Hamburg
Germany
More bridges than Venice and Amsterdam together, a harbour that runs the city, and the loudest night in Germany
Photo by Alexander Bagno on Unsplash
Photos by Claudio Testa, Christian Lue, Martti Salmi and Martti Salmi on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Germany
May to September — it is grey and wet for most of the rest
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 79mm in Jul
Where it is
53.55°N, 9.99°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
A week easily- Walk into the Elbphilharmonie plaza at night, which is free and open late
- Ride the public ferry 62 to Finkenwerder instead of paying for a harbour tour
- Get up for the Fischmarkt at five on a Sunday, ideally without having been to bed
- Eat a Fischbrötchen standing at Brücke 10
- Walk the Speicherstadt at dusk when the brick goes red
Hamburg travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Germany
ExpensiveEuro country. Germany is still more cash-minded than its neighbours — plenty of bars, bakeries and market stalls take nothing else, and they will tell you so at the till rather than on the door.
ATMs & cards
Sparkasse, Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank and Postbank machines are fee-free on their side for most foreign cards. Refuse the conversion. The independent machines in the Reeperbahn and around the station charge several euros and are placed where people are least likely to read the screen.
Avoid these
- Euronet
- the machines on the Reeperbahn and around the Hauptbahnhof
Use these instead
- Sparkasse
- Deutsche Bank
- Commerzbank
- Postbank
Germany is more cash-minded than its neighbours — bakeries, bars and market stalls often take nothing else, and they tell you at the till.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Germany
Reasonably safeComfortable and easy, with a well-lit centre. St Pauli around the Reeperbahn is a working entertainment district: busy, loud and with the usual mix of drunk crowds, aggressive touts and pickpockets after midnight. The station area, Hauptbahnhof, is the one place that feels rough in daylight. The Elbe has strong currents and is not for swimming, whatever the beach at Övelgönne suggests.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (9 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- the Reeperbahn after midnight — the drinking is heavy and the touts around Grosse Freiheit are persistent
- Hansaplatz and the streets east of the Hauptbahnhof — an open drug scene the city has been managing for years; it is unpleasant rather than aimed at you
- the Elbe beaches at high water — the container ships throw a wash that arrives without warning
A very safe city with one loud street in it. The St Pauli problem is drunkenness and being sold things, not much else..
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Germany visa rules
No visa needed
Freedom of movement — no time limit, and no visa. Bring a passport or national ID card.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 90 days
90 days within any 180-day period, counted across the whole Schengen area, not per country. ETIAS, a paid online authorisation, is being introduced for these passports — check the official link for whether it applies to your travel dates.
Visa required in advance€90 (Schengen short-stay visa)
A Schengen short-stay visa is applied for before travel, at the consulate of your main destination.
How to get it: Apply at the consulate or visa centre of the country you will spend most time in, typically 15 working days ahead and no more than six months before travel.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Germany
Excellent and cheapRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date
- Tick-borne encephalitis for the south (Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg) if walking in forests
Getting treated
EU/EEA and Swiss visitors are treated on the same terms as residents with an EHIC or GHIC card; UK visitors use a GHIC. Everyone else pays, and travel insurance is worth having for the repatriation cover rather than the treatment.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
Very goodFischbrötchen — a soft roll with pickled herring or fried fish, eaten standing at the harbour — is the thing, and Brücke 10 is where to have it. Labskaus is beef, beetroot and potato mashed together with a fried egg on top and looks alarming. Franzbrötchen is a cinnamon pastry found nowhere else.
Nightlife
A harbour city with a red-light district that turned into its main nightlife street, and a better scene one block off it.
- the Reeperbahn — the loud half, and the one everybody sees first
- Hamburger Berg — a short street of small bars, where locals go when the Reeperbahn is too much
- Sternschanze — the Schanzenviertel, for bars without the stag parties
- the Fischmarkt at 05:00 — a Sunday institution that is the end of the night, not the start of the morning
Closing: Bars run until 03:00 or 04:00, clubs until dawn, and on Saturday the night ends at the fish market.
A beer in a bar: €4–5
Grosse Freiheit is where the touts are; the bars on Hamburger Berg have none.
Getting around
Easy and cheap- UberWorks here
- BoltWorks here
- FREE NOWWorks here
Uber brokers licensed hire cars rather than its own drivers
- Against a taxi
- Roughly level with the meter, and Germany is one of the few places where a taxi is sometimes cheaper.
The Rückkehrpflicht — hire cars must return to base between jobs — is why a car can be ten minutes away in a small city.
Time zone and your working day
Europe/Berlin — 6 hours ahead of you
2 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–11:00 your time, 15:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 03:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 03:00–11:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of Germany
What these numbers mean
Home broadband — Good. Comfortable for two people working, streaming in the evening, large downloads. Broadband here runs at 80% of the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Good. Maps, calls and streaming, and enough to tether a laptop for an afternoon. Mobile runs at 1.2× the global median of 109 Mbps.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Germany, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
German
- HelloGuten TagGOO-ten tahk
- PleaseBitteBI-tuh
- Thank youDankeDAN-kuh
- Yes / NoJa / Neinya / nine
4 more phrases
- Excuse meEntschuldigungent-SHOOL-di-gung
- How much is it?Was kostet das?vas KOS-tet das
- The bill, pleaseDie Rechnung, bittedee REKH-nung
- Cheers!Prost!prohst
Religion
Split Catholic and Protestant, and largely secular
The south is Catholic, the north Protestant, and a growing share is neither. Church tax is a real thing residents pay.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Be punctual — arriving late without warning is genuinely rude
- Separate your rubbish; recycling rules are taken seriously
- Make eye contact when toasting, and say prost
- Carry cash; plenty of bars and restaurants still refuse cards
Don't
- Do not jaywalk, especially with children present — people will tell you off
- Do not make Nazi references or salutes, even as a joke; several are criminal offences
- Do not walk in the red-paved bike lanes
- Do not expect small talk from strangers; directness is not coldness
Where to stay in Hamburg
No Holistay rentals in Hamburg yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Hamburg on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Hamburg HAM
25 minfrom the airport· 9 km as the crow flies
S1 into the centre, 25 min.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
