What is a good day trip destination from Hamburg?

May 13, 2019 9:28 AM

I will be staying in Hamburg and am looking to do a day-trip outside of Germany. Based on some brief interests and constraints described inside, where should I take a train or flight to?

I will have a weekday free from 8am until 11pm. Where should I travel to from Hamburg via flight or train?

Some of my interests, roughly in order: modern/contemporary art, socialism/anarchism/antifascism, Judaism/Holocaust history, government/civics, (vegetarian) food, factory tours*, architecture.

I have been to Italy, France, and Spain, and would prefer to go somewhere else. If Budapest is feasible, that is my first choice. Can I do Hamburg to Budapest and back in 15 hours?

*By factory tours, I mean a place I can visit to see things being made. Could be cars, ice cream, musical instruments, a brewery tour, cheesemaker, etc. Anything.

Feel free to say something simple like "Take a flight to Prague, you can find stuff that interests you there" or "Take a train to the Netherlands and check out the Blah Blah museum".

posted by andoatnp to Travel & Transportation (12 answers total)

Lübeck, Lüneburg, Bremen are all quite close, cute as the dickens and well worth an easy day trip.
posted by humboldt32 at 10:25 AM on May 13, 2019

A vote for Gdansk, Poland. Lots of cool stuff to see including the shipyard. The water tram season has just begun so you can take a trip among the ships. Lovely old city, lovely parks, I could go on and on. And of course the European Solidarity Center, the 2WW museum. You can see candy being made in the main street.
posted by M. at 10:28 AM on May 13, 2019 [2 favorites]

Amsterdam?

Modern Art: Stedelijk Museum
Architecture: (everywhere, but there are tours, including WINDMILLS)
Brewery tours: yes, Heineken and more interesting ones as well.
Radical music / cinema / social / nonprofit / protest / art / squat: Overtoom 301
History of Judaism: YES
A radical bookshop: Het Fort van Sjakoo on Waterlooplein.
An amazing comic book shrine: Lambiek! (worth knowing about even just for remotely internetting, since their site is encyclopaedic).
posted by Joeruckus at 11:00 AM on May 13, 2019

The first place I go to, if I have an itch like yours, is the search by map feature from SkyScanner. And if you want a completely random recommendation: go to Milano (€ 40!) have a coffee at Cova and go to the museum of Natural History, because their diorama's are insane!
posted by ouke at 11:45 AM on May 13, 2019 [2 favorites]

Berlin? Direct train in under two hrs one way. More history of all kinds and art than you can comfortably fit into a week, let alone a day. The Jewish Museum alone could easily fill half a day.
posted by koahiatamadl at 11:45 AM on May 13, 2019

Response by poster: I'm trying to go somewhere outside of Germany.
posted by andoatnp at 12:20 PM on May 13, 2019

It appears to be a 50-minute flight to Copenhangen, and the Danish Design Museum sounds like it might be right up your alley.
posted by TwoStride at 1:46 PM on May 13, 2019

I think you probably don't have enough time for Budapest. If you fly, it's 1 hour 45 minutes each way. If you get to the airport two hours early on each side, and it takes you at least half an hour to get to each airport, that's 8.5 hours of travel time, I think, if I added correctly. Possible but not necessarily enjoyable.
posted by pinochiette at 1:53 PM on May 13, 2019

I know you're trying to avoid Germany, but honestly, given your interests, you should just take the train to Berlin.

If the concern is that you've already seen Germany in Hamburg, you should know that Berlin is very different in character to Hamburg (or anywhere in the former West Germany).

It's also a straightforward day trip that doesn't involve flying, which is good because we just passed 415 ppm of CO2 for the first time in human history.
posted by caek at 3:27 PM on May 13, 2019

Response by poster: I already have plans to spend time in Berlin later this month.
posted by andoatnp at 3:36 PM on May 13, 2019

Copenhagen has lots of old and new architecture, the above-mentioned Design Museum, a very charming Jewish museum (it's different because most Danish Jews were saved, so the Holocaust is less of a focus), an absolutely wonderful museum founded by one of those Danish Jews, big and small breweries, a lovely workers museum with a great lunch place in it, and basically every type of foodie experience you could ever ask for. Copenhagen is small, and walkable, and there are city-bikes and a good metro system, so it's easy for a day trip.
The best contemporary art museum is about an hour north of Copenhagen, but there is a state gallery and several other galleries in town.

I understand caek's objection about flying. So here's another idea:
Go from Hamburg to Husum, to see the Nolde Museum. From there up to Tønder, to see the quaint old town, and the excellent museum with its collection of Wegner furniture, often good temporary shows, and large local history collection. From there, go to Ribe where there is both a Cathedral with a modern parish hall, a fine art museum and a viking museum, and a Wadden Sea center a few kilometers outside town, designed by famous Danish architect Dorte Mandrup. All the way, the landscape is fascinating, other-worldly.

I haven't linked this up, but if you decide on one of these, you can memail me.
posted by mumimor at 12:25 AM on May 14, 2019

Third-ing Copenhagen, and specifically the aforementioned art museum: Louisiana. It's a great museum.

Had I the time and mobility, I would go to visit The Grauballe Man.
posted by From Bklyn at 1:08 AM on May 14, 2019