Avoid Frankfurt am Main. Being from the UK I sometimes refer to it as Kröydenfurt or Birmingham am Main since it reminds me of both Croydon and Birmingham.

Now don’t get me wrong, Frankfurt isn’t terrible, and I wouldn’t consider the people there “not-German” but I was a little surprised when I went to visit for the motor show, it’s basically not like any other German city I’ve visited. It’s like I asked ChatGPT “create me a European version of Gotham in Cities Skylines” and that was the end result.

I think Hanover is an often overlooked city to visit that I really liked and what I would expect for Germany as a tourist. Hamburg might be better if you wanted something more lively.

A really useful indicator is the concept of “twin cities”. I found them to be pretty accurate.