Hannover

The reason to stop here. The Great Garden is a rigorously formal baroque layout — hedged compartments, avenues, a grand parterre and a set of fountains including one that throws water high above the beds — and it survives largely intact although the palace behind it does not, the present building being a modern reconstruction housing a museum. Within the garden, the grotto was reworked by Niki de Saint Phalle into a glittering mosaic interior that is startling against the formality outside. Alongside sit the Berggarten's glasshouses, with orchids and a tropical house. Allow half a day and check the fountain and illumination times.

Hannover's best practical idea. A continuous red line is painted on the pavement, looping roughly four kilometres through the centre past the main sights, and following it means you can see the city without a map, a guide or a phone in your hand. It starts near the main station, threads the old-town quarter, the Marktkirche, the town halls and the lake edge, and returns. An accompanying booklet numbers the stops if you want the commentary, but the line alone works. For a half-day visit — which is what many people have here — it is the single most efficient thing to do.

Be clear about what this is: Hannover was very heavily damaged in the war and the historic core was reconstructed, with surviving half-timbered houses moved together into a compact quarter around the Marktkirche and the Ballhof. The result is attractive and walkable but small, and it sits directly against a modern commercial centre rather than dissolving into a large medieval fabric as in Nuremberg or Lübeck. Knowing that in advance prevents the disappointment of expecting an intact old city. The brick Marktkirche, with its blunt tower, is the landmark to aim for.

The Neues Rathaus is an early twentieth-century palace of a building set behind a small lake and lawns, and its dome holds a genuine curiosity: the lift to the viewing platform runs on a curve, tilting as it follows the dome's profile rather than rising straight. The gallery gives the best overview of the city and the Maschsee beyond. Inside the entrance hall, four scale models show the city at different points in its history, including before and after the war — the clearest possible explanation of why the centre looks as it does today.

Immediately south of the centre lies the Maschsee, a large artificial lake laid out in the 1930s and now the city's outdoor room: a path all the way round for walking and running, sailing and rowing clubs, boat trips, and lakeside beer gardens that fill on the first warm evening of the year. The lake festival in late summer is one of the biggest events in the city's calendar. Beyond it, the Eilenriede — a very large urban forest, bigger than many capital-city parks — cuts through the eastern districts with paths and a small zoo.

The Sprengel Museum holds a strong twentieth-century collection — expressionism, Picasso, Klee and a substantial Kurt Schwitters holding, this being his city — and sits beside the Maschsee. The Landesmuseum covers natural history and art. But the practical fact that shapes a visit here is the trade-fair calendar: Hannover hosts some of the largest fairs in the world, and during the big weeks hotel prices multiply and rooms disappear across the region. Check the fair schedule before you book anything. Outside those weeks, the city is one of the better-value places to stay in northern Germany.

Hannover is a major rail junction — direct fast trains to Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt and the Ruhr, most in two hours or less — which is precisely why so many people pass through it. The airport is a short S-Bahn ride from the centre. In town, an extensive tram network reaches the gardens, the lake and the fairground, and the centre itself is flat and walkable. Late spring through early autumn is the season, since the gardens and the lake are the point; winter is grey and better spent in the museums, though the Christmas market is pleasant and far less crowded than Nuremberg's.