Explora Journeys in Kiel

Kiel is the capital of Schleswig-Holstein at the head of a long Baltic fjord, the German end of the Kiel Canal and a city rebuilt after heavy wartime damage. It earns the day as a working maritime city you can read on foot from the dock: pedestrian shopping streets, a fjord-side promenade, and a fast ferry to the country's largest naval memorial across the water.

What to do on a day in Kiel

• Walk Holstenstrasse, the central pedestrian shopping street, and the Alter Markt with St. Nikolai church, all reachable on foot from the Ostseekai berth
• Stroll the Kiellinie, the fjord-side waterfront promenade where you watch ferries, sailboats and naval traffic on the Kieler Foerde
• Visit the Schifffahrtsmuseum (Maritime Museum) in the old fish auction hall near the harbor for the city's seafaring and shipbuilding history
• Take the public fjord ferry across to the Laboe Naval Memorial and the U-995 submarine museum on the far shore, a half-day on its own
• See the Holtenau locks where the Kiel Canal, the world's busiest artificial waterway, meets the Baltic

Weather and when to visit

• May to June (early Baltic cruise season). Typically cool and changeable, daytime highs around 15 to 20C, nights near 10C, with showers possible and roughly 50 to 65 mm of rain across the month. Long daylight.
• July to August (peak season). Typically the warmest window, highs around 18 to 22C, but also the wettest, with around 80 to 90 mm of rain in the month and quick passing showers off the Baltic.
• September (late season). Typically mild and shortening days, comfortable highs in the upper teens to around 20C on good days, cooler mornings, rising chance of grey rainy stretches.