Hard to believe, but Altona and Hamburg were two rivals. Now Altona is part of Hamburg (a nice,…read morecharismatic part), but I guess there still was a need to have its own museum. And I must say, well done guys! Small, but very informative museum, revolving around Elbe and everything which comes with it: shipbuilding, whaling(thank God it's in the past), fishery, sea trade, port and so on. A message is clear: the river is a key to regions past and the future. There's a beautiful collection of figureheads occupying the whole room. Also a hall dedicated to Schleswig-Holstein, Helgoland island in particular. This museum is very similar to surprise Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte (Hamburg Museum), but smaller. It has a few things, which its bigger brother doesn't have: the whole interactive section dedicated to kids - Kinderolymp and a restaurant, Vierländer Kater, a house in the house, replicating typical Northen German tavern of 18th century. The restaurant itself worth visiting, great concept!

My long ambition to get onto more submarines is finally coming to fruition. I've seen 2 in a month!…read moreMy fascination with these relics of the cold war stems mainly from enjoying "The Hunt for Red October" so much. U-434 is a Soviet vessel dating from 1976. She is a Tango-class (NATO designation) attack boat, armed with 24 torpedoes. Powered by 3x 5200 shp 6 cylinder diesels, she was, I believe, the largest non-nuclear submarine in service at the time. A German businessman thought it would be a good idea to buy her for around EUR1M in 2002, and she was transported back from Russia for a further EUR1M and now lies in Hafen City. Admission is around EUR12 with an extra EUR3 for the guided tour, which ou can have in English. I highly recommend the extra tour as you get to see areas of the boat (command room etc.) that you wouldn't be able to otherwise. Sadly, as she was still in active service as a training boat until 5 years ago, the Ruskies removed quite a bit of equipment from her before she was sold. Therefore, you won't be plotting a firing solution as the torpedo computer has gone, along with sonar and communications. For the most part though this is as authentic as it gets. One ping only.

I really enjoyed this, geeky as it may be. There's zero hype, and not much education happening…read more Basically, you're walking on your own through a good portion of a real submarine, free to poke and prod. If that appeals to you, have at it! But take it from me, watch your head. The doors are low at the top, and high at the bottom, and generally have pipes just where you want to stand up after passing through. (Probably not a good outing for a first date.)

From the owner: Das Erotic Art Museum stellt Kunstwerke von verschiedenen Künstlern mit Bezug zur Erotik und zur…read moreHansestadt Hamburg aus.

I have been to Hamburg so many times that I thought I knew the city…read more Apparently, I can't be further away from being wrong. This museum - that is located on beautiful park with idyllic lake teaches you all about Hamburg and its history. It's located not far from U-bahn stop St. Pauli, so it can't get any easier than that, not to mention it's not far should you be interested to check out all the "interesting" entertainment on the infamous Reeperbahn. Again, dragged by my history and museum geek boyfriend, I came here by force (if not by free will) although I wasn't literally kicking and screaming. If it were up to me, I'd rather spend my time at Monckebergstrasse, but oh well - I guess a little history won't hurt. This museum has very interesting models of pretty much everything in Hamburg. At least you won't be bored by history by looking at interesting teeny weeny intricate models. It taught you what Hamburg really was back then when some Christian missionaries (and bishops) chose to settle here and named the town Hammaburg. It's almost like reading it on wikipedia, but with a lot of cute models. See? not boring. The layout of the museum was cool too and they had a room full of model ships just like in Copenhagen's Orlogsmuseet, and the most cool about this museum is that on the top floor, they have a working railway model of Hamburg in the scale of 1:32. That was amazing to watch. They did have people operating the trains and all. I felt like I went back to my childhood again. On the basement floor they had small exhibition of what Hamburg was like under Nazi reign, along with recreation of shops, places under World War II. Very interesting. All in all, a very interesting place to visit, especially if you're interested about history. ...and oh, did you know that Reeperbahn literally means the rope way? It's where back in the yore they made ropes for the ships. See? More knowledge of history here! I'm getting like 1% smarter than before... :P

The museum itself is a nice museum with a lot of interesting things, but after seeing the miniature…read morewonderland and the maritime museum, I had more than enough miniature buildings and boats. Only was able to stay 15 minutes before I couldn't take anymore of it.

From the owner: Port des Lumières ist Hamburgs neuer Ort für spektakuläre immersive Erlebnisse aus Licht, Klang und…read moreBewegung. Im Herzen der HafenCity – im Westfield Hamburg-Überseequartier – beginnt eine digitale Reise, die alle Sinne anspricht. Auf 3.200 Quadratmetern Fläche und zehn Meter hohen Wänden entfaltet sich eine faszinierende Welt, in der Bilder lebendig werden und Musik den Raum durchdringt. Modernste Projektionstechnik, eindrucksvolle Sounds und eine besondere Architektur verschmelzen zu einem immersiven Erlebnis für alle Sinne. Ob pulsierende Farben, ikonische Motive oder eine Reise durch Zeit und Raum – hier geht es nicht um das klassische Betrachten, sondern um Emotion, Staunen und Eintauchen. Port des Lumières ist Teil eines internationalen Netzwerks spektakulärer Digitalshows mit Standorten in Paris, New York und Amsterdam. In Hamburg werden wechselnde Inszenierungen gezeigt. Besucher:innen jeder Altersgruppe können hier frei durch den Raum wandern, sich von den Bildern umhüllen lassen oder von der Aussichtsplattform in Form eines Schiffsbugs aus neue Perspektiven erleben. Das Kids’ Atelier lädt die jüngsten Gäste zum Mitmachen ein. Ob Tourist:innen oder Hamburger:innen, Technikfans, Kunstliebhaber:innen oder Erlebnishungrige – das Port des Lumières ist der perfekte Tipp für alle, die in eine andere Welt abtauchen wollen.

Great museum about the history of sailing and ocean shipping. Exhibits from ancient times until now.read more

This is one of the largest and most well maintained museums I've ever been to. Absolutely an…read moreessential part of your trip to Hamburg if you're even remotely interested in anything maritime related. This includes vikings, trade routes, slave trade, explorers, war ships, cargo shipping, harbour building, pirates, marine animals, fishing, treasures, ship wrecks and much more! The exhibitions stretch over nine stories with additional smaller exhibitions on various sub-floors in between. We didn't have enough time to visit every single room, but everything I saw was super well presented, interesting and dynamic. There are tours at various times in various areas as well as presentations throughout the different floors. We happened to walk in on a presentation of a container ship simulator that let you slowly, painstakingly experience what it's like to drive a large container ship along a canal leading to the harbour. It's slow. It's arduous. I thought it was incredibly boring (the simulator, not the presentation) but apparently people spend hours at home playing with these simulators. And enjoy it. For some reason. I loved the miniature ship exhibition. Thousands of miniature ships spanning several centuries of ship building and design. The piracy exhibit was also quite interesting, while the rooms on the slave trade (including a piece of an actual slave ship showing shakles and chains) and plague ships were quite harrowing though still really well presented. All the history of human activity on the seven seas seems to be brought together in this amazing building. The cafe downstairs is also reasonably priced for a museum cafe and very beautifully designed. We really enjoyed our trip to this museum.

Awesome! I have been here many times and would definitely reccomend it! One of the must-dos in HH!read more

Wow! What an experience! I never anticipated this being something of interest, but hearing so many…read morepositive recommendations when I arrived in Hamburg made me interested. I looked online and it was sold out and the estimated wait time was 3-4hours. I rolled the dice and got lucky with a walk in and only waited 30min. This is was the highlight of my trip, the displays were detailed beyond expectation. Looking forward to going again in the future!

Traveling to the Hamburger Kunsthalle to see Caspar David Friedrich's "Wanderer above the Sea of…read moreFog" is absolutely worth the trip. The painting feels even more powerful in person, with the misty landscape and solitary figure drawing you into a quiet, reflective mood. The museum itself is calm, well organized, and easy to navigate, which makes the visit pleasant even if you are not an art expert. Staff and gallery attendants are very helpful and approachable, happy to point you toward the Friedrich room or answer questions, so you feel welcomed and cared for throughout your visit.

Quite a stunning museum of the golden years and modern years. With everything you can imagine,…read moregrand buildings, grand entrance (quite a steps to walk up), grands staircase. Reasonable admission fee to get in and a must to put everything away. Several levels of arts displaced. A must visit when you're in Hamburg for sure. I got lost into the history through the art displaces, just fascinating and very intriguing. Everything is down in grand scale for sure.

Great space; pieces are great including the two Lagerfeld dresses when you enter the museum. I…read morefound an elevator but I don't think it was listed on the map. Restaurant wasn't too bad and the price was great. The museum store is pretty much what you'd find in any other museum.

This review is for the Tattoo Exhibit only…read more Went to the museum today excited to see what would be portrayed about Tattoo history etc. Basically, it was a lot of photographs of modern day tattoo wearers talking about their tattoos. A few old machines in a display box, a ton of tattoo books on a table, and displayed pigments. The exhibit seemed super touristy in a sense that it was very basic, and maybe curated by someone fascinated by the culture, and not actually a part of it. I'd give it less stars if it weren't for the historic Skin Samples on display. That saved the exhibit. Everything else you can see in the same fashion on the internet. Pictures of pictures etc.

We were 5 minutes late. The tour started without us, and they wouldn't let us join. They wouldn't…read morerefund the tickets. They don't answer their telephone.

What an amazing experience, it was made more interesting due to the language barrier for me…read more Friendly staff and the menu kept me guessing. Once the friendly guide knew I was Australian he made an extra effort to translate most things for me which I really appreciated. I booked online from Australia and the customer service was top notch. All my questions and queries were answered promptly. I went by myself and wouldn't recommend it unless you can speak German as unless you are lucky like I was tonight you will struggle knowing what's happening.