Hotels near Reeperbahn and St Pauli

The Reeperbahn is Hamburg's most famous street - a 930-metre strip in St Pauli that has been the city's entertainment quarter since the 18th century. The name refers to the rope-makers (Reeper) who once needed the long straight street to lay hemp cordage for the port. Today it holds the densest concentration of live music venues, clubs, theatres and bars in northern Germany. The Beatles played 281 nights across five clubs on and around the Reeperbahn between 1960 and 1962 - a Beatles-Platz square marks the corner of Grosse Freiheit where the Star-Club and Kaiserkeller stood.

The area is safe to visit but confrontational to walk - drug dealing, sex work and drunk stag groups are all part of the streetscape after 22:00. Herbertstrasse (a small side alley) remains a licensed prostitution street closed to women and under-18s at either end. Come by daylight for the architecture (art deco cinemas like the Operettenhaus), by evening for the music. The annual Reeperbahn Festival every September is Europe's largest club festival with 900+ performances across 90+ venues.

Pro Tip: Do the Beatles walking tour (2 hours, around 20 EUR) which leaves from Beatles-Platz Saturdays at 15:00 - it hits the six Beatles clubs, the boarding house where they slept, and pieces together which songs were written where.