Like a guided tour: a Hamburg Greet
Come as a guest – leave as a friend!
You want to get to know Hamburg through the eyes of a hamburger? Like with a friend who takes you on a guided tour of a special kind? Welcome to the Hamburg Greeters!
Would you like to know what life in Hamburg is like?
We HAMBURG GREETERS love our city with all its nooks and crannies. It’s wonderful to infect others with it.
We would like to give you an insight into our very personal Hamburg life. We accompany individual guests and groups of up to 6 people through the city. This happens without payment and without a tip – just as it is natural among friends. Hence the motto: Come as a guest – go as a friend!
You will experience customised tours and learn something about our everyday life along the way.
What we don’t offer you: a complete sightseeing tour of tourist attractions.
A Greeter Makes a New City Great
This was one of the nicest experiences I have ever had while traveling - what an amazing service...
Where do you want to go for a special kind of guided tour?
Hamburg
on the water
Green Hamburg
Hamburg
Sightseeing
Greets: personal insights at Hamburg’s most beautiful places
. Greeters are not city guides in the true sense, no certified information mediators. But of course we are happy to travel with our guests to the most beautiful places in Hamburg.
Staircase district Blankenese
The downstream Blankenese is definitely worth a visit. Particularly interesting there is the Treppenviertel, which lives up to its name. If you want to explore the Treppenviertel on foot, you should have healthy knees and good shoes. Because countless narrow and often steep stairs lead up and down. Pretty old fishermen’s houses with their colorful gardens and always wonderful views of the Elbe are worth the effort. There are no benches to rest on. You can only find them if you hike the stairs all the way down to the Elbe beach. There, nice restaurants also invite you to eat.
Ottensen
Ottensen is a district that has had to reinvent itself time and again. The farming village on the outskirts of Altona became the center of North German iron processing and then again an industrial wasteland. A red working-class neighborhood became a hip residential district with middle-class and multi-ethnic residents. In addition, it is known today as a hip scene quarter. It stands for alternative shopping, diverse cultural facilities and a meeting place for younger partygoers.
Kontorhausviertel
Together with Speicherstadt, Kontorhausviertel has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2015. It was built from around 1912 onwards where thousands of people previously lived in poor conditions in one of the notorious “Gängeviertel” districts. An entire neighborhood of rented office buildings was built here – an impressive and globally unique collection of clinker brick buildings with beautiful design elements. Even today, when walking through the Kontorhausviertel, the atmosphere created by this architecture is fascinating and small stores, cafes and restaurants invite you to linger.
Ohlsdorf Cemetery
As the largest park cemetery in the world, Ohlsdorf Cemetery is one of the green lungs of the city of Hamburg. You will come across angels and a variety of other sculptures during your walk, many an unknown such as a columbarium you will discover here. In addition to the classic cemetery works, there are couple graves, “human and animal” graves and butterfly graves from more recent times to discover. In two to three hours can be explored here on the main cemetery Ohlsdorf a lot, whereby for beginners the older western part of the park, which Wilhelm Cordes designed from 1877, is a nice start (directly from the subway Ohlsdorf).
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Planten un Blomen
Planten un Blomen (“Plants and Flowers” in local North German dialect) is the name of the park in the city center, which stretches between Dammtor station and the exhibition grounds to the television tower and through the ramparts to Sankt Pauli. There is a lot to discover in Planten und Blomen: beautiful flower beds, perennials, trees, streams, ponds, water features, walk-in greenhouses and a wide range of play and leisure activities.
Schanzenviertel
The Schanzenviertel, affectionately known as Schanze is the smallest district of Hamburg and belongs to the district of Altona. The Sternschanze – so the official name is a colorful multicultural trendy district with traditional and trendy stores, a variety of gastronomic offerings and cultural institutions.
Not to forget: the sights of Hamburg
. Of course, we are also proud of the many sights that our city offers. And if guests wish, we incorporate the visit into the greets.
Elbphilharmonie
Since 2017, the Elbphilharmonie is our new landmark. Even without prior registration, you can enjoy the panoramic view of the harbor and the city.
Landungsbrücken
Once a terminal for commuters to the shipyards and docks south of the Elbe, the Landungsbrücken are now the starting point for harbor ferries and tours.
Town Hall
Hamburg’s town hall stands on thousands of pillars. It was built after the Great Fire of 1842 and is still today the seat of the Senate and the City’s Parliament.
Speicherstadt
With the construction of HafenCity, the Speicherstadt was brought back to life. To a large extent, it is still about tea and carpets. And it’s a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Harbor
When Hamburgers are “at the port”, they are usually still a good distance away from it. This is because the actual port is mostly on the other side of the Elbe.
Komponistenquartier
A number of important musicians lived and worked in Hamburg: Telemann, C.P.E. Bach, Brahms and Mahler. A fine little museum commemorates their lives and work.
Fish market
Up to 70,000 people visit the Hamburg (actually: Altona) fish market every Sunday between 6 and 10 am.
HafenCity
In two decades, the port area north of the river – which has hardly been used since the introduction of containers – has become Hamburg’s most modern district: HafenCity.
Reeperbahn
On the Reeperbahn and in the adjacent streets life is raging especially at night and on weekends. But also during the day there is much to be seen.
Planetarium
As early as 1930, a planetarium was created in the former water tower in Hamburg’s city park. The panoramic view from its platform should not be missed.
Hamburg by bike
The Inner and Outer Alster are not the only places to explore Hamburg by bike (or on foot).
Elbuferwanderweg
The Elbe Riverbank Hiking Trail stretches over 23 kilometers, from the center of Hamburg to the Schulauer Fährhaus in Wedel.
Really free of charge
A greet is truly free, as stated in the Core Values.
Personal encounter
Greeter want to be more than city guides: they offer the meeting with Hamburg*innen in the common tour..
Worldwide movement
Greeters exist not only in Hamburg, but in more than 130 locations worldwide and growing.
Weitere Hamburg-Tipps gibt es im Kayak Travel Guide für Hamburg.
