Stuttgart

Home of Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, with car museums, the Schlossplatz and vineyard slopes along the Neckar — the gateway to Swabia.

Stuttgart is the capital of Baden-Württemberg in southwestern Germany, with a population of about 630,000. It sits in a basin of the Neckar valley, ringed by hillsides covered in vineyards and forest. The birthplace of both Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, it is also the economic and cultural heart of Swabia.

The city centre is anchored by the Königstraße pedestrian street. The Schlossplatz is flanked by the Baroque New Palace and the medieval Old Palace (home to the Landesmuseum Württemberg), and nearby are the Staatsgalerie, the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, the Markthalle, the Stiftskirche and Schillerplatz — all easily covered on foot in half a day. The all-white cubic interior of the City Library is a favourite photo spot. To the northeast, the Bad Cannstatt area has the Wilhelma zoo and botanical garden, Rosensteinpark and the Cannstatter Volksfest, held every Sep–Oct and second in size only to Munich's Oktoberfest. The Mercedes-Benz Museum stands by the Neckar to the east, and the Porsche Museum is in the northern suburb of Zuffenhausen. Climb the TV Tower or visit the Württemberg Mausoleum for views over the city and vineyards.

Day trips: Ludwigsburg Palace, about 12 km north, is one of Germany's largest Baroque palaces; Esslingen, about 14 km southeast, has an intact medieval old town; the Metzingen outlet village, about 30 km southeast, is a shopping magnet; and the UNESCO-listed Maulbronn Monastery lies about 35 km northwest. Tübingen and Hohenzollern Castle to the south can be planned as a separate destination.

The best time to visit is May–Oct: vineyard walks and open-air wine taverns in summer, the Volksfest and wine festivals in autumn, and in December one of Germany's oldest and largest Christmas markets. Transport: S-Bahn trains take about 30 minutes from Stuttgart Airport to the city; Deutsche Bahn ICE trains connect to Frankfurt (about 1.5 hours) and Munich (about 2.5 hours). The S-Bahn, U-Bahn and rack railway make getting around easy — buy a Tageticket day pass. Plan on 2–3 days.

Top sights

Mercedes-Benz Museum – A futuristic double-helix building housing more than 160 Mercedes-Benz vehicles, from the first automobile of 1886 to racing cars. A must-v…
Porsche Museum – A white, floating-looking building in front of Porsche's Zuffenhausen headquarters, with about 80 classic Porsche sports cars and Le Mans r…
Schlossplatz & New Palace – Stuttgart's city living room. A large square framed by the Baroque New Palace has fountains and a memorial column, with the Old Palace, an…
Wilhelma Zoo and Botanical Garden – The only historic garden in Europe that combines a zoo and a botanical garden. Moorish-style buildings and greenhouses house about 1,200 an…
Ludwigsburg Palace & Blühendes Barock – One of Germany's largest Baroque palaces, with 452 rooms, the “Blooming Baroque” gardens and a fairy-tale garden. Known as the “Versailles…
Old Castle & Landesmuseum Württemberg – A medieval moated castle at the city's birthplace, with an elegant Renaissance arcaded courtyard and the Württemberg State Museum, which di…
Fernsehturm Stuttgart – The world's first reinforced concrete TV tower, 217 metres tall, whose 150-metre observation deck offers views over the Stuttgart basin, vi…
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart – One of Germany's most important art museums, with works from the Middle Ages to Picasso and German Expressionism. Its postmodern new wing i…
Kunstmuseum Stuttgart – A glass-cube art museum on Schlossplatz housing German modern art, including works by Otto Dix, with a top-floor café terrace overlooking t…
Stuttgart City Library – A pure white cube with an inverted-pyramid atrium, often named one of the world's most beautiful libraries, and a rooftop terrace with free…
Markthalle Stuttgart – An indoor market from 1914 in Art Nouveau style, with stalls selling Swabian specialties, spices, cheeses and food from around the world. A…
Stiftskirche & Schillerplatz – Stuttgart's main church, with twin late Gothic towers and a sculpture series of Württemberg counts inside, and a statue of the poet Schille…
Königstraße – A 1.2 km pedestrian shopping street running from the Hauptbahnhof south past Schlossplatz, one of Germany's busiest shopping streets with d…
Württemberg Mausoleum – A neoclassical domed mausoleum on a vineyard hilltop, built by a king for his late wife, with vineyard trails overlooking the Neckar Valley…
Weissenhof Estate – A 1927 collective showcase of modernist architecture. Two houses by Le Corbusier are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and the estate now houses…
Höhenpark Killesberg & Killesberg Tower – A hilltop park converted from a former quarry, with flower beds, a miniature train and a petting farm for families, and a 40 m cable-net ob…
Rosensteinpark & State Museum of Natural History – One of Germany's largest English-style landscape gardens, with old trees and lawns that link to the palace gardens. The Rosenstein Palace a…
Bohnenviertel – One of the few old districts in Stuttgart to survive World War II, with restored historic houses, galleries, antique shops and traditional…
Solitude Palace – A Rococo hunting lodge on a forested ridge west of the city. A straight avenue leads from the palace to Ludwigsburg, and the terrace overlo…
Cannstatter Volksfest – The world's second-largest beer festival, held every autumn on Cannstatter Wasen with large beer tents and rides. The 26 m tall fruit colum…
Stuttgart Christmas Market – One of Europe's oldest and largest Christmas markets, with nearly 300 stalls whose elaborately decorated roofs change each year, and mugs f…
House of History Baden-Württemberg – A contemporary history museum on the Kulturmeile (culture mile). Multimedia exhibits tell the story of Baden-Württemberg over nearly two ce…
Linden Museum – One of Germany's most important ethnographic museums, with a collection of about 160,000 objects from Africa, the Americas, Oceania and Asi…
Esslingen Old Town – A well-preserved medieval town on the Neckar, with half-timbered old houses, a painted old town hall and hilltop castle paths. Its medieval…
Maulbronn Monastery – The best-preserved medieval Cistercian monastery north of the Alps, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with fine Romanesque to Gothic architectu…

Where to eat

Weinstube Kochenbas – Said to be Stuttgart's oldest wine tavern, dating back to 1858, where you sit at long wooden tables for Maultaschen wit…
Vetter Essen & Trinken – A popular small restaurant in the Heusteig district, ranked first on Falstaff's traditional restaurant list, with prais…
Tauberquelle – A Swabian institution in the city center, open since 1879, with red checked tablecloths and dark wooden chairs, and a q…
Roland's Maultaschen – A handmade Maultaschen shop and snack bar in Vaihingen, listed in Falstaff's street food guide, hand-making about 4,000…
Délice – A one-Michelin-star restaurant with only about 14 seats in a small room with a vaulted ceiling and stone walls, serving…