Stuttgart, the Car City Spread Over Hills, Vineyards and Mineral Springs

Stuttgart has the headquarters of Bosch, Mercedes and Porsche within its metropolitan area, yet it looks nothing like a typical industrial hub. The city is spread across hills and valleys, with forests, parks, mineral springs and even vineyards inside its limits. This overview condenses the Wikivoyage travel guide to the city.

The shape of the city

Stuttgart is the capital of Baden-Württemberg. About 606,000 people live in the city itself and more than 2.8 million in the metropolitan area (both 2024 figures), which makes it the sixth largest city in Germany. It is the centre of Region Stuttgart, a densely populated, industrialised area of 179 cities and municipalities that share one public transport system.

The subdivisions of Stuttgart (photo: TUBS, CC BY-SA 2.0).

The city has 23 districts (Stadtbezirke) split into 152 localities. Five inner districts are named Mitte, Nord, Ost, Süd and West; the outer ones are mostly former towns. Zuffenhausen has Porsche's headquarters and museum, Untertürkheim has Daimler-Benz and Mercedes-Welt, and Bad Cannstatt has a pleasant old centre, mineral water and many vineyards.

The population is not packed into a small centre but spread over the hills, with several centres that grew from towns Stuttgart absorbed. The guide calls it a big city with a small-town atmosphere, and sights can be far apart. A distinctive feature is the difference in height within the city: an estimated 400 to 600 staircases link the levels, and some of them lead up Karlshöhe hill for a view across the centre. Locals often speak the Swabian dialect, and the guide says they like to practise other languages, especially English.

Getting there and around

Stuttgart Airport, the sixth busiest in Germany, is on the southern edge of the city and is reached by S-Bahn. It is a base for the low-fare airline Eurowings. Frankfurt Airport is about an hour away by high-speed ICE train to the central station, so many travellers fly to Frankfurt and finish by rail. Nearly all visitors arrive at the Hauptbahnhof, whose tower carries a rotating Mercedes-Benz star.

From the station, the 1.2-km pedestrian shopping street Königstraße runs through the heart of the city past the Schlossplatz to Rotebühlplatz, and most main sights are close by. For anything farther, the guide says the transport system is very convenient and, given how far apart things are, necessary.

Map of the S-Bahn and U-Bahn networks (photo: Maximilian Dörrbecker (Chumwa), CC BY-SA 2.0).

An S-Bahn train in Plochingen (photo: kaffeeeinstein, CC BY-SA 2.0).

The whole network works on one fare and ticket system run by the VVS, which divides the region into zones; the city of Stuttgart is Zone 1. One ticket covers any mix of buses and trains, and the rack railway and funicular need no special ticket. Tickets must be stamped. Plain-clothes inspectors patrol, and fare-dodging fines are steep. Driving in the centre is not recommended: parking is expensive, the street layout and tunnels confuse visitors, and the centre is a low-emission zone requiring a green sticker.

The Zahnradbahn at its Marienplatz terminus (photo: kaffeeeinstein, CC BY-SA 2.0).

What to see

The palaces and squares. The Schlossplatz is the city's largest square, laid out as parade grounds in front of the Neues Schloss. The New Palace, arguably the city's best-known symbol, was built between 1746 and 1807 for Duke Carl Eugen of Württemberg, who found the older residences not stately enough. It became a state museum in 1918 when the last King of Württemberg abdicated, was almost completely destroyed in the Second World War, and was rebuilt between 1958 and 1964 to serve as a seat for the state government. Nearby, the Altes Schloss began as a fortified castle around the turn of the 10th century and now holds the Württemberg state museum; the Alte Kanzlei dates from 1542 to 1544; and the Königsbau, built in 1856 to 1860, has a facade of 34 columns.

Old and new buildings. The Bohnenviertel, built mainly in the 14th century, is the only preserved part of Stuttgart's old town. The Johanneskirche stands beside the lake at Feuersee. The city library on Mailänder Platz, opened in 2011 after 13 years of planning and an international competition won by Eun Young Yi, cost €80 million. The Weissenhof Estate, built for an exhibition in 1927, has houses by Le Corbusier, Peter Behrens, Walter Gropius and others and is on the World Heritage list.

Museums. The city has five state museums and two car museums. The Mercedes-Benz Museum and the Porsche Museum are architectural showpieces in their own right as well as displays of historic cars. The Staatsgalerie covers art from 1500 to modern times, the Kunstmuseum is a glass cube, and the Linden-Museum is an ethnological museum. Smaller, odder options include a pig museum, a museum of optical illusions and a tram museum with 36 historic vehicles.

Views. Stuttgart sits in a basin its residents call the Kessel, "cauldron", so viewpoints are a main attraction. The Fernsehturm, built in 1954 to 1956, was the world's first TV tower in reinforced concrete and the model for later ones. Birkenkopf, nicknamed Monte Scherbelino, is a hill of 15 million cubic metres of wartime rubble, left as a memorial, and it is the highest point in Stuttgart. Parks form a U-shaped "green U" around the centre; walked at a normal pace the whole circuit takes about two hours.

What to do, eat and drink

Stuttgart is fond of its mineral springs, which the guide calls the biggest in Western Europe, and several mineral baths, including Leuze and one in Bad Cannstatt, are open to visitors. The Wilhelma in Bad Cannstatt combines a zoo and botanical gardens, and the guide calls the Stuttgart Ballet one of the world's best ensembles. A wine trail links Obertürkheim, Uhlbach, Rotenberg and Untertürkheim, with a viticulture museum along the way.

The year's big events are the Cannstatter Volksfest on the Cannstatter Wasen in late September and early October, which the guide calls the second largest fun fair in the world; the ten-day Weindorf wine festival in early September; and the Christmas market in December.

Traditional Swabian cooking centres on onion-topped roast pork, Spätzle noodles and Maultaschen, stuffed pasta. Other cuisines are easy to find, and the main areas for evening drinks are Theodor-Heuss-Straße, known as "Theo", for clubs, and the streets around the Hans-im-Glück fountain for pubs and bars. Day trips include Ludwigsburg Palace, which the guide calls Germany's biggest Baroque palace, and the Ritter Sport chocolate museum in Waldenbuch.

Sources

• Wikivoyage contributors, Stuttgart, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; condensed and rewritten in hubnx's own words (changed here: summarised, restructured, listings, phone numbers, hours and prices left out). Photo credits and licences are in the captions: TUBS and Maximilian Dörrbecker (Chumwa) (maps) and kaffeeeinstein (photos), each CC BY-SA 2.0.