go early.
- 04Original Munich Christmas Market Tour with Festive Wine and FoodThe markets trade from late November to Christmas Eve. Outside those four weeks the squares are empty.
It rains here in every month. Go inside and go deeper.
The North Sea weather comes across Hamburg and Cologne all year and the Alps make their own. The answers are all under a roof: a brewery cellar, an opera house between rehearsals, a museum island with five buildings on it, and a long lunch that was going to happen anyway.
- 1Jewish Museum Berlin Entrance Ticketfrom $0
- 2DDR Museum Ticketsfrom $15
- 3Natural History Museum Entrance Ticketfrom $12
Where in Germany are you based?
Berlin to the Alps, reviewed stop by stop.
RothenburgThe newest German tour reviews.
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Wein-& Sektgeschichte(n) incl. Wein/Sekt Verkostung
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Sektmuseum Histor. Kelllergewölbe incl. 1 Glas Sekt
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Private pub crawl with insider guide & free shots
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Cable car tickets with optional admission to Ehrenbreitstein Fortress
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Kloster Andechs: Brauerei-Tour mit Virtual Reality entdecken
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