31-07-2025
The best bars and nightlife in Hamburg
Hamburg is a diverse blend of high society and rugged street life, and this broad range of lifestyles is reflected in its vibrant nightlife scene.
Across the city, you'll find posh cocktail lounges alongside rough-and-ready Kneipen (pub equivalents). For the best of both worlds, head for Sternschanze or Karolinenviertel, two arty, alternative districts where the boozy ambience is convivial and inclusive.
What to drink? Well, the beer is uniformly excellent, of course, but the smarter places also serve some surprisingly good German wines – reds as well as whites. The bars below are all first-rate – but even if you take pot luck, you're bound to have a good time.
All our recommendations below have been hand selected and tested by our resident destination expert to help you discover the best bars and nightlife in Hamburg. Find out more below, or for more Hamburg inspiration, see our guides to the city's best hotels, things to do and restaurants.
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Best for beer
Altes Mädchen
Hamburg's Ratsherrn brewery produces some of the city's finest ales, and in the adjacent pub, Altes Mädchen, you can drink it. A short walk from Sternschanze train station, beside the brick warehouses of the meat market, punters sit at long trestle tables – inside if it's chilly; out in the cobbled courtyard if the weather's fine. There are 30 craft beers on tap, including three Ratsherrn classics: the darker zwickel, the pale helles and the crisp pilsner.
