Where to stay in Hamburg: the best neighbourhoods and hotels

This is the Hamburg of merchant money. The neo-Renaissance town hall presides over its square, white arcades run along the canals, and Jungfernstieg, the promenade on the Inner Alster, is where the city has come to be seen for a couple of centuries. Neuer Wall and the streets around it handle the serious shopping.

The hotels match the address. A grand hotel has stood on the Inner Alster since 1897 and still sets the standard for old-school European luxury. Elsewhere you can sleep in a 1912 landmark building with two inner courtyards, in a spa hotel steps from Neuer Wall, or in a sharp design hotel whose rooms look out over the canals. Almost everything a first-timer wants is walkable from here, including the harbour.

North-west of the centre the city loosens its collar. The Outer Alster opens out into a proper lake, with a path right round it for joggers, dog-walkers and anyone who fancies a sundowner at a jetty bar. Dammtor station sits beside the Planten un Blomen gardens, and the State Opera and the Kunsthalle are both a short walk away.

It is a fine place for a grown-up weekend. One splendid five-star stands next to Dammtor station and the Moorweide park; a glass-and-stone design hotel, the work of Jan Störmer and Matteo Thun, faces the opera house; and a lakeside hotel adds a spa with indoor and outdoor pools. Trade-fair visitors like it too, as the congress centre is right here.

St Georg has two faces. Around the Hauptbahnhof it is busy and a bit rough at the edges, as station districts are. Walk five minutes towards the water and it turns into one of the liveliest corners of the city: the Lange Reihe is lined with cafés and restaurants, and it has long been the heart of gay Hamburg.

The practical case is hard to argue with. Trains, the airport S-Bahn and half the U-Bahn network meet here, and the Kunsthalle and the Deutsches Schauspielhaus are next door. Hotels run from a white grand hotel on the Alster shore to an Art Deco classic by the station and younger, design-led places in the middle of the neighbourhood. Light sleepers should ask for a room off the main road.

The Speicherstadt is Hamburg's postcard: a district of tall brick warehouses on oak piles, cut through by narrow canals and lit up gloriously after dark. Next to it, HafenCity is the new city growing on the old docks, all glass, quays and bridges, with the Elbphilharmonie concert hall at its prow. Miniatur Wunderland, the world's largest model railway and the reason your children will forgive you the museums, is here too.

Staying here means waking up to harbour light. You can sleep inside the Elbphilharmonie building itself, in a playful hotel whose rooms are fitted out like ship's cabins, or in spa and apartment hotels among the warehouses. Evenings are quieter than in St Pauli, which suits families and anyone here for a concert. The town hall is roughly a 15-minute walk.

St Pauli is the Hamburg your mother warned you about, and it is far more fun than she let on. The Reeperbahn is a neon mile of bars, clubs, theatres and music venues; the Beatles learned their trade in its side streets, and Beatles-Platz marks the spot. Down the hill, ferries and harbour tours leave from the St Pauli piers, and on Sunday mornings the Fish Market feeds the last of Saturday night.

Hotels come in two moods. Some sit right on the strip, steps from the action, which is ideal until about 4 am. Others are tucked into calmer streets near the Portuguese quarter and the river, or perched above the piers with wide harbour views. Groups and night owls will be in their element; early risers should check where a room faces before booking.

The Schanze is where Hamburg goes when it is off duty. Its streets are a jumble of record shops, vintage rails, falafel counters and bars that spill onto the pavement on warm evenings, and the neighbouring Karoviertel does the same with more boutiques. Leafy Eimsbüttel, just to the north, is the residential version: bakeries, playgrounds and locals who look pleased with their choices.

The headline address is a hotel built into a former water tower in the middle of the Sternschanzenpark, one of the more unusual places to sleep in Germany. There are also solid four-stars facing the trade-fair entrance and in Eimsbüttel itself, within walking distance of the Reeperbahn. The U-Bahn and S-Bahn have you in the centre in minutes.

Altona was a separate town for most of its history and still behaves like one. Its Ottensen quarter is a tangle of small shops, galleries, restaurants and cafés, and the river is never far: follow the Elbe west and the city thins into beaches, captains' houses and gardens that slope down to the water.

Stay in Altona itself for bars and restaurants on the doorstep and a quick ride into the centre. For a treat, a hotel that has been looking after guests for more than 200 years sits further along the Elbe, with river-view rooms and a terrace under lime trees. And if you are here for a match or a gig, there is a four-star a short walk from the Volksparkstadion and the arena.