Where to Stay in Hamburg, Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg

What is Hamburg known for?

Hamburg is known for its port and its water, a Hanseatic city built where the Elbe opens toward the North Sea. The harbour defines it. The Port of Hamburg spreads along the Elbe as Germany's largest, while the Außenalster holds its lake at the centre and the Hamburger Kunsthalle, the International Maritime Museum Hamburg, and Miniatur Wunderland draw the crowds inland.

What are the main landmarks in Hamburg?

Hamburg keeps its landmarks between the harbour and the Alster. Ships and the port come first. The International Maritime Museum Hamburg and the museum ship Rickmer Rickmers tell the sea story, Miniatur Wunderland lays out its model world by the warehouses, and the Hamburger Kunsthalle gathers the painting.

The Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte, the Deichtorhallen, and the Bucerius Kunst Forum carry the rest, while the Außenalster opens its lake at the heart of the city.

What is the history of Hamburg?

Hamburg grew from a medieval settlement on the Elbe into one of the great ports of the North Sea. The river carried its fortune. Its name still names the Hanseatic League, the trading network that made the city a power along the northern coasts, and for centuries Hamburg held the standing of a de facto independent city-state.

Trade built everything here. The Port of Hamburg spread along the Elbe as the city's engine, sending ships down the estuary to the North Sea and beyond. Many once sailed from it.

The emigration halls remembered at BallinStadt sent emigrants overseas from these quays, while the warehouses of the harbour stored the goods of the world. Hamburg kept its own laws as a city-state, and it remains one of Germany's three, alongside Berlin and Bremen, a self-governing land on the lower Elbe.

Where is Hamburg?

Hamburg stands on the River Elbe, over a hundred kilometres upstream from the North Sea. The Elbe runs through it. The city fills the low ground where the Alster and the Bille join the river, its harbour spreading along the water, hemmed by Schleswig-Holstein to the north and Lower Saxony to the south.

Flat marsh and river shape it all.

What is the climate of Hamburg?

Hamburg keeps a cool, maritime climate off the North Sea and the tidal reach of the Elbe. Wind and rain are common. Its winters run damp and grey rather than hard, while its summers stay mild and changeable, with weather that shifts quickly over the harbour and the Alster of Hamburg.

How do you get to Hamburg?

Hamburg is one of the great transport hubs on the Elbe, reached by rail, road, sea, and air. Trains pour into the centre. Its main lines run down from Schleswig-Holstein and up from Lower Saxony, while the Elbe carries shipping through the Port of Hamburg to the North Sea, and the roads meet at the harbour city on the river.