Bonn Hop-On Hop-Off Sightseeing Bus 24-Hour Ticket

Bonn Minster and the old town

The loop returns to the heart of Bonn at the Minster, the city's great Romanesque church with its tall central tower, built mainly between the 11th and 13th centuries over the graves of two Roman martyrs. Its quiet cloister is one of the best preserved in Germany. Around it lies the compact old town, with the Market Square, the pastel-coloured baroque Old Town Hall and the long facade of the former Electoral Palace, now the main building of the university.

Hopping off here is the best way to start a Bonn city tour on foot: everything in the centre is within a ten-minute walk, and the Rhine promenade is just behind the university. If you are asking what to see in Bonn in one day, the old town and the Minster are the first stop.

Poppelsdorf Palace and the South District

A long chestnut avenue links the university with Poppelsdorf Palace, a baroque residence of the prince-electors of Cologne built in the 18th century around a circular courtyard. Today it belongs to the university, and its grounds hold the Botanic Gardens, with glasshouses full of tropical plants and giant water lilies. It is a peaceful place for a walk and a highlight of any Bonn sightseeing bus route.

Between the palace and the river lies the South District, one of the largest surviving ensembles of late 19th-century townhouses in Germany. The bus passes streets of ornate facades, front gardens and wrought-iron balconies that survived the war almost intact, giving a clear picture of how prosperous Bonn looked around 1900.

Museum Mile and the former government quarter

From 1949 to 1990 Bonn was the capital of West Germany, and the government quarter along the Rhine still tells that story. The bus passes the former parliament buildings, the Palais Schaumburg and the high-rise once used by members of parliament, which is now the centre of the UN Campus, where around two dozen United Nations organisations work. Bonn remains a seat of federal ministries and international institutions.

Next to it runs the Museum Mile, with the House of the History of the Federal Republic, the Federal Art Hall, the Kunstmuseum Bonn, the Deutsches Museum Bonn and the natural history Museum Koenig. Hop off here if you want to spend a few hours in one of them; Bonn museum tickets are not included in the bus ticket, so you pay at the door.

Rheinaue park and the Rhine bank

The Rheinaue is Bonn's great riverside park, laid out for a national garden show in 1979 and stretching for about 160 hectares along the Rhine. It has lakes, a Japanese garden, wide lawns and long riverside paths, and on summer days it is where Bonn comes to relax. A stop here is ideal if you are travelling with children or simply want a quiet walk by the water.

The bus also stops at the Rhine bank by the ferry terminal, where small ferries cross the river. From the promenade you look across to the wooded hills on the far bank and upstream toward the Siebengebirge, the range of volcanic hills that marks the gateway to the Romantic Rhine.

Bad Godesberg and the Siebengebirge view

In the south of the city lies Bad Godesberg, a former spa and residence town that became part of Bonn in 1969. During the capital years many embassies settled in its villas, and the town still has an elegant, leafy feel. The bus stops by the Redoute, a classical pavilion built in the 1790s for balls and concerts of the prince-elector, and by the Kurfürstliche Zeile, a row of historic spa buildings.

Above the town stands the ruined Godesburg castle on its volcanic hill, and from the riverbank you have one of the finest views of the Siebengebirge across the Rhine, with the Drachenfels and the Petersberg. If you want to know how to get to Bad Godesberg from Bonn without a car, the hop-on hop-off bus is the simplest answer.