Hamburg is a wonderful city, with one of the best museums we’ve ever visited and some incredible landmarks too. While it may not be as popular to visit as Munich or Berlin, Hamburg has so much character and history. There is no shortage of things to do in Hamburg on a budget.

Truthfully, the German production of Hamilton: The Musical originally brought us there (let us know if you saw it!), but we made sure to see as much of the city as possible. We’re so glad we did because we found some amazing things to do, and now we have some great recommendations! Here are our favourite things that we did while we were in Hamburg:

Cost: Free

Our favourite place to start with any new city is to wander the streets. There’s so many great things to see in Hamburg just by walking around the city. Start at the Town Hall, an impressive Neo-Renaissance building from 1897 that you can have a guided tour of for only €5. The town hall is also in a big town square with the Hygieia Fountain in the middle and the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce directly opposite the hall.

Just across the water from the Town Hall is Neuer Wall, a high end shopping street with some great lights in the evening. Another notable street nearby is Mönckebergstraße, a beautiful street with lots of shops, restaurants and cafes with cute outdoor seating. If you’re after a great LGBTQ+ area, don’t miss Lange Reihe where there’s a number of gay bars, cafes and shops and rainbow flags everywhere. Just don’t make the mistake we did and try to explore any of these streets on a Sunday, everything will be shut!

Also nearby the Town Hall is the St. Nikolai Memorial, a church that was mostly destroyed by bombing in WWII. The church’s spire is the tallest building in the city at 147 meters, and has a viewing platform at 76 meters. You can also visit the small museum in the church vaults for only €6 every day from 10am-6pm. From May to September the viewing platform stays open until 10pm and tickets can be bought on their website.

While you’re walking around, take note of how many bridges you can see. Hamburg actually has the most bridges of any other city in Europe (yes, including Amsterdam – this surprised us!). It has around 2500 bridges, which is more than Venice, London and Amsterdam combined!

Cost: Free

Speicherstadt is the worlds largest grouping of warehouses and is Germany’s 40th UNESCO World Heritage Site. The 26 hectare site was built on thousands of oak piles on the Elbe River between 1888 and 1927. However it was partly reconstructed in 1967 after being damaged during the Second World War. It is is one of the best examples of Neo-Gothic and modernist architecture and the 1.5km long area is located to the south of the city centre.

It used to be a port where goods could be transported without paying customs, but is now a major tourist attraction. Speicherstadt is where a lot of the cities museums are located and is also a great place to just walk around and take photos. Of course a lot of the buildings are also still used as warehouses and the area is actually responsible for one third of the worlds carpet production. Tea, spices, coffee, cocoa, electrical equipment and boating equipment are also produced in Speicherstadt.

Cost: Free

While you’re walking around the city, you might stumble upon the two Alster Lakes. Binnenalster or the Inner Alster Lake is smaller at only 0.2 square kilometres and is closer to the city. Just across the road from it is Außenalster or the Outer Alster Lake which is much bigger at 1.64 square kilometres.

These lakes are artificial, having been created from the Alster River which is an offshoot of the much bigger Elbe River. Walking around Binnenalster is a lovely thing to do on a nice day and you can admire the Alster Fountain which sits in the middle of the lake. While Außenalster is too big to walk completely around, walking along it is very enjoyable and there are some lovely places to sit and relax along the water.

Cost: Free

If you’ve read any of our other blogs or seen our YouTube videos, you’ll know that we love a park. So of course, we headed to Planten un Blomen while in Hamburg. This park is a 47 hectare space just a short walk away from the main city, and means “Plants and Flowers” in German. There are 5 sections of the garden separated by roads but there are lots of different bits to explore.

There are garden beds that bloom during spring, lots of open green space to relax in, a playground and a Japanese garden. In winter, there’s an ice skating rink and in summer there is mini golf and outdoor chess. Additionally, from May to August there is a fountain show every night and more information on that can be found here.

Within the garden is also the Alter Botanischer Garten or the Old Botanical Garden. This garden is mostly made up of five greenhouses that can all be accessed completely for free. The five greenhouses are a subtropical house, a fern house, a palm house, a succulent house and a tropical house. The greenhouses are open 9am – 7pm every day and are definitely worth a visit during your trip to the park.

Cost: Free (Unless you buy something!)

If you’re are an early riser looking for something to do in Hamburg on a Sunday, why don’t you head over to the Hamburg Fish Market. Since 1703 the market has run along the Elbe river and it can be accessed easily from the city by multiple buses. It is open every Sunday from 5:00am to 9:30am from April to October and from 7:00am to 9:30am from November to March. If you’d like to visit put “Fischmarkt Hamburg Altona” into Google Maps.

The market sells everything from fish (obvioulsy) to fresh fruit, vegetables and flowers, as well as clothing and souvenirs. There’s always a lot going on and people everywhere and sometimes you can even catch a plant auction. After wandering through the market, make sure to stop by the nearby Altonaer Fischauktionshalle (The Fish Auction Hall). In this beautiful building people are often still partying from the night before and live music plays here till midday.

Cost: From €6 to €79 but most average around €18-20

We have visited many museums in many cities, and we can say for sure that Hamburg has some of our favourites. There really is a museum for everyone so below we’re going to list some that are worth a visit!

This is one of the best things we visited on our 15 month trip around the world, and we are not exaggerating. Miniatur Wunderland is the largest model railway system in the world spread out over 1,545 square meters.

There are 1120 model trains that run on over 16,000 meters of track through 9 sections. These sections are models of parts of the world including Scandinavia, Italy, Switzerland, USA, Brazil and, of course, Hamburg. There are more than 10,000 vehicles, some of which drive independently around the models, and around 290,000 tiny people figurines. Even more incredibly is the working model of an airport with 52 planes actually taxiing, taking off and landing. As you wander through you will even see a control room where workers sit controlling everything through cameras.

The whole place is absolutely amazing and it has even been voted the most popular tourist attraction in Germany. Tickets are €20 each and it is open from 9:30am to 6:30pm at the least, with longer hours during school holidays and on weekends. You can buy tickets at the door but as there is usually a long queue we recommend booking your timed entry ticket online before visiting.

Their website (linked above) recommends 3 hours to see everything, however we gave ourselves 4 hours and still rushed through at least 50% of the models. If you want to take your time and really look at everything, we would recommend going in the morning and putting aside the whole day to look around.

Dialogue Haus was one of our favourite things to do in Hamburg, as it has some of the most fascinating exhibits we have ever seen. There are three to visit, Dialogue in the Dark, Dialogue in Silence and Dinner in the Dark. We chose to do Dialogue in the dark which is fascinating and also a little scary! A visually-impaired guide takes you through a completely dark course including crossing a bridge, exploring a new room and crossing a (fake) street. You get given a guide stick but are mostly relying on the guides voice to find your way. It gives you a completely new understanding and appreciation for people with visual impairments and it is amazing.

Dialogue in silence is a similar experience, but is done with a hearing impaired guide who guides visitors through everyday experiences without sound using sign language. Both this and the Dialogue in the Dark experience last 1 hour and cost €18.50 each. Lastly, dinner in the dark takes visitors though a 5 course meal completely in the dark. This stimulates every other sense while enjoying a delicious meal over 2 hours, and this costs €79 excluding drinks.

The Chocoversum takes visitors on a 90 minute interactive tour of Hamburg’s chocolate museum. It goes through the creation of chocolate from the cocoa bean to the end result. There are of course lots of tastings along the way and at the end visitors get the chance to make their own chocolate bar and top it whatever toppings they want. The museum is open every day and tickets at the counter are €25. However you can also buy early bird tickets on their website (linked above) for €19. If you’re not interested in the tour, it’s still worth a visit to the gift shop for some delicious chocolate treats!

A really unique museum, this takes you through the entire spice process from growing to the finished product. It runs through over 5 centuries of spice history and over 80 spices can even be smelled and touched. There is also a gift shop where you can buy all the spices your heart desires. The museum is open 10am to 5pm, costs €6 per adult, and comes with a free audio guide.

Housed in a former warehouse, this museum exhibits over 40,000 items from collector Peter Tamm. This huge collection is and exhibited on 9 levels and includes interactive sections too. Included are more than one million photographs, model ships and nautical art, instruments, uniforms, books and construction plans. There is also a section all about the collector and how his passion for maritime artefacts grew. The museum is open 10am to 6pm and tickets are available for €17 per adult online or at the door.

Lastly, if you’re after a more traditional art museum, this is the place to go. The Hamburger Kunsthalle is one of the largest art museums in Germany spread across three impressive buildings. It houses a lot of European art from current times all the way back to the middle ages. It also of course has a lot of art by German artists as well as famous artists from France, Italy, The Netherlands and Belgium. The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00am to 6:00pm and is open to 9:00pm on Thursdays. Tickets are €16 each, however if you visit after 5:00pm, tickets are half price.

Cost: From €7 – €17.90

Not going to lie, one of the things we were most excited to do in Germany is eat schnitzel (or schnitty, as we call it in Australia). The place we ended up going to was exceptional, but there are so many highly rated places in the city!

• Erika’s Eck – This is the restaurant we went to and it was the cutest cosy pub. We didn’t need to wait for a seat, and ordered a pork schnitzel to share that came out in less than 10 minutes. It was thin, crispy and delicious and came with the most incredible potatoes and vegetables. One schnitzel will cost €17.90 but can feed two people (as long as you’re not both starving).
• Restaurant Im Sprinkenhof
• Altstädter Stube Willig
• Hamburger Stadtkrug
• Restaurant Franziskaner

There are so many good places to day trip to from Hamburg, such as Lüneburg, Schwerin, Bremen or Stade. However we chose Lübeck which is only 45 minutes on the train from Hamburg, and we were so glad we did! Lübeck’s old town is located on an island and is a UNESCO world heritage site. The entrance to the old town is through the Holsten Gate which is a beautiful gothic style building built in 1444. Inside the gate is also the Holsten Gate Museum which you can visit for €8 each.

The old town is absolutely worth a wander because there’s so many cute winding streets and great places to eat. Lübeck is also known as the “city of the seven towers” which come from the five main city churches. These are all free to enter except for St Mary’s which has a €4 entry fee for adults.

Another must do in the old town is to explore the cities 80 alleyways. To find them, look for signs ending in either “hof” (meaning courtyard) or “gang” (corridor) and then walk down the alley to the courtyard. Some of our favourites are Füchtingshof, Haasenhof, Von-Höveln-Gang and Glandorps Hof. They are usually open around 9:00am to 12 noon and then 3:00pm to 6:00pm every day, but please remember that people live there so be respectful and quiet when visiting!

Lasltly, Lübeck is famous for their marzipan, which is a sweet is made of sugar and either almond meal, extract or oil. Marzipan here is held to a higher standard than most and Niederegger is considered to make the highest quality product. You can visit Café Niederegger to try their huge variety of flavours and there’s also a free museum upstairs. It shows visitors the history of marzipan, almonds and sugar as well as a history of the company. Also, if you’re not a marzipan fan, you should still pay Café Niederegger a visit. As well as marzipan you can also buy nougat, praline and lots of delicious flavours of chocolate so there’s something for everyone!

We’ve written all about how to see Lübeck as a day trip from Hamburg, if you’re interested in more details.

We really hope you take some great tips from this post and have a wonderful time in Hamburg. Let us know if you liked our recommendations and if you have anything else you did that we should know about!

If you want to see what we got up to (and hear our review of the Hamburg production of Hamilton), check out our vlog:

• How to See Lübeck in a Day Trip from Hamburg
• Free and Budget Friendly Ways to Spend Your Time in Vienna
• How to See the Best of Budapest on a Budget
• How to Have the Best Time in London (For Free!)