The 5 best beaches near the city in Hamburg

Past the Seniorenresidenz Augustinum – the retirement home with possibly the most beautiful view in Germany – then off the boots and on with the flip-flops. On balmy summer evenings, people have barbecues here, play Viking chess (kubb) together and raise their glasses to toast the passing ships on the Elbe.

Fair enough, the brown water of the Elbe with its currents isn’t particularly inviting. It’s different at the Rissener Ufer a few kilometres upriver. You can let off steam and paddle here in summer in the shadow of the DLRG lookout tower.

This ‘beach’ is a stretch of grass, and in summer it becomes a field of fabric made of colourful blankets and towels. The Schwanenwik is a road that tracks the bank of the Aussenalster. Until the 1920s, there was a public swimming pool here. Today, the bay is pervaded not only by the swans that provided its name, but also the tempting aroma of barbecues.

Behind the Finkenrieker Hauptdeich at the corner of König-Georg-Weg in Wilhelmsburg, the only riverside beach on the Elbe island of Wilhelmsburg lies hidden. At the water’s edge of the 300-metre-long sandy beach on the Southern Elbe, your eyes are drawn to an old railway bridge and the Schweenssand nature reserve. It’s relatively quiet here, and rarely really packed.

The willows droop wearily over the sand. The stiff breeze stirs the branches above the hammock. The man with the basket of coconuts should really come buy selling his wares any minute – just to make the Caribbean feeling perfect. Locals often make rope ladders or swings in the trees here, and a nearby kiosk sells swimming-pool chips in summer.