Hamburg, Germany City Guide

In June 2017, my husband and I embarked on a three-week long backpacking trip of western Europe. In my first post of this series, I go through all the details about preparing for this trip from  itinerary, budget, packing, riding the train, lodging, and other common questions I’m asked. Now, I’ll take you through a detailed “City Guide” of every city we visited, and my top recommendations of where to eat and drink, where to stay, and what to see. This city guide details my love for the hip Sternschanze neighborhood of Hamburg, Germany; of “street beers,” pommes frites, and more.

Before I dive into the details about what we saw and did in Hamburg, a little background on the travel style Curtis and I enjoy. Our favorite way to travel is to get immersed in local culture. We like to eat unique foods and people-watch. On the flip side, we don’t like to do much in the way of touring — I can’t stand waiting in line or crowded attractions. We also like to be outdoors, so one of our favorite things to do is just stroll along the city and see the sights. Our travel style is low-key, affordable, and cultural. So you’ll find a lot of these types of travel recommendations in our city guides. If that’s the type of travel you like, too, read on!

Where to Stay in Hamburg, Germany

This is the big tip: Stay in the Sternschanze neighborhood of Hamburg. Sternschanze is the hip, alternative neighborhood where you’ll see everything from multi-cultural farmer’s markets, to punks and graffiti, to beautiful flower shops, to hipster coffee shops. We LOVED wandering this neighborhood and the people-watching is among the best of any city we visited on this trip.

Now that you’ve landed on the Sternschanze neighborhood, you need to stay at Pyjama Park. Caution, there are two Pyjama Park locations so make sure you’re getting the one in Sternschanze. This hostel was just renovated in summer 2016 and it is hip, clean, and very comfortable. It also had the nicest bathrooms of any place I stayed in western Europe. The bathrooms are down the hall, but they are single-person and practically spa-like, especially compared to other hostels. We booked last minute (like the morning we were rolling into town) and got a killer deal.

We found this to be a quiet hostel, not social like the Copenhagen Downtown Hostel. There is no breakfast or coffee shop, but that’s okay because CODOS kaffe is just a few storefronts down and it’s fantastic.

What to Eat and Drink

There are four things you definitely need to try when you’re in Hamburg, Germany:

• Kringel pommes – which are basically curly fries. You can get them from any food truck. They usually come in a paper cone with a yellow curry dip.
• Currywurst & pommes frites – a wurst sausage in red curry sauce, served with fresh-cut, thick french fries
• Good German Breakfast – We had ours at Omas Apotheke, where we were treated to a traditional German breakfast of toast and jam, rolls with marmalade and honey, eggs, cold meats (ham, salami, etc.), sausages, and a spread of cheeses.
• Drink bottled beer (any beer, beer is so cheap in Germany) as you sight-see. Liquor laws are very relaxed in Germany and as long as you’re of age and not causing trouble, you can just stroll the street with a bottled beer in your hand. We were in Sternschanze on a random Wednesday night and decided to “do what the locals do.” I felt so relaxed and at home among the laid back people of Hamburg.

Where to Sight-See in Hamburg, Germany

Like I said, we spent our evening in Hamburg strolling the streets with beer from a convenience store (which costs less than $1 USD….) and eating street food. Sternschanze is a really arty neighborhood and there is a lot of culture to soak up.

The local floral shops all across Europe were beautiful. Europeans must have a real appreciation for flowers and greenery. The stores don’t charge much for a few fresh cut flower stems, so it’s very common for people to pick up a bouquet for their kitchen table on a weekday and for the local restaurants to have fresh flowers on every table.

The next morning we walked down to the Hamburg Rathaus, which is the ornate city hall. This area was bustling, the “Rathausmarkt” in front of the City Hall is a popular spot for market vendors, cafes, and street musicians.

We absolutely loved Hamburg, Germany and it’s one of the places I would love to return to one day. I hope you enjoyed this guide to artsy scene and street food of Hamburg. For more general tips about backpacking western Europe, head back over to the travel section of my blog. For more City Guides, including what we did in Sweden, Denmark, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Austria — press on! -Emily