Hotels in Hamburg

Hamburg is a port city that thinks big: it has more bridges than Venice, Amsterdam and London combined, and the red-brick Speicherstadt, the world's largest historic warehouse district, has been a UNESCO site since 2015. The wave-topped Elbphilharmonie concert hall now anchors the new HafenCity quarter, while St Pauli's Reeperbahn keeps its reputation as one of Europe's rowdier nightlife strips and hosts a Sunday Fischmarkt that has run since 1703.

It is a wealthy, watery, distinctly northern place, and grey skies with steady drizzle come with the territory, so you will lean on the U-Bahn to cover the sprawl. Stay around the Speicherstadt and HafenCity for the waterfront and museums, or in the Sternschanze and St Pauli if you want bars and music on the doorstep.