48 Hours In Hamburg With Kids

How To Get Around Hamburg

It’s easy to get around Hamburg via walking or public transport. If you buy the Hamburg card you’ll not only get discounts on attractions, but also free transport for the duration of your visit. Choose from ferries along the Elbe, S-Bahn, U-Bahn and bus services. It’s also a safe city to walk around.

Arriving in Hamburg is easy too, there are plenty of trains from Brussels toward Hamburg if you take the Eurostar or from Amsterdam if you choose the ferry. Alternatively you can fly into Hamburg from most major European airports.

The Hamburg Card

The Hamburg Card is available in anything from a single day pass up to a 5-day pass. It provides free transport throughout Hamburg, including bus, metro and Elbe ferries. There is also an option for the Hamburg card without public transport, so make sure you check which one you want before you buy it!

With a discount of up to 50% on many of the different attractions in Hamburg, it’s well worth the cost for your stay in the city. It’s simple to use, just download the app onto your phone.

Best Attractions In Hamburg

Hamburg is not the usual city of choice for tourists, but it should be higher up UK tourists lists as an excellent destination. Both for families and couples! The Christmas markets are well worth the visit alone.

Miniatur Wunderland

This is the highlight for my kids and as adults we absolutely loved exploring the miniature scenes too. Miniatur Wunderland is the largest model railway in the world. But it’s more than just model trains! There’s a lot to see, especially if you look closer to see what the model makers put together. From lewd happenings (these are generally a little hidden away!) to scenes from movies, you’ll be surprised at what you find!

The true stars of the show at Miniatur Wunderland are the many different model trains moving around the entire building, they even go up to the higher levels via spiral tracks! And for those who love planes, the airport will be their favourite part. With various different model airplanes taking off and landing all day. If you’re lucky you may even see some novelty aircraft such as the Millennium Falcon!

When you’re feeling peckish pop down to the cafe and get something tasty to eat. You can even choose to sit in old train seating.

Don’t miss:

• Storm over Drake Passage
• Lindt chocolate factory
• Dam breaking in mountain scene
• Vesuvius erupting
• UFO abducting a cow
• Elbphilharmonie opening
• Ghost ship

Chocoversum

If you’re looks for something educational, but fun too, then Chocoversum is a good option. You are given a wafer to deposit liquid chocolate onto as soon as you enter. And more chocolate is given out throughout the tour. However, you also learn about Cacao beans, how they are grown, and dried and then what happens to turn them into the delicious chocolate we love to eat!

Halfway through the tour you also get to make your own chocolate bar and decorate it. There are so many things to choose to decorate it with, the kids obviously went a little over the top! At the end of the tour you are given your chocolate bars to place in plastic bags to take home with you!

Port des Lumieres

In the Überseequartier is Port des Lumieres, where visual creations come to life in this vast cultural space. The actual exhibitions change every few months, so check the website for what’s on when you visit.

There were to visual experiences when we visited, the first was called Journey and was a short interesting range of visual art work that created shapes and patterns throughout the space. The second was Destination Cosmos, an immersive space experience. This was a lot longer and we found a large comfy cushion on the floor to enjoy the experience. the visual art work extends to the floor, so I do recommend heading upstairs too. It looks quite different from that viewpoint, plus there is also a mirror room to explore. Finally kids will love the kids visual art room too!

Maritime Museum

Hamburg is a maritime city, with its excellent location on the Elbe river. So it’s unsurprising that they have a fantastic maritime museum filled with interesting artefacts and treasures.

You can book a tour around the museum, but with kids it’s fun to just wander around and take things in. There are quizzes available for children and also many interactive areas too. The museum is not too far from Port des Lumieres or Miniature Wunderland. And there is also an excellent kids play park nearby – Grasbrook park.

48 Hour Itinerary in Hamburg

Day 1

On day 1 arrive in the city and drop your bags off at the hotel. I suggest booking a tour at Chocoversum for a couple of hours after you arrive, so you have time to get acquainted with the city. Or to allow time for a later than expected arrival!

After Chocoversum, take a walk back toward the city centre for lunch. You’ll find various options for all budgets and tastes.

Spend the afternoon in the maritime museum and Grasbrook Park nearby. Then use the Elbe ferries to travel down the river to Landungsbrücken. This is a popular area for dinner with plenty of Italian and seafood restaurants. You can also use the ferries to simply go up and down the Elbe. If you get a Hamburg card transport on the ferries is included.

Day 2

Book Miniature Wunderland for first thing in the morning, they open at 7am. We chose to arrive at 8am and it was already incredibly busy! You’ll need a good 5-6 hours to appreciate everything at Minature Wunderland and a break for lunch there too.

After you have finished exploring Miniature Wunderland walk over to Port des Lumieres to enjoy their creative visual experiences. You can then spend the rest of the afternoon before dinner at Grasbrook Park with the kids. An excellent place to run off some energy.

Find somewhere near your hotel for dinner after a very busy two days!

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