Germany · City break
Stuttgart City Guide
A big city in a valley basin with vineyards growing on its slopes right inside the city limits: Stuttgart pairs its palace square and Art Nouveau market hall with two world-brand museums and the world's first television tower. More than 400 stairways, the Stäffele, climb the hillsides. Two ready-made routes split the city: the centre on foot, the icons from Mercedes to the TV tower by train.
🗺️ Open Stuttgart interactively – map & navigationOur walking tours of Stuttgart
Ready-made routes from the station guide you through Stuttgart – to the right spots from the very first step, with no planning needed.
Palace Square, Market Hall & Karlshöhe
From the main station to the palace square, where the goddess Concordia stands on the column instead of the king, and into the Staatsgalerie with its riotously colourful postmodern wing. On to the collegiate church with its two unequal towers and the Art Nouveau market hall of 1914, then through the changing Leonhardsviertel to the Hans im Glück fountain – and finally up the Karlshöhe, where the beer garden serves the whole valley basin.
- Schlossplatz – Stuttgart's living room: lawns, fountains and the baroque New Palace as a backdrop, flanked by the Königsbau and its colonnade. In the middle rises the Jubilee Column of 1846, erected for the 25th anniversary of King Wilhelm I's reign – but look up and it is not the king you see: Wilhelm refused a statue of himself, so the Roman goddess of concord, Concordia, balances on the column instead. Four reliefs on the base tell scenes from his reign. Sit on the steps a moment and watch the square live its life before the route moves on. A few minutes' walk beyond, a detour hardly any guidebook skips: the City Library on Mailänder Platz, a white cube by the architect Eun Young Yi, opens inside into a five-storey, all-white "heart chamber" – probably the city's most photographed interior, free to enter.
- Staatsgalerie – From outside you see at once why this building made architectural history: James Stirling's 1984 wing mixes natural stone with a curving green glass front and handrails in pink and blue – a postmodern icon that was fiercely argued over at its opening. Its heart is the open rotunda, a roofless sculpture court crossed by a public footpath. Inside, the collection runs from Old Masters to Picasso and Beuys; the Swabian twist: one of the country's most important museums sits beside an eight-lane road. Give it at least an hour and a half.
- Stiftskirche – You recognise Stuttgart's landmark church by its twin towers that aren't twins: when rebuilding began around 1240, two equal towers were planned – only the southern one was completed, the northern stayed lower, and they stand unequal side by side to this day. The Stiftskirche is the city's oldest medieval church foundation, its predecessor reaching back to the 10th century, and beneath the choir lies the burial vault of the House of Württemberg. Today it is the main church of the Protestant regional church – a short, rewarding stop between palace square and market hall.
- Market Hall – A historicist palace outside, a surprise inside: when the market hall opened in 1914, behind the facade sat state-of-the-art reinforced concrete beneath an airy glass roof – architect Martin Elsaesser had beaten Paul Bonatz, builder of the main station, in the competition. Today it counts among Germany's most beautiful market halls: some forty delicatessen stalls with olives, cheese, spices and Swabian fare, plus a balcony restaurant overlooking the bustle. Come hungry – and look up; the glass roof is the secret star.
- Hans-im-Glück-Brunnen – On the little square by Geißstraße, fairy-tale Hans and his pig have stood since 1909, created by Josef Zeitler as the finishing piece of an old-town renewal – six small ducks spout the water, and Hans was reputedly modelled on a farm lad from the Filder plateau. Around the fountain today crowds the densest bar neighbourhood in the centre. Just behind begins the Leonhardsviertel, Stuttgart's small red-light district in transition: wine taverns and bars are moving in among the old establishments – it is quiet here by day, and at night you simply stay in the bustle of the main lanes.
- Karlshöhe – To finish, you earn the basin view: the Karlshöhe is a green hill in the middle of the city, laid out in the 19th century by the beautification society around an old quarry. Up top you sit in the beer garden under trees while the view tips over vines down onto the rooftops of the valley basin. Want the Stuttgart speciality thrown in? Right by the Karlshöhe, the Willy-Reichert-Staffel descends over 400 steps – the longest of the Stäffele, those stairways that once served the vineyards. Downhill, all 400 feel a great deal better.
Mercedes, Wilhelma & TV Tower
The day of Stuttgart's icons, linked by train: first the Mercedes-Benz Museum, where 140 years of automotive history spiral down a double helix. Then the Wilhelma, the zoological-botanical garden inside King Wilhelm I's Moorish palace grounds. For the finale, up to Degerloch and the television tower of 1956 – the world's first and the model for all that followed.
- Mercedes-Benz Museum – Here, where the motorised carriage learned to run in 1886, stands perhaps the world's most elegant car museum: the 2006 building by UNStudio winds upwards as a double helix – you take the lift to the very top and walk 140 years of automotive history down in a spiral, past 160 vehicles from the Patent Motorwagen to the Silver Arrows. The audio guide is included and adapts to where you stand. Even those indifferent to cars stay for the architecture – and the contemporary history running alongside every ramp. Plan generously; hardly anyone gets out in under two and a half hours. And if that's not enough: on the other side of the city, the Porsche Museum in Zuffenhausen tells the second world-brand story – hardly any other city has two automobile museums of this calibre.
- Wilhelma – The Wilhelma is a zoo in royal dress: from 1842 Wilhelm I had a Moorish palace complex built here with domes, arcades and water-lily pools – "Alhambra on the Neckar", people quipped at the time. Animals only moved in after the Second World War, so the ornate buildings are older than the zoo itself. Today around 1,200 animal species live among 8,500 plant species, making the Wilhelma one of Europe's most species-rich zoos – and Germany's only large zoological-botanical garden. Honest note: the grounds are big; with less than two hours, skip the Wilhelma and head straight for the TV tower.
- TV Tower – Every television tower in the world has its ancestor here: when civil engineer Fritz Leonhardt proposed a slender reinforced-concrete tower with a viewing pod instead of an ugly steel lattice mast, it was a world first in 1956 – and the Degerloch silhouette has been copied around the globe ever since. The tower measures a good 216 metres; the pod with platform and panorama café sits at 150 metres, above the forest, looking over the valley basin, the vineyards, the Swabian Alb and the Black Forest. Honest note: the visit is short for the ticket price, and in fog it is not worth it – but in clear weather the view ranks among the best in the south.
Getting there & around
Stuttgart runs on the VVS: S-Bahn lines bundle through the trunk tunnel beneath the centre, plus a dense light rail network – the U lines run above ground and in tunnels. Buy tickets via app or machine; one zone covers everything on these routes. From the airport the S-Bahn reaches the main station in about 30 minutes. On foot: the centre is flat, but as soon as the slopes begin, the Stäffele take over – more than 400 stairways, a legacy of winegrowing. Good shoes pay off.
Going out & nightlife
Rooftop bars
- Sky Beach – Beach bar on the top parking deck of the department store car park on Königstraße, since 2004: sand underfoot, deckchairs, palms and a view across the rooftops to the basin slopes. Order at the counter; glasses carry a deposit.
Nightlife quarters
- Hans-im-Glück-Viertel – Around the fairy-tale fountain on Geißstraße the bars are at their densest. Honest note: the quarter borders the Leonhardsviertel, Stuttgart's small red-light district in transition – harmless by day; at night simply stay in the lively lanes.
- Theodor-Heuss-Straße – Stuttgart's party mile par excellence: along the "Theo", clubs and bars line up, Schräglage and 7grad among them; dancing runs into the morning, often with no cover charge. Young, loud, uncomplicated – the counterpole to the wine taverns.
Food & restaurants
- Weinstube Fröhlich – An old-town institution since 1963: Swabian cooking – Maultaschen, Zwiebelrostbraten – and regional wines, in the middle of the Leonhardsviertel. The menu changes every few days; inside it is wood-panelled and snug. Book ahead, it is almost always full.
Bars & clubs
- Paul & George – Cocktail bar on Weberstraße between the Bohnenviertel and Leonhardsviertel, named after the building's architects: dimmed light, precise drinks, small bar food. Fills fast at weekends – come early or queue.
Stage & concerts
- Staatstheater / Oper Stuttgart – In the Littmann building of 1912 by the palace gardens play the opera and the Stuttgart Ballet, world-renowned since John Cranko. Prices are fair; ballet nights often sell out months ahead – book early. The big musical productions, meanwhile, belong to the SI-Centrum in the south of the city, with two musical theatres.
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