Hotels in Altenburg

Altenburg is a small Thuringian town best known to Germans as the birthplace of skat, the country's most popular card game, and it still runs a Skat Museum to prove it. The real draw is the castle complex, Schloss Altenburg, a genuinely handsome residenz with a well-preserved old town of half-timbered houses beneath it, largely untouched by the crowds that hit Weimar or Erfurt further down the road.

Outside the castle and a pleasant historic core, there isn't much to detain visitors for more than a day, and the town's economy and population have both shrunk noticeably since reunification, leaving parts of it feeling quiet rather than lively. With only nine hotels listed here, choice is limited rather than curated, so book ahead in skat-tournament season when rooms tighten up. Stay as close to the old town and castle hill as you can manage, since that's where all the walkable interest is concentrated.