Hotels in Bochum

Bochum sits deep in the Ruhr, and its skyline still carries an industrial identity: the pithead tower of the German Mining Museum, one of the region's biggest cultural draws, and the purpose-built Starlight Express theatre, which has run the same rollerskating musical nightly since 1988 and pulled in around 18 million visitors since. Allied bombing destroyed 83 per cent of the city's built-up area during the Second World War, leaving the 1599 Propsteikirche as the only historic building in the centre left standing.

What followed was rebuilding for function rather than looks, so this is a working Ruhr city rather than a pretty one. Its post-industrial identity is genuine, not manufactured: old collieries and steelworks repurposed rather than swept away. Stay near the centre for easy access to both the mining museum and the Starlight Express theatre.