Hamburg, verdict by verdict

Germany's port city is bigger, richer and more architectural than most first-timers expect. HafenCity and the Elbphilharmonie front a UNESCO warehouse district, Miniatur Wunderland earns every minute of its queues, and the harbour cruises show a working port at full scale rather than a prettified waterfront, with the Speicherstadt canals tying it all together.

The catch is sprawl and sky. The postcard sights sit far from the nightlife districts of St. Pauli and the Reeperbahn, so the city reads as neighbourhoods rather than one long walk; it is northern Germany's rainiest big city and can be brisk even in July, and anyone expecting Bavarian beer-hall Germany has the wrong region. A trip that fails if it rains will fail here.

Two to three days is the dose: a proper day for the docks and Speicherstadt makes the whole city click, the Elbphilharmonie plaza and, booked ahead, a concert, plus evenings in St. Pauli, with a spare day for Lubeck or Bremen. May to September brings the longest days, December the Christmas markets and harbour lights, and the U-Bahn, S-Bahn and harbour ferries, all on one network, make the distances manageable.