The best time to visit Nuremberg
Summer for the castle and festivals, early autumn for walking, Advent for the Christmas market, and winter for shorter days and shorter castle hours.
- Castle
- April–September 9 am–6 pm
- Most rainy days
- May, 16 days
- Courtroom 600
- closed on Tuesdays all year
Two things in Nuremberg do not move. The castle opens 9 am to 6 pm from April to September, and the Christmas market runs from the Friday before the first Sunday of Advent to 24 December. Everything else is a choice between a walk in mild weather and an event with a crowd. If you pick only one month, make it June: the daily average is 19.5 °C with ten rainy days, and the castle keeps its longest hours.
Through the year
The castle and the festivals
May is the wettest month, with 16 rainy days, and the average jumps from 8.1 °C in April to 14.0 °C in May, so spring arrives in one leap and you will want a rain jacket in the bag from April to June. June settles at 19.5 °C with ten rainy days, while July and August are almost identical at about 19.8 °C, with twelve and fourteen rainy days, and all of these are daily averages, not highs.
The Memorium opens Monday and Wednesday to Friday from 9 am to 6 pm, and at weekends from 10 am to 6 pm, between April and October, and it stays closed on Tuesdays. Festival days add a layer of noise: Rock im Park takes over the Zeppelinfeld and closes the grounds to cars, so a visit to the Documentation Centre on those days goes by public transport.
The months repeat every year; exact dates change.
Check the same room on both sites: price and cancellation terms can differ.
September and October
September averages 15.7 °C with 11 rainy days, which is early autumn at its easiest for walking, and the Altstadtfest belongs to this month. October cools to 11.4 °C with ten rainy days. From October the castle shortens its hours to 10 am to 4 pm, so go up in the morning and leave the afternoon for the Documentation Centre. Autumn trades the long castle day of summer for cooler air, and for most walkers that is a fair swap, since a jacket over your arm is enough.
Advent and winter
The Christkindlesmarkt fills the Hauptmarkt every day from 10 am to 9 pm, and its first trace in the records is from 1628. Lebkuchen sits on the stalls, and a bag of it is the easiest souvenir to carry home. November brings 5.0 °C and 14 rainy days, which is when a market earns its place.
December averages 2.4 °C with 15 rainy days, and January 1.7 °C with 14, so dress for damp as much as for cold. The castle stays on its shorter winter hours until March. The Documentation Centre and the Memorium stay open in winter, except that the Memorium is closed on Tuesdays. The Zeppelin grandstand remains closed in every month of the year, so the tour of the rally grounds is the part of the trip that no season changes.
Where to next
Getting around Nuremberg
→By U2 from the airport, on foot through the old town, by tram or S-Bahn to the rally grounds and by U1 to the courtroom.
Munich · 151 km
→The Bavarian capital, behaving as if the rest of Germany were abroad
How well does Nuremberg suit you?
→Six questions: a score for this place and others like it.
Nomadinho scores out of 100, the same ones behind “Where to go”.
If you like Nuremberg
Three places with the closest scores, from any country.
Before you go
Short answers to what people ask most before setting out.
Which is the best month to visit Nuremberg?
June or early September. June averages 19.5 °C and September 15.7 °C, with ten to eleven rainy days, and the castle is open 9 am to 6 pm. For the Christmas market, come in Advent.
When does the Christkindlesmarkt start?
It opens on the Friday before the first Sunday of Advent and runs to 24 December, every day from 10 am to 9 pm, on the Hauptmarkt in the middle of the old town.
Is the castle open in winter?
Yes, from October to March it opens 10 am to 4 pm.
Ready for Nuremberg?
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