Stuttgart – A Guide to Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the county Baden-Württemberg. Stuttgart has nearly 600,000 inhabitants and is among Germany’s most populated cities. The city’s population has grown rapidly in the last decades. Stuttgart is home to Mercedes Benz, Porsche and some other big companies. On the other hand, Stuttgart is a city which is surrounded by beautiful landscape like vineyards. Stuttgart is truly a rural heritage with a passion for technological innovation.
Sights:
Schlossplatz: Schlossplatz is the heart of Stuttgart with its castle Alte Schloss (old castle) and the column. The fountains represent the 8 rivers of Baden Württemberg. The new palace Neues Schloss is not far from here and was designed by the Duke Karl Eugen as an answer to Versaille. A lot of events take place at Schlossplatz.
Königsbau: North of Schlossplatz is the colonnaded Königsbau which is now a shopping mall. (see picture on the left)
Mercedes-Benz Museum: This fairly new Museum (Mercedesstrasse 100 ) guides you through the history of Mercedes Benz. There is a free English tour at 1:45pm. The entrance for the museum is €8 per person. (see picture on the right)
Porschemuseum: Stuttgart is an automotive centre and if Porsche is your favourite car, head to the Porsche Museum (Porscheplatz 1). Here you can get a guided tour through Porsche’s history. Entrance is €8.
Wilhelma: Wilhelma is Stuttgart’s biggest park (Rosensteinpark). It is a zoo and botanical garden in one. Entrance to the zoo is €11,40 per person.
Cannstatter Volksfest: The second biggest beer festival in Germany after the Oktoberfest is the Bad Cannstatter Wasen. (see picture left) The festival starts at the end of September and lasts 3 weeks.
Tours:
There is a bus tour in German and English which lasts 2.5 hours. The tour costs 18€ per person and starts at the Hotel am Schlossgarten.
There is also a boat trip available from May to October on the River Neckar. This tour is operated by Neckar-Käpt’n and departs from the dock at Wilhelma in Bad Canstatt.
Sleeping:
A nice hostel in Stuttgart is DJH Hostel. This hostel was recently renovated and offers clean rooms with private bathrooms and fantastic city views. The location is fabulous too. (Haussmannstrasse 27) A dorm room will cost about €23 per night.
The City Hotel (Uhlandstrasse 18) is a great mid range hotel in the heart of Stuttgart. A double room costs about €100 a night.
A real luxury hotel is the Steigenberger Graf Zeppelin Hotel (Arnulf-Klett-Platz 7) where double rooms starts at €220.
Eating:
Imbiss zum Brunnenwirt: This is the place where you get Stuttgart’s most famous Currywurst (curried sausage). It’s always busy here. No wonder – a sausage costs only €3.
A real Swabian restaurant and brewery is the Calwer-Eck-Bräu (Calwer Strasse 31). This is the place where you get Maultaschen (ravioli), Flädlesuppe (noodle soup) and Fleischkäse (meat loaf). Mains costs between €10-18.
The Portuguese restaurant Tasca im Feu (Haußmannstraße 235) has received the best reviews from critics. It is a small cozy place which serves great Portuguese and Spanish dishes.
Drinking:
Theodor-Heuss-Straße is the drinking mile in Stuttgart. It is here where you will find one bar after the other. One of the biggest newcomers is the bar T-O 12. (see picture on the left) This bar is so popular, that it received 2 awards. Even stars go here.
For a nice cold beer head to Biergarten im Schloßgarten. This 2000 seat beer garden serves pretzels and cold beer and is very popular among the locals in summer. There are regular live bands too 🙂
Shopping:
The main shopping mile in Stuttgart is Königsstrasse which starts at the central station and goes all the way to Rotebühlplatz. That’s where you’ll find all the retail chains and department stores. Marktstraße has some good stores too and all the designer stores are in Stiftstrasse.
Tipps:
For a free 360-degree view above Stuttgart head to the CUBE (kleiner Schloßplatz 1) in the Kunstmuseum (art museum). This is coffee store and restaurant in one. (See picture on the left)
You will feel like you’re back in the 30’s when you sit in the cable car in Stuttgart. This Seilbahn (cable car) was built in 1929 and at 11km/h, it was the fastest cable car in Germany at this time. The cable car itself was technically refurbished in 2004 and since then is back in use. The outside, however, still looks like the original from 1929. You can use the cable car with an ordinary public transport ticket.
Don’t miss the Ritter Sport museum 20 km from Stuttgart in Waldenbuch (Alfred-Ritter-Straße 27 in 71111 Waldenbuch). Ritter Sport is one of the most famous chocolate brands in Germany and is sold world wide in supermarkets. Here you can find a chocolate museum and a chocolate fan shop where you can buy all sorts of things to do with chocolate. They even have their own coffee store in there, offering yummy chocolate shakes and pastries.