Travel Guide Kiel

Kiel is the capital of Schleswig-Holstein and, with its 246,306 inhabitants, is the largest city in the state. It is located at the entrance to the Kiel Canal, an artificial waterway connecting the North Sea to the Baltic Sea, which is the busiest waterway in the world. Kiel is Germany's northernmost major city. It is a city with a long tradition of port, military and industrial activity, which still permeates its urban landscape today. Kiel is best known outside Germany for its Kieler Woche (Kiel Week), an international regatta that takes place every year in June and has been held in Kiel for over 135 years. If you are planning a trip from Hamburg, Lübeck and Lüneburg are much more charming. Kiel is a large modern city, with an impressive port from which ships leave for Sweden or Denmark, but it is a rather cold city with very few points of interest. Its historical center is very small and can be visited in a few hours. Nevertheless, it has an impressive number of stores and a large shopping center crowded on Saturdays for shopping enthusiasts. Kiel is therefore interesting more for its location than for its architecture, and will be more of a stopover from Hamburg before going to the Scandinavian countries than a destination in its own right.