Sixteen states. One Altstadt at a time.
Which Reichstag dome slot to register for. Where the Spree boats actually cast off. Whether the Neuschwanstein day out of Munich is worth eleven hours. Reviews of the tours, with what each one costs.
Germany’s busiest tours, from the Reichstag down.
Every review →A dome above the debating chamber, an hour on the Spree, a harbour barge among the container cranes. More travellers take these than anything else in the country.
1
Reichstag, Dome and Government District Guided Tour
Tour Berlin’s Reichstag, plenary chamber, dome, and government district with a lively guide, practical tips, and sweeping city views.
From · $18
Read our review →
2
1-Hour City Tour by Boat with Guaranteed Seating
from $25
3
Sex and Crime in St. Pauli Tour for Ages 18+
from $295
4
1.5-Hour Harbor and Speicherstadt Day Cruise
from $40
5
Neuschwanstein & Linderhof Castle Full-Day Trip
6
Semperoper Tickets and Guided Tour
from $18
7
Boat Tour Along the River Spree
from $34
8
Discover Berlin Half-Day Walking Tour
from $24
The days that fill a German fortnight.
Old towns on foot, castles on cliffs, working harbours, brewery cellars and the lantern-lit night watch. Six ways a trip here gets planned, and the best of each.
Berlin gives up its history on foot, not indoors.
The dome you have to register for in advance. Wall fragments left standing between apartment blocks. A boat that shows you the government quarter from the water. Three hours walking explains more of this city than a day of museums.
Neuschwanstein: one day, several ways to spend it.
All 24 castle days out of Munich →
Ludwig’s hillside keep sits two hours south of Munich and the summer coaches fill weeks ahead. These three carry the most people; the full list splits the rest by how much of the day you get back.
Neuschwanstein and Linderhof in one day
Two of Ludwig’s palaces between breakfast and dinner, with Hohenschwangau village below and the Marienbrücke view over the gorge in between.
Marksburg, Cochem and the Rhine gorge
The bend-by-bend stretch between Koblenz and Rüdesheim carries more standing castles than any river in Europe, and a deck chair is the only way to count them.
Nymphenburg, the Residenz and the royal gardens
Munich’s Wittelsbach palaces are a tram ride from Marienplatz, which makes them the castle day that fits inside an afternoon.
Munich runs on beer halls and day trips.
The Hofbräuhaus is the tourist one and still worth an hour; the Augustiner cellars are where the city drinks. Between rounds, the Alps and Ludwig’s castles are each a morning away.
Hamburg is a working port that happens to give tours.
Container gantries at the waterline, the red-brick canyons of the Speicherstadt, a concert hall stacked on top of a cocoa warehouse. The harbour barge is the cheapest hour in the city and the best introduction to it.
- 1Sex and Crime in St. Pauli Tour for Ages 18+from $295
- 21.5-Hour Harbor and Speicherstadt Day Cruisefrom $40
- 390-Minute Evening Lights Harbor Cruisefrom $27
What a day out in Germany actually costs.
Every reviewed tour sorted by price. Half the country’s best hours cost less than a restaurant main course.
Old-town walks, cathedral climbs, harbour barges and museum entry. Where most German days start.
Full-day castle runs, brewery evenings, boat-and-bus combinations with a guide who stays with you.
Private guides, chartered boats and the small-group castle days that keep the coach out of it.
Germany’s night watch, beer cellars and castle gorge.
Every country with an old town runs a walking tour. The lantern-lit curfew round, the brewery cellar with its own copper kettles, and seventy castles along forty miles of river belong to this one.
The Night Watch
Dresden, Rothenburg, Nürnberg and a dozen smaller towns still send a watchman out after dark with a lantern, a horn and a halberd. The route is the medieval curfew round, the commentary is the town’s own gossip about who was fined for what, and it finishes where it always did, at an inn.
- 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 Beer Cellar
The Reinheitsgebot still decides what goes in the glass and every region argues its own answer: Kölsch in 200ml poles that a waiter replaces until you cover it, Weissbier in Munich, smoked Rauchbier in Bamberg. A brewery visit here ends in the cellar, not the gift shop.
- 1Brewery Tour with 3 Kölsch Beer Tastings★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 3,108 reviews
- 2St. Pauli Highlights Guided Tour with Beer for 18+★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 2,353 reviews
- 3Bavarian Beer and Food Evening Tour in Munich★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,575 reviews
The Castle Gorge
Between Koblenz and Rüdesheim the Rhine cuts a gorge with a castle on nearly every bend, most of them toll keeps built by barons who taxed the river below. The boat is slower than the train on the same bank and the only way to see them the way they were meant to be seen.
- 1Rhine Valley Castles and Palaces Boat Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 1,824 reviews
- 2Rhine Valley Castles: 1.5-Hour Boat Tour from Rüdesheim★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 1,390 reviews
- 32-Hour Sightseeing Cruise on the Rhine★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 839 reviews
The German bookings that will not wait.
Most of this country can be arranged from the hotel the night before. These cannot. They run on parliamentary registration, timed castle entry and daily windows that move around rehearsals.
- 01Reichstag, Dome and Government District Guided TourThe Bundestag registers dome visitors in advance and checks passports at the door. There is no queue to join on the day.
- 02Neuschwanstein & Linderhof Castle Full-Day TripCastle entry runs on timed slots sold ahead. Without one you walk up the hill and look at it from outside.
- 03Semperoper Tickets and Guided TourTours run in the gaps between rehearsals, so the daily window moves and the good slots go first.
- 04Elbphilharmonie Plaza Guided TourThe plaza is free but slot-limited, and the guided hours inside the concert halls sell out days ahead.
German rain is a scheduling problem, not a lost day.
It rains about one day in three through a German summer, and harder in the west than the east. The indoor answers are usually better than the plan you had: a museum vault, a brewery cellar, an opera house between rehearsals, an escape room in an old bank.
- 1Jewish Museum Berlin Entrance Ticketfrom $0
- 2DDR Museum Ticketsfrom $15
- 3Natural History Museum Entrance Ticketfrom $12
German cities save their best hour for after sunset.
Where to be after sunset →Sex and Crime in St. Pauli Tour for Ages 18+
Read our review →
St. Pauli Highlights Guided Tour with Beer for 18+
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The Original Night Watchman Tour in Lantern Light
Read our review →By city — where are you based?
Berlin599 tours
Munich200 tours
Hamburg212 tours
Cologne97 tours
Dresden99 tours
Frankfurt89 tours
Leipzig58 tours
Heidelberg33 tours- All 36 cities and regions →
Berlin to the Alps, the way most first trips run.
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