Where to stay in Nuremberg: the walled old town, Gostenhof and the station

Overview

Nuremberg is two cities stacked on one map. One is the walled medieval town of the Holy Roman Empire: the castle on its sandstone ridge, Dürer’s house, the Gothic churches, the gingerbread and the small grilled sausages. The other is the city the Nazis chose for their party rallies and the Allies chose for the trials, and the places that tell that story, the rally grounds in the southeast and the Palace of Justice in the west, are as much a reason to come as the old town is. Most of what you see inside the walls was rebuilt after the bombing of 1945, carefully and convincingly, and knowing that changes how you read it.

For a visitor the good news is the shape. The old town, the Altstadt, sits inside an almost complete ring of walls with the main station just outside its southern edge, and you can cross it on foot in about twenty minutes. The river Pegnitz runs through the middle and splits it into two halves with different characters, and that split, not distance, is the first choice you make. The second is whether to stay inside the walls at all: the most interesting neighborhoods for eating and drinking are just outside them.

Where to stay

Inside the walls everything is walkable, and the U-Bahn from the main station puts the rest of the city within a few stops. If you are coming in Advent or during a big trade fair, book early wherever you stay; outside those weeks the city has plenty of rooms.

Sebald side — the castle half

North of the Pegnitz, rising toward the Kaiserburg, is the old town’s quieter, older-feeling half: St. Sebald’s church, the Hauptmarkt with the Schöner Brunnen and the Frauenkirche, Dürer’s house near the Tiergärtnertor, and the steep cobbled lanes under the castle. Stay here if it is your first visit and you want the postcard Nuremberg outside the door, and especially if you are coming for the Christmas market, which fills the Hauptmarkt. The trade-off is the hill and the cobbles, which matter with a suitcase, a fifteen- to twenty-minute walk from the station, and Advent crowds that make the Hauptmarkt hard to cross on December weekends. It goes quiet early outside the market season.

Lorenz side — between the station and the river

South of the Pegnitz, from the Königstor down Königstraße to St. Lorenz’s church, is the old town’s commercial half: the main shopping streets, department stores, the Germanisches Nationalmuseum on its western edge, and the shortest walk from the trains. Stay here if you value logistics: arriving late, leaving early, or using Nuremberg as a base for day trips while still sleeping inside the walls. The trade-off is character. Much of it is postwar rebuilding with chain shops at street level, it is busy by day and quieter in the evening, and the streets nearest the station are the least attractive in the old town.

Around the Hauptbahnhof and the Südstadt

Just outside the walls, around the main station and spreading south behind it into the Südstadt, is where rooms are cheapest and the business hotels cluster. The Südstadt itself is a big, mixed residential district of neighborhood groceries and bakeries, with very little aimed at visitors. Stay here if price or an early train decides it. The trade-off is plain: the station forecourt and the underpass toward the Königstor are scruffy, and at night they are the one part of the center where you should keep your wits about you, and the Südstadt does not feel like Nuremberg in the sense most visitors came for. It is a sleep-and-go base, not a place to linger.

Gostenhof

West of the old town, outside the walls beyond Plärrer, Gostenhof is the city’s alternative quarter, nicknamed GoHo by people who live there: old working-class streets, a mixed and young population, independent shops, bars and cheap places to eat. Stay here if you would rather eat and drink where locals do and are happy to walk ten to fifteen minutes or take one U-Bahn stop into the walls. It is also handy for the Palace of Justice, which sits further out on the same side. The trade-off is that it is residential and uneven, with a few grim blocks between the good streets, and its accommodation is thin; you may not find much beyond apartments.

St. Johannis

Northwest of the castle, just outside the walls, St. Johannis is a calm, well-kept residential district of old houses, gardens and the Johannisfriedhof, the cemetery where Dürer is buried. The Pegnitz meadows run along its southern edge. Stay here for quiet, longer stays, or if you like to walk in through the Tiergärtnertor in the morning. The trade-off is that you are outside the action, with little open at night on your doorstep and few rooms to choose from.

When to go

Late spring and early autumn are the easy seasons: mild, light evenings, the beer gardens open and the old town comfortable to walk. Summer is warm and sometimes hot, but rarely oppressive. Winter is cold and gray, and outside Advent the city is at its quietest.

Advent changes everything. The Christkindlesmarkt on the Hauptmarkt, one of the best known Christmas markets in Germany, runs from late November to Christmas Eve, and the city fills accordingly: weekends are crowded to the point of shuffling, coach tours arrive in force, and rooms inside the walls are booked well in advance. Go on a weekday evening if you can. Two other things fill hotels across the city and catch visitors out: the international toy fair in late January or early February and the other big trade fairs at the exhibition center in Langwasser, and Rock im Park, the large rock festival held on the old rally grounds in early June. If your dates are flexible, check them against the fair calendar before you book.

Getting there & around

The airport is unusually close, and the U2 runs from it straight to the Hauptbahnhof in about a quarter of an hour, which makes a taxi pointless unless you are carrying a lot. From the station the old town begins across the road at the Königstor.

Nuremberg is a major rail junction. ICE trains on the high-speed line reach Munich in about an hour, and there are direct fast trains to Frankfurt, Berlin and Leipzig. Regional trains make good day trips: Bamberg, with its own old town and smoked beer, is under an hour north, Regensburg about an hour southeast, and Rothenburg ob der Tauber is reachable by regional train in well over an hour, longer than the distance suggests, with at least one change, the last at Steinach. Fürth, Nuremberg’s twin city, is a few stops out on the U1.

Inside the walls you walk; a car is a liability in the old town. For everything else the city has three U-Bahn lines, trams, buses and S-Bahn, all on one ticket system (VGN). The two places most visitors need transport for are both easy: the Palace of Justice (the trials courtroom and its memorial exhibition) is on Fürther Straße by Bärenschanze station on the U1, and the Nazi Party Rally Grounds, with the documentation center, the unfinished Congress Hall and the Zeppelin field, lie around the Dutzendteich lake in the southeast, reached by tram 8 from the main station to the Doku-Zentrum stop, or by S-Bahn to Dutzendteich. The grounds are large and spread out, so allow half a day and comfortable shoes.

Practicalities

Nuremberg is a safe, easy city; the station area at night is the only place to keep your wits about you. Cards are widely accepted, but carry some cash: sausage stands, market stalls, small bakeries and some older pubs still prefer it, and the Christmas market is largely a cash affair. Public transport has no barriers; buy a ticket before you board and validate it if the machine asks you to, because plain-clothes inspectors check and fines are on the spot. Shops close on Sundays, so plan groceries around it. Bottles and cans carry a deposit (Pfand), and at the Christmas market so does the mug your mulled wine comes in; keep it as a souvenir or hand it back.

The food to know is small and specific. Nürnberger Rostbratwürste are finger-sized pork sausages seasoned with marjoram, grilled over beechwood and served by the half-dozen or more with sauerkraut or potato salad, or as Drei im Weggla, three in a bread roll, from a street stand. Saure Zipfel are the same sausages poached in a vinegar and onion broth. Lebkuchen, the city’s gingerbread, is made year-round but is at its best before Christmas; the finest kind, Elisenlebkuchen, is made with nuts and little or no flour. And for a proper Franconian meal, order Schäufele, roasted pork shoulder with crackling and potato dumplings. Wash it down with local beer: Franconia is thick with small family breweries, many in villages nearby, and the beer gardens and brewery taverns around the city are where people actually spend their evenings.