Things to do in Weimar
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Weimar
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Thuringian Bach Festival opens the season, cool and changeable with manageable crowds.
Best months overall, Ilm Park in full leaf, cycling at its best and long evenings.
Weimarer Sommer, open air culture and Schwanseebad season, warm to hot with school holiday crowds.
Kunstfest Weimar in late August to early September, the best window for contemporary plus classical Weimar.
Second best month, harvest light, vineyards turning, excellent cycling and thinning crowds.
Zwiebelmarkt fills the Altstadt on the second weekend, joyful and overwhelming with price spikes.
Christmas Market season, cold and dark early but atmospheric for a market, concert and dinner stay.
Worst for a first visit, coldest and darkest with bare park and the most punishing Buchenwald visits, but lowest prices.
What's on
- Thüringer Bachwochen April
Bach Festival concerts fill churches and halls, and Bach worked in Weimar.
- Weimarer Sommer July-August
Open air stages, courtyard concerts and Weimarhallenpark pop nights.
- Kunstfest Weimar 21 Aug-6 Sep
Thuringia's major contemporary arts festival, a hotel sell out window.
- Goethe's birthday 28 August
Special Frauenplan programming for Goethe's birthday.
- Zwiebelmarkt 9-11 Oct
Thuringia's oldest city festival with onion garlands, onion cake and soup, bratwurst stands, rides and stages.
- Weimar Christmas Market Late November-December
Markt and Theaterplatz stalls with Frauenplan lights, best midweek in December for value and calm.
Best things to do in Weimar
Buchenwald Memorial
The most important visit in Weimar, covering the former camp grounds, exhibitions and memorial in a sobering half day.
Goethes Wohnhaus
Goethe lived here for half a century, and the preserved residence plus museum is far more substantial than a typical writer house.
Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek
An oval three storey Rococo hall of books and busts, intimate and beautiful, seen on a strict timed slot in small numbers.
Schillers Wohnhaus
Schiller's family house feels domestic and compressed, with preserved rooms plus the museum behind giving proper context.
Bauhaus Museum Weimar
The world's oldest Bauhaus collection in the centenary cube, dense and theory led, best explored with the Bauhaus app.
Haus Am Horn
The 1923 experimental house from the first Bauhaus exhibition, where you walk through the idea at house scale.
Museum Neues Weimar
The van de Velde and Nietzsche precursor story to the Bauhaus, and enough on its own if modern design is not your focus.
Park an der Ilm
A 48 hectare English landscape park along the Ilm, Weimar's green masterpiece and ideal for a run, picnic or late light walk.
Where to stay in Weimar
Altstadt/Innenstadt
first trip, all-round base
Everything except Buchenwald is within 15 minutes walk, with the best restaurants on your doorstep and lit lived in streets.
Southern Altstadt edge / Parkvorstadt
quiet and romantic or spa-leaning stays
Five to ten minutes south of Frauenplan, greener and calmer, with Ilm Park as your morning walk.
Hauptbahnhof / north Innenstadt
rail travellers
Flatter for luggage, close to the Bauhaus Museum quarter and practical for Erfurt and Jena rail day trips, with better value.
Think twice about
- Weimar-Nord, Schöndorf, Weimar-West Plattenbau estates
GDR housing blocks 2 to 4 km out with few restaurants or hotels worth choosing and a bus ride from everything.
- A4 motorway edge (Legefeld, Gelmeroda, Nohra)
Driver oriented stock with traffic noise and nothing walkable, so savings go on taxis.
- Ettersberg/Buchenwald road
No visitor lodging base there and there should not be. Stay in town and take the bus up.
Best restaurants in Weimar
Restaurant AnnA
The fine dining flagship in the Elephant, modern creative cooking with a regional twist and an evening set menu.
Masters
Francophile Mediterranean destination dining at the golf resort, a special occasion trip out combined with golf or spa.
The First
Italian influenced destination dining at the golf resort, listed alongside Masters in resort and fine-dining listings.
Schmidtis Lava Weimar
Weimar's most reviewed restaurant, a tiny barbecue and modern kitchen for burgers, steaks and fish with warm funny service.
Gasthaus Scharfe Ecke
The best traditional Thuringian table in the centre, with Sauerbraten, rouladen and Klöße properly done, historically lunch led.
Erbenhof Restaurant & Café
Seasonal regional cooking in a historic courtyard, the most atmospheric mid range dinner, especially on concert nights.
Benediktiner Wirtshaus im JoHanns Hof
A brewpub courtyard crowd pleaser for schnitzel, pulled pork burgers and beer, ideal for groups and families.
Zum Siechenbräu
The best cheap German eat in Weimar, home cooking at local prices 15 minutes south east of Markt.
Best coffee in Weimar
Residenz Café Weimar
An 1839 café with terrace by the palace for classic Blechkuchen with coffee.
Outdoor things to do in Weimar
Ilmtal-Radweg
A certified four star cycle route downstream through Tiefurt, Kromsdorf and vineyards toward Bad Sulza, mostly paved and flat.
Goethewanderweg
The marked trail Goethe travelled to Kochberg Castle, a serious full day hike or a shorter out and back to the first villages.
Spa & GolfResort Weimarer Land
Two 18 hole championship courses plus a public 9 hole course and large spa, the only genuine luxury golf day near Weimar.
Toskana Therme Bad Sulza
Float in body warm salt water under a dome with music above and below the water and light moving across it.
Schloss Belvedere Weimar
A baroque summer palace in a spacious park with orangery and maze garden, the reliable visit is the park itself.
Schloss und Park Tiefurt
Anna Amalia's summer seat down the Ilm and the prettiest picnic park of Weimar's palace parks.
Schloss Ettersburg
A palace park walk on the Ettersberg, on the opposite side of the same hill as Buchenwald.
Erfurt
Thuringia's capital 15 minutes by train, with cathedral hill, the inhabited Kramerbrücke and a bigger city evening scene.
Best hotels in Weimar
Hotel Elephant Weimar
The Weimar address on Markt, storied from Goethe's era to the Bauhaus, with Art Deco inflected interiors and the AnnA restaurant.
Best Western Premier Grand Hotel Russischer Hof
Grand hotel Weimar since 1805, two minutes from the Nationaltheater, with a more traditionally German feel than the Elephant.
Dorint Am Goethepark Weimar
Historic villa and modern wing by Ilm Park with a full spa, the calmest setting of Weimar's luxury three.
Spa & GolfResort Weimarer Land
A superb golf and spa resort 20 minutes out, right for a golf weekend with one Weimar day rather than a sightseeing base.
Boutique-Hotel Amalienhof
Small boutique hotel near Bauhaus University and the best rated mid range full service stay in the centre.
Hotel Anna Amalia
Family run garni in the Altstadt heart known for warm service and a breakfast guests praise and rebook for.
Hotel Erbenhof
An 18th century courtyard steps from Goethe's and Schiller's houses, with terrace, seasonal restaurant and prebookable parking.
Hotel Schillerhof
Modern comfort in an old town shell on Schillerstrasse's orbit, useful when the historic houses are sold out.
Is Weimar expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | €60 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | €145 a person |
| Splurge | €300 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Buchenwald Memorial: a few days ahead
- Goethes Wohnhaus: weeks ahead
- Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek: weeks ahead
- Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar: weeks ahead
- Spa & GolfResort Weimarer Land: a few days ahead
- Carriage ride through old town and Ilm Park: a few days ahead
- Labyrinth Hostel Weimar: weeks ahead
- Restaurant AnnA: a few days ahead
- Anna Amalia Rococo Hall sells out weeks ahead in summer and festivals. Book Goethe Residence weekend slots, AnnA and Lava evenings, theatre premieres and festival weekend hotels well ahead.
Is Weimar safe?
- Weimar is very safe and orderly, with low pickpocketing outside festival crushes. The real risks are Buchenwald's exposed Ettersberg weather and slippery valley paths after rain. Emergency number 112.
Weimar travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Many Stiftung houses close Monday, some Tuesday. Stadtschloss has long renovation closures, Weimar Haus is the most skippable paid ticket for adults, and Scharfe Ecke is lunch led so phone confirm.
Getting around Weimar: public transport and more
- Walk the compact flat centre. Bus line 6 goes to Buchenwald, buses and the Belvedere Express serve Belvedere, and trains run to Erfurt in 15 to 17 minutes and Jena in 25 to 35 minutes.
Who Weimar suits
| Solo travellers | Great |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Great |
| Couples | Great |
| Bachelor parties | Not ideal |
| Families | Good |
| Bachelorette parties | Not ideal |
Make Weimar your trip
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