Franca spent 3 days in Hamburg and has a few tips why travelling to Hamburg is a good idea. This is a copy of their blogpost on A Moment With Franca:
I have never been to Germany despite really wanting to visit for so long. Coming from a German school (Primary School), Germany has been high up on my bucket travel list for a long time. For some reason or another, I never had the chance to visit until this year. Nick and I were invited to explore Hamburg for 3 days, courtesy of the Come To Hamburg program. I couldn’t have been more excited about this new adventure. We managed to cram in a lot of activities so I have divided this post into 2 parts. This will be Part 1 and will cover Day One and Part of Day Two of our stay in Hamburg and Part Two will cover the remaining part of Day Two and Day Three. You can read the second post HERE.
Being able to travel, childfree with Nick made the whole trip more of a pleasure! We arranged our visit to coincide with our trip to Vienna for my sister’s wedding, which we went to first. The other reason was to celebrate my 40th Birthday. We planned it with a lot of anticipation so we were counting down the days until the weekend of the trip arrived!
You can watch a video of our 3 day visit to Hamburg below:
DAY ONE
We travelled from Vienna to Hamburg very early in the morning. We used Austrian Airlines for this journey and it was a short trip, about 1hr and 35 minutes. We took off just before 8 am and we arrived in Hamburg about 9:30 am.
Hamburg airport is very nice. It has everything you need. I even spotted areas for the kids to be entertained which I thought was useful if we travelled again but with the girls. There were signs everywhere so there is no way you will get lost.
We were given instructions on how to get to the hotel which is not far from the airport. Because we had 2 big suitcases and 2 carry-ons we decided to take a taxi to the hotel. The journey was pretty quick, about 10 minutes max. The hotel was very well located relative to the airport and also for getting into the centre of Hamburg. There is a bus stop outside, where you can get to the airport in one direction or towards the centre in the other direction. The buses are quite regular.
Best Western Premier Alsterkrug Hotel
Because we arrived to the hotel early in the morning our room wasn’t ready yet but they kindly looked after our bags and invited us for breakfast. That was really nice of them.
First Day Breakfast
Birthday Breakfast
The breakfast buffet was delicious. They had a really good selection of different cereals, dairies, juices, meat, bread, etc. On the morning of my birthday, they even gave me a glass of champagne to celebrate! How thoughtful was that?
I am planning to do another blog post about the hotel where you can read more about it but to summarise, this hotel was fantastic. We got a super nice room with an amazing view. It had a balcony with a table and chairs which was a pleasant place to be for a quiet moment.
It has a restaurant, a bar, and a SPA. We tried the restaurant for dinner on one of the evenings we stayed and it was really good. We ate outside and it had a really nice and romantic atmosphere. I really enjoyed it.
We also spent one evening at the bar where we had some very refreshing beers. It was a cosy area and the staff were very friendly.
Welcome Pack
The lovely team at Come to Hamburg had left us a really nice welcome pack at the hotel with everything we needed for our 3 days. This was really handy and helped us to get around the city.
Public Transport – Hamburg Card
The public transport in Hamburg is fantastic. It is very easy to use and it takes you everywhere within minutes. We were given a Hamburg Card to use during these 3 days. This allowed us to have a free public transportation within Hamburg.
This is a great idea to purchase in advance if you are travelling to Hamburg and prices start from 9.90 euros. Besides the free public transport, there are other benefits of using the Hamburg Card. You can save money on more than 150 tourist attractions so it is worth checking it out.
The Chocolate Museum (Chocoversum)
We were given a list of activities to choose from in our Welcome pack and the first one we fancied doing was Chocoversum, the chocolate museum. I guess, who wouldn’t want to do this first, LOL?
The chocolate museum is located in the heart of Hamburg. Each visitor is guided through a 90-minute tour of the exhibition. English speaking guests can participate in any tour with the help of a Guide Book, which may be borrowed or bought at the front desk. They also offer English tours on Saturdays and Sundays. This is the tour we did. It costs 15.00 euros for adults, entrance is free for children younger than 5 years old paying an additional 4.50 euros for the creation of a bar of chocolate. And 11.00 euros for children 6-17 years
Our guide was really funny and cool. All the way through, you had the opportunity to taste different flavors. We enjoyed learning the journey from cocoa beans to a bar of chocolate and they encourage a lot of participation. You will enjoy plentiful samples and the best part, you will be able to create your own chocolate bar. OMG, this was amazing! I absolutely love the bar I created and it lasted minutes! Even though it was HUGE! What a pig I am!
This was some of the most delicious chocolate I have ever tasted! It was so yummy and tasty! If you are planning to visit Hamburg, I highly recommend you to visit this museum. You will love it!
Harbor Boat Tour with Barkassen Meyer
Walk towards the Harbor
After our delicious guided tour of Chocoversum, we decided to go to the harbour for a walk and then take a boat tour as one of the activities suggested. We were very lucky with the weather. It was surprisingly warm and sunny. It was perfect for a walk around the harbour.
Everything looks much better when it is sunnier so the boat tour was a fantastic idea to do that afternoon. You cannot be in Hamburg and not visit the “Hansestadt” Hamburg.
Harbor Boat Tour
We went to St. Pauli Landungsbrücken and found Bridge 6 which was where the boat departs. The tour lasted for 1 hour and it departs daily between 10 am and 5 pm every hour, so there are plenty of opportunities to take this tour. The tour costs 18.00 euros per person. If you have children up to 14 years old the ticket is 9.00 euros. Children up to 4 years are free of charge
We had a lovely time in the boat and the day was so sunny and glorious. After that, we decided to go back to the hotel because we wanted to settle in our room. As soon as we arrived, we decided to have a rest. We had such an early start that day that we were feeling exhausted so we went back to the hotel to go to bed!
DAY TWO
After such a long rest we woke up feeling very fresh and ready for the day. We were lucky again and the day was sunny. It was actually hot too. I was very surprised as I wasn’t expecting such lovely weather. We got changed and went for another delicious breakfast.
The Hafen City Riverbus
We were booked for the Hafen City Riverbus at 10 am so we headed over there after our breakfast. We used our Hamburg cards again and went to Brooktorkai, in the Speicherstadt warehouse district. I was very interested in doing this tour because not long ago we did the London Duck tours which was very similar but that one was in an old wartime ‘duck’ whilst this one was in a big modern bus.
It takes about 70 minutes (40 minutes on land and 30 minutes on the Elbe). After approximately 25 minutes drive, we experienced the bus’s impressive amphibious capabilities as it took us into the water. This was a fantastic experience! The only downside was that the tour was in German but the guide was really nice and answered our questions in English.
It costs 29.50 euros for adults and 20.50 euros for children from 5 to 14 years old. If you fancy doing something different around Hamburg, I would recommend you to do this tour!
The HafenCity Riverbus tour also goes into the water (an amphibious craft). It is a state-of-the-art amphibious vehicle of the latest generation, combining the capabilities of a passenger ship with a travel coach. The bus goes through Hamburg’s historic Speicherstadt, the sophisticated HafenCity and the authentic district Rothenburgsort.
