Hamburg is the second largest city in Germany, the seventh largest city in the European Union, as well as the largest non-capital city in the Union. Despite this, it is often overlooked as a tourist city. I've rarely met a person who says that they want to visit Hamburg, that they've visited and loved it, or even that they've visited at all.

This is not entirely surprising since Hamburg is an industrial port city and not a traditional leisure destination. The city was also largely destroyed in World War II with not much remaining from before the war. And even if it would have been spared in the war, the city was ravaged by a devastating fire in 1842 (Great Fire of Hamburg) that destroyed about one-third of the city.

I've been traveling through Hamburg several times before, but never been to the city center or stopped anywhere near unless you count sitting in traffic jams on the Autobahn. This year, 2022, I had some points with Scandinavian Airlines that were due to expire and while looking around what I could do with them I couldn't find much so I decided to give Hamburg a chance.

So how is Hamburg as a tourist destination? Is it worth visiting?

To be honest, I found the lack of tourism recognition to be quite deserved. For a city of its size, it didn't feel like a city that has lots to offer. The two days (+ one day for a day trip to Lüneburg) were more than enough to see Hamburg and I feel that I've done almost everything worth doing, except for the Alter Elbtunnel (Old Elbe Tunnel) which I missed.

There are some interesting sights, such as St.-Nikolai-Kirche (Church of St. Nicholas), a church that got destroyed in World War II and never was rebuilt and instead was left in ruins as a memorial to the atrocities of war. It is however something you can see in Berlin too, and the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin is still a better memorial in my opinion.

The best parts of Hamburg are the beautiful lakeside Jungfernstieg, the tourist trap of St. Pauli Piers (St. Pauli Landungsbrücken), and HafenCity/Speicherstadt which connects the industrial heritage with the modern city quite well. None of these are the "wow"-type of sights though. They are nice, they are pleasant to visit on a warm summer day (probably not so much on a cold winter day), and you can fill a day or two with fun activities by visiting them.

The thing is since Hamburg is a rather new city it does not have the historic sights that most European cities have. To live in Hamburg is probably a great experience since it has all the comforts of a huge modern city, and I felt that the standard of everything - buildings, the subway, traffic, sidewalks - were higher than in comparable cities in Europe. It's a city that was fully destroyed after the war and they didn't bother with restoring the historic center and instead built a new city from scratch.

Hamburg is an event city. You go there to go to an event. And from that perspective, Hamburg is a great city. I can see some parallels with Gothenburg in my home country of Sweden. I don't find it interesting from a tourism point of view, but in a regional context, it attracts people to the many events going on.

Hamburg could be a great base for a broader trip to Northern Germany though. Several nearby cities and towns are worth a visit. Bremen, Lübeck, and Lüneburg are all reachable within an hour by train or car. Hannover, Kiel, Rostock, and Schwerin are also within reach of a day trip even though it takes a little bit longer than an hour to get there.

I've not been to all of these, but I've been to Bremen, Lübeck, Lüneburg, and Rostock. In my opinion, they all have more to offer a tourist than Hamburg despite being much smaller in size. During my visit to Hamburg, I took a day trip to Lüneburg and I consider that to be the highlight of the whole trip. I've been to Lübeck many times and it's one of my favorite cities in Europe, a true hidden gem (that might not be so hidden for Scandinavians).