Well, I might be biased, but Hamburg is unbelievably special.
You say you like drinking beer--so visit the Ratsherrn, take the brewery tour, and enjoy Sternschanze and that scene. Or drink a Störtebeker beer inside the Elphi. But really, any beer is better when you are drinking it on the waterfront at Strandperle or Strand Pauli or just along the Landungsbrücken. Or try Überquell brewery near the Fischmarkt. And if you haven't had the beer-and-live-music-for-breakfast experience, have you really lived? For that, visit the Sunday morning Fischmarkt. Oh, but you want more green spaces? Head to the beautiful Blankenese Treppenviertel and down to the beach and shipwrecks there to have a beer. Or maybe head to the Spanische Treppe for a glass of wine instead, then rent an SUP and explore the canals of the Alster. Or a beer and a canoe at Bobby Reich. Or, if you want to get a bit more off the beaten path, go to the Boberger Sand Dunes and have a beer there!
People have mentioned a number of the good museums here in Hamburg, but none have mentioned the Museum of Hamburg History. Learn about the great fire, see the growth from Viking target to Hanseatic trading port to modern shipping hub. And see the alleged skull of pirate Klaus Störtebeker, for whom the above mentioned local beer is named--and find out why he haunts our city! You can also visit the Ballinstadt Emigration Museum and learn about those who passed through here on their way to somewhere else.
Site seeing? Our Elphi costs nothing to visit the observation deck, and it is amazing. You can reach it by ferry after taking the harbor tour and seeing the port as well as the Speicherstadt brickwork buildings. The bombed out Nikolai church (with basement museum on the firebombing of Hamburg) or the cute and not well known Krameramtstuben behind the Michel (St. Michaelis) are also worth visits for many. Actually, when it comes to churches, Hamburg is home to four of the world's top 20 tallest!
But don't forget the Reeperbahn! While it is known for being "seedy," and parts of it are, it is a place worth looking at more closely. The Nobistor marker may be right outside a sex shop, but it marked the border between Hamburg and Altona--and anyone who knows their Catholic-Protestant history knows why this is significant. The Beatles Platz at the start of Große Freiheit ("great freedom") street is cool enough, but far better is to walk down to the Catholic church. You see, non-Lutherans were forbidden to practice in Hamburg, but Altona, which at that time was part of the Duchy of Holstein, had religious freedom. So "great freedom" refers not to sexual freedom, as many assume based on the clubs, but to religious freedom. In fact, taking a Reeperbahn tour is worthwhile not just for the history, but also because the character and soul of the neighborhood is really incredible if one looks underneath the layer of grit.
Nature? One of the main parks in the city is Planten un Blomen, with amazing flower gardens and the Wasserlichtkonzerte https://www.hamburgausflug.de/wasserlichtkonzerte/ , a water and light show in the fountains at night in the summer. Another is the Stadtpark, where you can grill and play and relax with the locals near the Planetarium or catch a concert at the open air venue. And the Altonaer Volkspark with its rose garden, dahlia garden and the adjacent Ohlsdorf cemetary (worth a visit--really! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohlsdorf_Cemetery ) is another great place to drink a beer. The Wildgehege Klövensteen is free and beautiful, but Schwarze Berge is even better! It's a zoo of regional animals, right next door is the Kiekeberg museum--an open-air museum of what life was like in northern Germany in the past. I love this museum!! https://www.kiekeberg-museum.de/en/
More to follow.
