Bonn packs two millennia of history, a UNESCO-listed composer, one of Germany’s best museum districts, and the Rhine Valley’s green hills into a walkable city of 330,000 people. You can cover the core sights in a weekend but will need 3-4 days to include a Rhine boat trip and the Siebengebirge hills. See our Bonn travel tips for more details. Here are the best things to do in Bonn.
Things to Do in Bonn: Historic Center and Beethoven
Beethoven-Haus
Ludwig van Beethoven was born at Bonngasse 20 in December 1770 and the house is now a museum with the world’s largest Beethoven collection. You can see his ear trumpets, his last piano forte, original manuscript scores including the Moonlight Sonata, and the famous life mask taken in 1812. The museum covers 12 rooms across two buildings and takes 60-90 minutes. Open daily 10:00-18:00 (closed December 24-26 and January 1). Admission is €12 for adults, €7 for students, and the Bonn Regio WelcomeCard gives free entry. Audio guides in English cost €3 extra. The museum gets busy between 11:00 and 14:00; visit at opening or after 15:00. See our where to stay in Bonn for more details. Bonngasse 20 is a 5-minute walk from the Markt tram stop (lines 62, 66).
Bonn Minster (Münsterbasilika)
The Romanesque basilica on Münsterplatz dates from the 11th to 13th centuries with five towers that define the Bonn skyline. The cloister is the best-preserved Romanesque cloister in the Rhineland and admission is free. The statue of St. Helena and the 12th-century crypt are the highlights inside. Open daily 7:00-19:00; the cloister courtyard is open during daylight hours. Free 30-minute organ concerts are held on Saturdays at 12:00 from May through October. See our best neighborhoods in Bonn for more details. The basilica sits at the center of the Altstadt, a 2-minute walk from the Beethoven-Haus.
Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall)
The pink and gold Rococo town hall on the Marktplatz was built in 1737 and is Bonn’s most photographed building after the Minster. The gilded outdoor staircase was the backdrop for John F. Kennedy’s 1963 speech and has been used by every German president since for official receptions. The building is only open for guided tours, which run on the first Saturday of each month at 11:00 (€5, book at the tourist office on Windeckstrasse). See our Bonn events and festivals for more details. The Marktplatz itself fills with food stalls on weekdays and the Christmas market in December.
Things to Do in Bonn: Museum Mile
Haus der Geschichte (House of History)
This free museum on Willy-Brandt-Allee covers German history from 1945 to the present through 7,000 exhibits including the original 1954 World Cup match ball, a piece of the Berlin Wall, and Konrad Adenauer’s state Mercedes. The Bonn-as-capital section on the upper floor is particularly strong with original furnishings from the Chancellor’s Bungalow. Budget 2-3 hours. Open Tuesday to Sunday 9:00-19:00 (Friday until 21:00). Free admission. English audio guides are €4. The museum cafe has reasonable lunch options (soup and sandwich around €7). See our best time to visit Bonn for more details. The U-Bahn stop Museum Koenig (lines 16, 63, 66) drops you right outside.
Kunstmuseum Bonn
The modern art museum focuses on German art after 1945 with the world’s largest collection of August Macke and Rhenish Expressionist works. The building itself is a striking Axel Schultes design with a sawtooth roof gallery. The collection spans 9,000 works across two floors. Open Tuesday to Sunday 11:00-18:00 (Wednesday until 21:00). Admission €8 for adults, €4 reduced. Free entry on the first Sunday of each month. See our Bonn weather by month for more details. The museum shares a plaza with the Bundeskunsthalle and is a 12-minute walk from the Hauptbahnhof.
Bundeskunsthalle (Art and Exhibition Hall)
The distinctive blue-lit cube on the Museum Mile hosts major rotating exhibitions ranging from ancient civilizations to contemporary art. Past shows have covered the Silk Road, Frida Kahlo, and NASA space photography. There is no permanent collection; check the current exhibition at bundeskunsthalle.de before visiting. Open Tuesday to Sunday 10:00-19:00 (Wednesday and Thursday until 21:00). Admission varies by exhibition (€10-18). See our Bonn travel guide for more details. The rooftop garden is free to access and has views over the Museum Mile.
Museum Koenig
The natural history museum in a neo-Baroque villa is best known for its Savanna exhibit: a walk-through diorama with zebras, giraffes, and antelopes under a simulated African sky. The museum also houses Arctic and Antarctic collections and a tropical rainforest exhibit. Open Tuesday to Sunday 10:00-18:00 (Wednesday until 21:00). Admission €8 for adults, €5 reduced. The building is historically significant as the site of the first meeting of the West German Parliamentary Council in 1948. A combined ticket with the adjacent Zoological Research Museum costs €12.
Things to Do in Bonn: Parks and Outdoors
Rheinaue Park
This 160-hectare park on the Rhine was created for the 1979 Federal Garden Show and is Bonn’s largest green space. The central lake has paddleboat rentals (€6 per 30 minutes, April-October) and the Japanese garden is a small but precise Zen garden with a tea house. The park has 40km of paths for walking and cycling, a biergarten (Biergarten Rheinaue) that seats 800, and a miniature golf course. The Freizeitpark area at the south end has a ropes course (Kletterpark Rheinaue, €18-25 depending on course, open March-November). The U-Bahn stop Rheinaue (lines 16, 63, 66) brings you to the park center. Free entry, open 24 hours.
Drachenfels and the Siebengebirge
The Drachenfels (Dragon’s Rock) rises 321m above the Rhine at Königswinter, 10km south of Bonn. You can reach the ruined 12th-century castle at the summit by a 40-minute hike or via Germany’s oldest cog railway (Drachenfelsbahn, €12 return, runs every 30 minutes from 9:00-18:00 March-October, weekends only in winter). The summit view sweeps across the Rhine Valley to Bonn and Cologne. The Schloss Drachenburg halfway up is a 19th-century neo-Gothic fantasy castle (€7 entry, open daily 11:00-18:00). Take tram 66 from Bonn Hauptbahnhof to Königswinter (25 minutes, €3.10). The Nibelungenhalle halfway up the hill is a small museum of Wagnerian dragon mythology (€6).
Cherry Blossom Avenues
Heerstrasse and Breite Strasse in the Nordstadt form a pink blossom tunnel for about two weeks each spring, typically between late March and mid-April. The trees are Japanese ornamental cherries (Prunus serrulata) planted in the 1980s. The best light for photos is early morning before 9:00 on a weekday; weekends from 10:00-16:00 are packed with visitors. The cherry blossom streets are a 10-minute walk from the Altstadt, just north of the Hofgarten. Combine with a coffee at one of the cafes along the adjacent Hermannstrasse.
Things to Do in Bonn: Day Trips
Cologne
Cologne is 25 minutes by regional train (RE or RB, €12.40 one-way on Deutsche Bahn) and the Kölner Dom towers directly outside the station. You are more likely to fly into Cologne Bonn Airport (CGN) anyway, so combining both cities on one trip is standard. The Dom is free to enter, the tower climb is €6 (533 steps, no lift), and the Museum Ludwig next door has Europe’s largest Pop Art collection outside the US (€14). A Cologne-Bonn day ticket costs €21 for unlimited regional travel for one person.
Ahr Valley (Ahrtal)
The Ahr Valley wine region starts 20km south of Bonn and is Germany’s largest contiguous red wine area producing Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir). The Rotweinwanderweg (Red Wine Trail) is a 35km hiking path through vineyards with tasting rooms in villages like Mayschoss and Altenahr. Take the Ahr Valley Railway from Bonn Hbf to Ahrweiler (40 minutes, €12). Most wineries open for tastings from April through October on weekends. The 2021 flood severely damaged the valley but most wine estates and trails have now reopened.
