Where to stay in Germany: the best cities and hotels

Berlin carries more twentieth-century history than any city should have to, and it does not hide it. You can walk from the Brandenburg Gate to the Holocaust Memorial to the remains of the Wall in an afternoon, then spend the evening in a courtyard bar in a district that was a wasteland thirty years ago. It is vast, flat, green and far cheaper than London or Paris.

For sightseeing, stay in Mitte, the historic centre: the grandest hotel in the city stands right beside the Brandenburg Gate, and the elegant Gendarmenmarkt square is a few streets away. The western centre around Charlottenburg is leafier and more old-fashioned, with good shopping. Kreuzberg is the place for food, bars and a taste of the alternative city.

Munich is Germany at its most comfortable. The old town clusters around Marienplatz and its chiming town hall, the beer halls serve litre mugs and roast pork to long shared tables, and the English Garden is one of the biggest city parks in the world, complete with surfers on a standing river wave. In late September the city gives itself over to Oktoberfest.

The smartest hotels are in the old town, on and around Maximilianstrasse, the city's grand shopping street, with everything in walking distance. There are good large hotels by the main station, which is handy for trips to the lakes, Salzburg and the castle of Neuschwanstein. Book well ahead for Oktoberfest, when prices climb steeply.

Hamburg is Germany's great port, and water is everywhere: the Elbe with its container ships, the Alster lake in the middle of town, and canals threading between the red-brick warehouses of the Speicherstadt. The Elbphilharmonie concert hall rises from the docks like a wave of glass, and the Reeperbahn, where the Beatles learned their trade, still roars at night.

The classic place to stay is around the Alster, where two of Germany's most storied grand hotels look out over the water. The streets between the lake and the town hall are the smart shopping district, with five-stars in handsome old merchant buildings. Everything is well linked by U-Bahn and harbour ferry.

You see Cologne Cathedral before you see Cologne: two black Gothic spires that tower over the station and the Rhine beside it. The city around it was flattened in the war and rebuilt without much beauty, but nobody comes for the architecture. They come for the atmosphere, in brewery pubs where waiters replace your small glass of Kölsch the moment it is empty.

Stay near the cathedral and the old town to walk everywhere; several large hotels are a few hundred metres from the station. The area around Heumarkt, at the edge of the old town by the river, is good for restaurants and Christmas markets. Carnival, in February or early March, turns the whole city into a fancy-dress party.

Nuremberg is the most atmospheric of Germany's big cities: an old town still ringed by walls and towers, a castle on a sandstone crag, and a river crossed by covered bridges. It is best known for its Christmas market, held on the main square, and for bratwurst the size of your finger. The city also faces its Nazi-era past with honesty at the former rally grounds.

The old town is small, so anywhere inside the walls or near the main station works well. The station sits just outside the south-eastern gate, with a run of four-star hotels a few minutes' walk from both the trains and the sights. It makes a good base for trips to Bamberg, too.

Frankfurt is the only German city with a real skyline, a cluster of bank towers that earns it the nickname Mainhattan. Most visitors are here for work or a flight, but give it an evening: the reconstructed old town around the Römer square is charming, the museums along the south bank of the River Main are excellent, and the taverns of Sachsenhausen pour tart local cider from blue-grey jugs.

Stay in the centre for the shops and the old town, among the towers of the financial district for rooftop bars, or across the river in Sachsenhausen for a more neighbourly feel. If you have an early flight, a large hotel is connected directly to the airport.

Düsseldorf is Cologne's sleeker rival, half an hour down the Rhine. Its showpiece is the Königsallee, known simply as the Kö, a canal lined with chestnut trees and luxury shops. A few steps away the Altstadt packs so many pubs into a few streets that it is nicknamed the longest bar in the world, and the local dark beer, Altbier, is served with the same relentless efficiency as Kölsch upriver.

Nearly all the best hotels are on or beside the Kö, between the shops and the old town, with the Rhine promenade about ten minutes' walk away. It is a compact, easy city for a weekend, and both the airport and the main station are close.

Stuttgart sits in a bowl of green hills, with vineyards climbing the slopes almost from the city centre. It is the home of both Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, and their two museums are reason enough to visit for anyone who likes cars. The centre is built around a palace square and a long park, and the wine taverns serve local reds that rarely leave the region. The grandest hotel stands opposite the main station at the top of the pedestrian shopping street; others have pools and spas beside the park.

Hanover is rarely anyone's first choice, which is rather unfair. It is a relaxed, leafy city with the Baroque Royal Gardens of Herrenhausen, a large lake for sailing and strolling, and an opera house at its heart. It also hosts some of the world's biggest trade fairs, when rooms sell out fast. Hotels near the main station and the opera put you about five minutes' walk from the centre, on quiet streets.