October 29, 2026, 10:55 am | Read time: 3 minutes
This year, many are traveling within Germany again. City trips are popular–and they don’t always have to be to the big cities. A current ranking shows which small towns in the country are particularly popular.
Which small town is the most searched-for destination among Germans? The vacation home search engine Holidu investigated this question by examining German small towns with a maximum of 20,000 inhabitants. To include the travel aspect, search queries for places were considered, combined with the keywords “sights” and “activities” on Google. The result is a ranking of Germany’s most popular small towns.
This Small Town in Bavaria is No. 1
The most popular small town in Germany according to Google search queries this year is Füssen in Bavaria. With 2,720 monthly searches for sights and activities, the town in the Allgäu region clearly ranks first. In last year’s ranking, Füssen didn’t even make it into the top 10. In 2026, the town is now 720 searches ahead of Winterberg in second place.
What travelers appreciate about Füssen is easy to understand: The historic old town is located right at the edge of the Alps, with the late Gothic High Castle towering above it. There are also excursion destinations like the Lechfall, as well as numerous lakes and hiking trails in the area. Most notably, two of Germany’s most famous castles, Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau, are just a few kilometers away. We at TRAVELBOOK also name Füssen as one of the most beautiful old towns in Bavaria.
However, a stay isn’t exactly cheap: According to Holidu, a vacation apartment in Füssen costs an average of 155 euros per night. This makes the top-ranked town also the most expensive place in the entire top-20 ranking.
Voted! The most beautiful small town in Germany in 2024 is …
Crowned! Germany’s Most Beautiful State
Places 2 to 10 of Germany’s Most Popular Small Towns
- Place 2: Winterberg, North Rhine-Westphalia
- Place 3: Dinkelsbühl, Bavaria
- Place 4: Bad Harzburg, Lower Saxony
- Place 5: Braunlage, Lower Saxony
- Place 6: Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Bavaria
- Place 7: Bad Tölz, Bavaria
- Place 8: Oberhof, Thuringia
- Place 9: Miltenberg, Bavaria
- Place 10: Bad Schandau, Saxony
Germany’s Most Beautiful Small Town According to TRAVELBOOK Readers
As part of the TRAVELBOOK AWARD 2024, we asked our readers in a large poll which small town in Germany they find the most beautiful.
The winner is the picturesque Monschau in the North Rhine-Westphalian part of the Eifel. The town enchants visitors and residents alike with a backdrop of half-timbered houses and cobblestone streets.
In the winding alleys, visitors find numerous small boutiques and galleries, as well as many listed buildings in the old town. Quite a few have stood there, in prime locations directly on the Rur, since the 18th century.