Not to miss

Hamburg Kunsthalle

Behind the green cupola and columns that dominate Glockengiesserwall awaits the famed Kunsthalle, consisting of two buildings linked by a underground passage. The main building houses works from medieval portraiture to 20th-century classics, such as Klee, Kokoschka and Munch. There's also a memorable room of 19th-century landscapes by Caspar David Friedrich.

The stark white new building, the Galerie der Gegenwart showcases German artists like Rebecca Horn, Georg Baselitz and Gerhard Richter, alongside international stars like Nan Goldin, David Hockney, Jeff Koons, Barbara Kruger and Gillian Wearing. The view out of the gallery's huge picture windows is also wonderful.

Harry's Hamburger Hafenbasar

This shop-cum-museum-cum-whatever is the life's work of the late, great Harry Rosenberg, a bearded character famous with seamen around the globe for his intense collecting of worldly souvenirs. The result is this curio-crammed shop that is free to visit as long as you buy something, which is easy if you're in the market for a set of Zulu drums.

The shop is now run by Rosenberg's daughter; ask her about insider tours, in English, of the secrets of the St Pauli district.

Museum für Völkerkunde

The Museum of Ethnology demonstrates sea-going Hamburg's acute awareness of the outside world. The exhibits themselves are stunning, particularly the domed room at the top of the entrance hall's steps, with its carved wooden canoes and giant sculptures from Papua New Guinea.

The approach is also refreshingly open-minded and not at all patronising. Modern artefacts and issues from Africa, Asia and the South Pacific are presented alongside traditional masks, jewellery, costumes and musical instruments. There's also a complete, intricately carved Maori meeting hall.