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Harbor life in Hamburg: Cool experiences and sights for your next trip is written by Karen Bender.
This is the best way to get to Hamburg
Hamburg - also known as Hamburg offers lots of exciting experiences, and one attraction after another. Read along here, where you will be guided to which experiences and sights you must see - all centered around the exciting harbor areas and the beautiful canals.
It is easy to get to Hamburg, whether by train, plane, bus or car, and personally I prefer to drive myself. Hamburg is a good experience when you come by car. It is easy to find around, there are parking garages everywhere, and you can often find a hotel that also offers a parking space, which is why I choose to drive myself.
The advantage of trains and buses is that you land in the center of the city, which is why it is a good alternative to the car. Flights are also possible, but here you have to factor in the time from the airport to the city centre.
New favorite hotel in Hamburg
There are hotels and hostels in all price levels in Hamburg. Therefore, your choice depends on who you are traveling with, whether you are alone and prefer a private hotel room, or whether you prefer a lively and youthful culture in a hostel.
Hostels and hostels are the cheapest, but it is also possible to find them good central hotels at a good price.
The Ruby Lotti Hotel has an absolutely wonderful interior design and offers both a bar area, 24-hour check-in, exchange of daily cleaning for drinks in the bar as a climate-friendly measure – yes, it's good enough! – library/quiet compartment for work and nice rooms.
Therefore, my choice fell on this hotel this time, as I traveled alone and enjoy the peace of work. And it was an experience worth recommending.
The largest rooms face the street, which is quiet and without much traffic, while the canal side is more beautiful, but at the same time with smaller rooms.
St. The Pauli Bunker is a huge new experience
There are many cool experiences and sights in Hamburg, and once you have arrived, is St. The Pauli Bunker the very first thing you have to look for. Of all the types of attractions in the city, this one is a pretty crazy experience in Hamburg. In fact, it is an old bunker from the Second World War.
In the past, this attraction has been a form of youth center/rehearsal rooms/apartments and youth housing, but now it has been transformed into a hotel, restaurant, bar, rock shop, roof garden and a form of cultural center.
Roof garden with bar and wild flowers – green Hamburg
When you arrive at St. Pauli bunker, you will be searched and sent through a revolving door, and then it's just a matter of taking the external stairs up to the top floor. Along the way, there are beautiful viewpoints over the city centre, St. Pauli and the TV tower, and you pass both a floor with a rock cafe and music shop, the hotel and La scala, an Italian restaurant, before you land on the roof.
Here, a nice roof garden has been created, complete with grass, wild flowers and a small bar, where a cool drink serves as a reward for the climb up here. It is a nice little attraction to experience this bio garden at the top while you pan around and enjoy the view.
When you move down again, you can have coffee in the very beautiful cafe, which is an experience in itself. The cafe is semi-circular with a panoramic view, and if you need to swing your legs a bit, four swings have been installed, where you can eat your lunch while sitting and swinging - an experience in Hamburg that is fun for both children and young people.
If you're traveling with children or brave souls, Hamburger Dom is tucked in at the foot of the bunker and offers seriously large air carousels and dizzying swing arms, where you can really have your balance point challenged. It is also a great experience to float away and look DOWN on the bunker.
Many children and young people will certainly place this as a must see attraction in Hamburg, where you can really get your heart rate up.
Stadium for the local football team, St. Pauli, is also located next to the bunker, and there are often both football schools and classic football training. It is possible to buy tickets for matches, which offer fun experiences for football fans.
Easygoing ladies and live music – Reeperbahn has it all
A very famous area in Hamburg is Reeperbahn, which is characterized by many bars and restaurants, many scantily clad women and lots of music and life. It is not an attraction as such, but I still think that the area should be mentioned and is worth a visit.
It is here that the world-famous band The Beatles made their musical debut at the Star Club venue, and even today it is possible to hear live music and meet musicians who dream of the big breakthrough. In addition, a square has been named after the band with fine carved figures, so that they are always visible in the streetscape.
If you are looking for life and live music, you can always find a bar or an exciting place here, because there are plenty of experiences in the neighborhood in Hamburg. However, it is also a harsh environment, and you have to decide for yourself whether you want to explore it in the evening, or whether you would rather take a walk through the area in daylight.
Harbor tour and Hamburg's opera house
Another exciting experience in Hamburg is the old harbor area. Hamburg is also called the Nordics Amsterdam, because there are so many canals, and this is clearly seen in the harbor area, where it all intertwines and is intersected by small canals and larger harbor inlets.
There are plenty of opportunities to take a harbor cruise, and depending on your temperament, you can both sail in the small inner canals and listen to a historical guide, or choose a large harbor cruise, where you both see the large harbor areas and hear about Hamburg as a trading city through the time. Regardless, it is an attraction where you experience Hamburg from a different angle.
If you prefer to stretch your legs and make your own trip, the harbor area is obvious. There are plenty of restaurants and bars if you need refreshment, and especially the large opera house, which looks like a large pirate ship in the entrance to the harbor area, is worth a visit.
It is possible to just walk around it, see the building and enjoy the architecture, and you can also get a guided tour inside, where you can hear the whole story of the dramatic construction, which after several bankruptcies and challenges is now finished and contains both concert halls and a hotel.
Many people experience this opera house as a major attraction, as it is both architecturally very beautiful and is also strategically located in the harbor area, so you can almost always see it.
Beach bar and sundeck with harbor view
A very different attraction in Hamburg is the visit to St. Pauli beach bar. There are sunbeds, a view of the harbor and fine sand, which combined offers a fun and different experience in the middle of the big city. Here is the menu of fries and snack food, cold beer and cocktails and evening clubbing, for those who want this.
It's a sight that appeals to both young and old, because it's great to land in a sun lounger with fine beach sand to your toes after a long hike, and that's why it's on the list of alternative experiences in Hamburg.
In fact, there are three bars that are in continuation of each other, and therefore you have to let yourself be guided by your own desires for food and drinks, so that you land in the best place.
After a good day with lots of experiences for both eyes and ears in the Reeperbahn and exploring the harbor area, it's time to dive into the evening's culinary line up. Hamburg is a cornucopia of restaurants, cafes and eateries, and you can find everything from the cheapest quick meal in a folk kitchen to finer French cuisine and Michelin restaurants.
From wienerschnitzel to meat sushi – Hamburg has it all
If you stay in the harbor area after your sunset drink at the beach bar, there are plenty of places to eat that appeal to both young and old. There is everything from fish and steaks to schnitzels and spaghetti, and it is easy to find a restaurant that can satisfy both small and large palates.
If you want a completely different culinary experience, the sushi restaurant Sencha Sushi Bar und Restaurant in the harbor area can be recommended. Here you can enjoy your sushi while you sit and watch the beautiful craftsmanship in the open kitchen, where rice and rolls are quickly and efficiently assembled into beautiful elaborate pieces that almost look like Christmas confections.
I opted out of the classic sushi and went with a menu where fish was replaced by meat and it was an exciting culinary experience that opened my eyes to the fact that sushi can offer something other than rice and raw fish.
The menu consisted of both duck, lamb and beef, arranged like the classic sushi, but with meat instead of fish. In addition, there were chicken skewers and small seaweed rolls with salmon and spicy tuna, which were the closest I could get to classic sushi.
Everything was arranged small and manageable in beautiful bite-sized pieces, and thus I got a new experience added to my backpack of culinary highlights.
Beautiful roof top bars and breathtaking city life
End the day with coffee or cocktails at one of the many hot roof top bars and give yourself a good experience to sleep on. Many hotels in Hamburg offer elevated rooftop bars, where it is possible as a guest from outside to check in to a breathtaking view while enjoying an evening drink.
To stay in the harbor area, I would therefore recommend my favorite rooftop bar, which is located high on top of a hotel and with beautiful cocktails and a breathtaking view as part of the experience.
On the 20th floor of the Empire Riverside hotel you will find the rooftop bar called Skyline Bar 20UP. Empire Riverside has both a fish restaurant, a fireplace lounge and the bar on the 20th floor, which both offers sunsets over the harbor area, award-winning sushi and beautiful cocktails. All that makes this an obvious way to end the day and it rounds off all the day's experiences in Hamburg perfectly, I think.
Sights and experiences in Hamburg
- The opera house on the harbour
- Shopping in the inner city with the many fine arcades
- Planten und blomen- park with beautiful flower arrangements
- Cotton club, local venue with live music almost every night
- Canal cruise in the small canals
- Walk in the old Elbe tunnel
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