Visiting Hamburg for a Day

optimize your time in hamburg

We wondered about visiting Hamburg, Germany and get a sense of it in just one day. It was the first stop on the Northern European Cityscapes Cruise by Royal Caribbean. It is also the first city we are going to see in a single day on this trip…really several hours when you narrow it down. My best advice: get past this before leaving the ship. There have to be priorities…and that needs to happen well before you arrive in port. Here’s how we did it.

google is your friend

When visiting Hamburg for a day, the first step is research. Go online before your trip and research the city and read some blog posts from others who have traveled there before you. We found Pinterest to be a very helpful source for one day itineraries. We used this as a basic template but took the time to know what was really of interest to us specifically. We’re kind of quirky, so everything we did may not be of interest to you….but we loved it.

consider a basic tour package

We initially planned to do a walking tour we found online. However, the night before (we will do it earlier from now on), we realized the port is a pretty good distance from the ship. It was worth the cost to be able to get a sense of the city and catch a ride into Hamburg with our cruise line. We got an introduction to the history and culture of the city. We drove through many of the neighborhoods and sites on our list and got a good overview of the city. One thing we were all in agreement with….a good tour guide makes all the difference.