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Hamburg Metropolitan Region
Place in Germany

Hamburg Metropolitan Region

The Hamburg Metropolitan Region is a metropolitan region centred around the city of Hamburg in northern Germany, consisting of eight districts in the federal state of Lower Saxony, six districts in the state of Schleswig-Holstein and two districts in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern along with the city-state of Hamburg itself.

Plan a trip to Hamburg Metropolitan Region→From Bremen

It covers an area of roughly 26,000 square kilometres (10,000 sq mi) and is home to more than 5.1 million inhabitants.

How locals move

Getting around Hamburg Metropolitan Region the local way

  • Get inThe most likely places are the Hamburg Cruise Center Altona (near to the fish market) and the Hamburg Cruise Center HafenCity (next to the Unilever-Haus), check out the Hamburg Cruise Center home page There is a regular yet expensive ferry between Hamburg, Cuxhaven and Helgoland.
  • Get inLübeck's port suburb Travemünde, about an hour away by train, is a major Baltic ferry port.
  • Get inTo the east (A24-Berlin) and northeast (A1-Lübeck/Rostock/Puttgarden-ferry to Denmark), you can start at the "Horner-Kreisel" and take the number 261 bus from U-Burgstraße to U-S Barmbek (exit BAB-Auffahrt Horn or walk from U3-Rauhes Haus).
  • Get around(2026) Urban rail lines in Hamburg]] Hamburg has an integrated public transportation system, operated by the HVV, which consists of six S-Bahn (commuter rail) lines, four U-Bahn (subway) lines, seven R-lines (regional trains), three A-lines (AKN), a dense network of bus lines and ferries across the Elbe.
  • Get aroundTherefore, the HVV operates a fleet of ferries to connect the two banks of the Elbe.
  • Get aroundThese ferries operate in the harbour and along the River Elbe, and are a part of the regular public transport system (your regular public transport ticket is valid) - think of them as buses which happen to float.
  • Get aroundSome of the more interesting ferry routes for tourists include: Ferry 62, which goes from Landungsbrücken all the way down the Elbe to Finkenwerder, offering fantastic views of the harbour and city skyline, all for the price of a normal public transport ticket.
  • Get aroundAt Finkenwerder, you can take a bus into the scenic Altes Land area, take ferry 65 to Blankenese (only in summer), or stay on the ferry for the return trip.

From Wikivoyage: Hamburg, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us. Last edited 2026-09.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: Alchemist-hp (CC BY-SA 3.0), Wikimedia Commons.