Stuttgart
travel guides

Stuttgart is the capital of Baden-Wurttemberg and a city of about 630,000 people, sitting in a bowl of wooded hills and terraced vineyards on the Neckar. It is the home of Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, and both run large museums here, but the city is equally a place of Staffeln - the public stairways that climb the slopes - and of Weinberge that reach right into the built-up districts.

The centre is compact and walkable, running from the Hauptbahnhof down Konigstrasse, one of Germany's longest pedestrian streets, to Schlossplatz and the Altes Schloss. Across the Neckar in Bad Cannstatt lies the Cannstatter Wasen, the festival ground that hosts the Cannstatter Volksfest each autumn and the Fruhlingsfest in spring. Stuttgart also has Europe's second-largest mineral water reserves after Budapest, feeding the public baths at Bad Cannstatt and Berg.

Stuttgart Airport (STR) is 13 kilometres south of the centre and connected by S-Bahn lines S2 and S3 in about 27 minutes. The VVS network covers S-Bahn, U-Bahn (Stadtbahn) and buses on one ticket, and the StuttCard bundles transport with museum entry. Costs are mid-range by German standards, rising sharply during the Volksfest and the Christmas market.