Discover Ravensburg

Explore Ravensburg through its historic Old Town, towers and diverse range of museums. When planning your stay, you can decide whether you want to focus on experiencing the city’s history, visiting museums or spending time outdoors. The centrally located Marienplatz is a good starting point for finding your way around; there are also bus and rail connections within the city and across the region.

Old Town, towers and routes through the city

Ravensburg’s historic Old Town is still largely intact. Its appearance is shaped by distinctive buildings, squares and streets. The Old Town is largely traffic-calmed and easy to explore on foot. The centrally located Marienplatz is a good starting point for discovering Ravensburg as the “City of Towers and Gates.” Pedestrian zones invite you to stroll, and shopping can be combined with a visit to the historic Old Town.

Built around 1425, the 51-metre-high Mehlsack is Ravensburg’s landmark. Climbing it offers views over the city and, on some days, as far as Lake Constance and Säntis. If you plan to visit, check the dates and booking conditions in advance. The “Ravensburg City History” guided tour provides an overview of the city’s origins, its most important eras and sights, right up to the present day. Individual tour dates may change here, too.

Museums with a range of themes

The Humpis Quarter Museum is the city of Ravensburg’s cultural history museum. Since opening in July 2009, it has traced 1,000 years of city history—from the Middle Ages to the present—across five buildings in a late-medieval residential quarter. Its award-winning museum concept brings together architecture and the themes and stories on display. The tour offers insights into building culture, as well as the living spaces and lifestyles of former residents.

The Ravensburger Museum focuses on something different: At the company’s historic headquarters, this interactive family outing spans three floors and explores the history of the world-renowned company. Classics such as memory® and Malefiz® feature alongside an exploration of how games and puzzles are made. The tiptoi® museum rally takes children and young people through the rooms and quizzes them on their knowledge. The Humpis Quarter Museum therefore focuses on city history and past ways of life, while the Ravensburger Museum explores the company’s history and the history of games.

At the Ravensburg Art Museum, guided tours in easy language let you view and discuss the exhibition together. Afterwards, participants can get creative with paper and paint in the art workshop. Art educators also provide in-depth background information during tours of current exhibitions. Dates and timings for these activities may change. If you are planning your visit around one of them, check the latest information in advance.

Getting here and finding your way around

Ravensburg is part of the bodo public transport network, which offers good-value bus and rail connections within the city and across the region. Ravensburg railway station is 800 metres from the centrally located Marienplatz. The station and square therefore give you two specific points of reference for arriving and finding your way around the city. Ravensburg is also a good starting point for cycling tours through Upper Swabia and towards Lake Constance.

For an overview on foot, consider a guided city tour; visitors who want to explore specific topics in more depth can choose from a range of museum activities. Cycling tours offer a different perspective and take you beyond the city. Which of these perspectives shapes your stay depends on whether you want to focus on city history, exhibitions or spending time outdoors.

In the wider Ravensburg destination

The wider Ravensburg destination also includes places beyond the city itself. At the Allgäu-Oberschwaben Farmhouse Museum in Wolfegg, you can discover what life and work were like for the region’s ancestors. Twenty-eight historic buildings have been preserved there, some of them several centuries old. Achberg Castle is the Ravensburg district’s cultural centre. Set high above the Argen Valley, it showcases Baroque architecture. It is open to all visitors and offers educational activities for children.

Circular hiking trails starting from Achberg Castle pass through a landscape of gently rolling meadows on the high riverbank and steep wooded ravines along the slopes of the Argen Valley. Another hiking option is the Schmalegger Tobel nature reserve in Schmalegg, a district of Ravensburg about eight kilometres from the city centre. There are several hiking routes there; the Tannsberg circular trail can be walked as a short or long loop, depending on your preference. The Pfrunger-Burgweiler Ried adds another dimension to the region’s landscapes: at almost 2,600 hectares, it is south-west Germany’s second-largest contiguous peatland.

Discover more destinations: Wolfegg, Altshausen, Aulendorf, Vogt, Wangen im Allgäu, Schwarzenbach, Kißlegg, Schlier

Back to the wider travel overview: Ravensburg.