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.

Weather

Germany is classified as temperate overall and humid. Packing a sweater is recommended and rain gear is essential any time of year. Weather can vary considerably in large cities such as Munich, so the only good advice is to be prepared. Berlin averages 106 days of rain a year.

Formally, seasons are often considered to run according to solstices and equinoxes – thus spring (Frühling) from March 21 or 22 to June 21-22, summer (Sommer) until September 21-22, autumn (Herbst) until December 22. But to most Germans winter (Winter) weather settles in during November and firm signs of spring rarely appear until mid-April. Most travellers will probably choose to visit Germany in spring or early in autumn where they can. Reasonably mild weather can be expected for walking city streets, cruising rivers and the bulk of touring activities. Summer produces hot days (all July 2010 was hot without relief) but it brings crowds of northern hemisphere tourists – as well as the Germans themselves taking the benefit of study breaks or group activities – which puts pressure on accommodation and transport.

German temperatures are given in degrees Celsius, and rainfall in millimetres (also litres per square metre).

Variability of climate is now a key factor travellers should take into account. Germany’s national weather service said in 2022 that this trend had intensified in the previous five years. The summer of 2022 was the sunniest, sixth-driest and fourth-warmest recorded, with low river levels and disruptions to vital Rhine transport traffic. Rain was measured at about half the normal level. Temperatures in northern Germany exceeded 40 deg C on some days. Yet July 2021 had been marked by heavy and destructive flooding.

The warmest years on record were 2018, 2022 and 2023.

Spring: By March average daily maximums are up to 7-11 degrees C (44-51 deg F) in most cities, yet in 2013 frozen conditions struck northern Germany mid-month. Mid-spring is generally an enjoyable time to visit, although the warmth and reliability of weather is much greater in May than in April. April average daily maximums in northern states can be 10-11 deg C (50-52 deg F) but the rest of the country is in the 12-15 deg C (54-59 deg F) range. April minimums in most parts average 3-5 deg C (38-41 deg F). In Berlin the May average maximum is 19 deg C (66 deg F) by comparison with 13 deg (56 deg F) in April – in Dresden, Hamburg and Munich it is 18 deg C.

Summer: Summer can also be extremely warm, although July 2010, in which much of the country endured temperatures of about or above 30 deg C (86 deg F) most days, was exceptional even in the era of climate change. German buildings, especially historic buildings, tend to be heated as necessary rather than airconditioned.

Almost anywhere July average maximums are in the 21-25 deg C (70-77 deg F) range, with minimums of 12-13 deg C (54-56.5 deg F). In most places, July will be significantly wet, with more than 100mm (about four inches) of rain on average in Munich, which will average 12 rainy days. Tallies in eastern and central parts of Germany will be much lower at about 50mm.

Autumn: In September, Berlin maintains a daily average maximum of 19 deg C (66 deg F) and minimums average 11 deg C (51 deg F). This range holds good in most of northern Germany and the central or southern regions are a degree or two warmer in average maximum, with minimums a degree or two cooler.

October tends to be on average about one degree warmer than April almost everywhere. In the north and parts of the east rainfall can be substantially higher, though the variation is great.  Showers or heavier rain are however more likely than in spring. Schleswig-Holstein in the north gets about 90mm in an average October, compared to the more central Thuringia and Sachsen-Anhalt, where most locations get about 30mm (1.2 inches). Berlin’s average October precipitation is somewhat higher (more than 45mm or 1.8 inches) than for surrounding Brandenburg (about 35mm).

By November, average daily maximums around most of Germany are down to 7-9 deg C (45-48 deg F) and minimums are 1-3 deg C (34-38 deg F).

Winter: Winter will generally bring falls of snow – though not everywhere – and a cold not unreasonable for enjoying the Christmas festivals and markets of Nuremberg or Dresden and the skiing (for the well-prepared) at Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Dresden’s daily average December maximum is 4 deg C (39 deg F), minimum -1 deg C (31 deg F). On average there would be seven or eight days with snow. Nuremberg’s figures are 4 deg C and -2 deg C and the daily likelihood of snow around Christmas is 13-15%.

February 2021 was one of the most bizarre months for German weather. A cold mid-month weekend, marked by ice skating and sledding and minimum temperatures of almost -24 deg C (about -11 deg F) in the centre of the country, gave way to a rapid snow melt and a top temperature of 18.1 deg (about -65 deg F) a week later. Maximum temperatures of this order were widely recorded, up to 20 deg C or more. These again fell to about 10 deg by early March – as low as -10 degrees near the Alps.

Average maximums in January range from 4-5 deg C (39-41 deg F) in the western half of Germany to less than 2 deg C (about 36 deg F) in the east – the north and the south (apart from the Alps) show little difference at about 2 deg C. January minimums range from just below zero (32 deg F) in the north to -5 deg C (23 deg F) in most parts of Bavaria. In Berlin, average January maximums are 3 deg C (37 deg F).