Hamburg, Lübeck & the Baltic Coast

Every part can be changed to suit your group.

1. Day 1 Hamburg

   You arrive in Hamburg, Germany's second city and its gateway to the world. After check-in your guide takes you through the HafenCity, Europe's largest urban development, to the Elbphilharmonie concert hall. A long curved escalator carries you up to the free public Plaza, 37 metres above the river, with views over the harbour cranes and church spires. Dinner with fresh North Sea fish near the harbour.

2. Day 2 Hamburg harbour

   In the morning walk through the Speicherstadt, a UNESCO district of red-brick warehouses on oak piles, crossed by canals and bridges. Then board a boat for a harbour tour past container ships, dry docks and the old Elbe tunnel. On Sunday mornings you can start very early at the famous Fish Market. In the afternoon see the Alster lakes, the Town Hall and the Jungfernstieg promenade, and in the evening the lights of the Reeperbahn if you like.

   
3. Day 3 Lübeck

   A short drive brings you to Lübeck, the Queen of the Hanseatic League and a UNESCO World Heritage city. Enter through the Holsten Gate, the city's symbol, and see the salt warehouses on the river. Visit St. Mary's Church, the model for many brick Gothic churches around the Baltic, and the Buddenbrook House of Thomas Mann. Of course you taste marzipan at Niederegger, the city's famous confectioner since 1806.

   
4. Day 4 Wismar to Stralsund

   Along the coast you reach Wismar, with one of the largest market squares in northern Germany and its old harbour. In the afternoon continue to Stralsund, another UNESCO Hanseatic town, with a splendid brick Gothic town hall. Visit the Ozeaneum, a modern museum of the North and Baltic Seas with giant aquariums and life-size whale models. Evening walk along the harbour.

5. Day 5 Rügen island

   Cross the bridge to Rügen, Germany's largest island. In Jasmund National Park a beech forest path leads to the chalk cliffs and the Königsstuhl viewpoint, 118 metres above the sea, the scene painted by Caspar David Friedrich. In the afternoon visit the seaside resort of Binz, with its white villas, wide sandy beach and long pier, or the pier of Sellin, set like a pavilion on the water.

   
6. Day 6 Departure

   After a final breakfast by the sea our driver takes you to Berlin, about three and a half hours away, or back to Hamburg for your flight or train. If time allows, we stop on the way in the old town of Greifswald or at a lakeside café in the Mecklenburg Lake District.