The most beautiful cities in Germany

Germany’s most beautiful cities and towns stand among the best places to visit in the European Union. They span almost the full range of European variety.

• There are cities with Roman origins and remains such as Trier, Cologne, Regensburg and Mainz.
• Medieval cities such as Nuremberg, Erfurt, Bamberg and Worms and the half-timbered Harz region towns of Goslar, Quedlinburg and Wernigerode.
• Renaissance showpiece cities such as Lübeck, Augsburg or Bremen.
• Cities with Baroque survivals, including Dresden, Heidelberg or Passau.
• Plenty of German cities have beautiful palaces on their streets or nearby, like Potsdam, Munich, Stuttgart, Würzburg and Weimar.
• The great cathedrals such as Cologne, Regensburg, Bamberg, Mainz, Erfurt, Worms, with countless other churches, sometimes in Romanesque but more commonly in the Gothic style. The münster of Ulm has the tallest spire of them all.
• Museums of culture and art among world’s best, including Deutsches Museum, Deutsches Nationalmuseum, Alte Pinakothek and the Pergamonmuseum.

All these places can be reached by train and bus (Quedlinburg is on a branch line). All offer a range of hotels, hostels, guest houses and other types of accommodation. All are very walkable and, like most German towns and cities, are really best seen on foot. But trams and buses help get people to and from hotels or attractions and for the bigger centres, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Nuremberg, there are fast regular options in the form of S-bahn and U-bahn trains and light-rail transport.

Laundry

Self-service coin laundries (look for 'SB-Waschsalon', ‘Waschcenter’, sometimes 'Wäscherei') can vary considerably in price. Where offered, a service wash will take a 24 or 48-hour turnaround.

The Eco-Express Waschsalon chain is a large network mostly in the west and south of Germany, but has laundries in Berlin (about a dozen), Hamburg and Cologne (about 15 each), Munich (eight), Lübeck and Dresden (five, where prices per load are lower), Nuremberg (four) and more than a dozen other cities. Wash costs for a normal load of 6kg are usually €3.50-4.50 (in many locations cheaper 6.00-10.00), a large load €9-12, with a charge of €0.50-0.70 for wash powder. Drying for 15 minutes will cost €1.50 or more. Some laundries allow card payment. The website displays local prices from a pop-out map. Common opening times are 6.00-22.00.

The Schnell & Sauber-Schleudertraum laundrettes have a network of about 20 locations in the north-east, mostly in Berlin but including Potsdam and Rostock. Prices are similar to above but the Schleudertraum app offers lower rates and the website has an English version. Customer cards are also available.

Branches of both networks offer free wi-fi access for customers.

In Munich or Augsburg, check out the small Waschomat chain, which offers low rates and is open late, but closed Sunday.

Occasionally establishments will offer drinks and snacks, but the standout is Berlin’s Freddy Leck sein Waschsalon, open daily 8.00-22.00 at Gotzkowskystraße 11 in Moabit in western Berlin. This is a favourite with expats and offers friendly multilingual service and assistance. No coins are required. A 6kg load costs €5 (16kg €11.80) and coffee, soft, coffee, soft drinks, cakes, other snacks and wi-fi are available.

Costs in budget and mid-priced hotels – where laundering is offered – vary even more widely. In recent years it has been possible to have an unspecified load washed, dried (and returned in about 24 hours) for charges averaging €10-12, while other hotels will provide an itemised price list that works out much more expensively. Some pensions or guesthouses will provide access to a laundry free during stays of several days. Not all hostels offer washing facilities, though many DJH establishments do. This will be noted on the listing at the DJH website.