Note: While I’m publishing this blog post in August 2023, I started writing it in September 2022, when I still was living in Tübingen. This means that many things may have changed since then, mainly prices, affected by last year’s inflation rates. However, I still decided to complete this post to conclude the triad of articles that I set out to do at the beginning, also featuring the Tübingen Photo Collection and the Tübingen Hiking Guide.
After one year as a student in Tübingen, I’ll try to share with you all the knowledge of the city and the surrounding area I gained.
My year as an international student in Tübingen is coming to an end and it would be a pity if the knowledge of the city I accumulated over these months ended up being wasted: that’s the reason why I decided to write a guide to share my experiences in this wonderful city with you all. We’ll cover multiple categories of activities, starting from natural landscapes, sports and unforgettable experiences all the way down to food and fun. Let’s start!
Experiences and Sports
There is plenty of traces of the experiences I had during the year in Tübingen also in the Tübingen Photo Collection.
I’m a great fan of live sports and sports events, so those represented a major part of my budget allocation. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend some events, such as, for example, the Chocolart, which was suspended in 2021 due to Covid limitations.
Tübingen Tigers
I really like basketball and I was very happy when I discovered Tübingen had a basketball team, the Tigers. The Tübingen Tigers play in the German second league and, differently from what one might think, the atmosphere in the building was amazing!
They play in the Paul Horn-Arena and there are also student discounts on the tickets (about 10 euros each).
VfB Stuttgart
In order to find a major football club, we need to move to Stuttgart. VfB Stuttgart won 5 Bundesliga titles, the last in 2007. However, in the last years, they were fighting and struggling to remain in the first league.
Match tickets are one of the few things cheaper than in Italy (less than 30 euros, as far as I remember) and the stadium is quite nice, making it a great experience.
ATP 250 Stuttgart
When I discovered there was a tennis tournament in Stuttgart, I’ve been torn for a few hours while deciding if I wanted to go or not. In the end, I was quite happy with my choice of going to see the quarter-finals, even if the price for those four matches was close to 80 euros.
Overall, I had the opportunity to watch great tennis players live, such as Matteo Berettini, Olympic and Wimbledon champion Andy Murray and Nick Kyrgios. I think that, in the end, considering ticket prices in other tennis tournaments, I was quite lucky with the day.
Stuttgarter Frühlingsfest
Between the end of April and the beginning of May, in Cannstatt, there is the Stuttgarter Frühlingsfest for about 20 days.
The festival is full of luna park attractions, German traditional food and, obviously, beer. A German inevitable experience, I think.
Stocherkahnrennen
The traditional Stocherkahnrennen is probably one of the highlights of the summer semester in Tübingen. It is held (almost) every year since 1956 and the date to save is Corpus Christi day (on a Thursday, usually in June).
It is the best opportunity to feel part of the great Tübingen community!
Stadtfest Tübingen
Another really funny night was the one I had at the Stadtfest in July. This is a weekend-long fest dedicated to the city of Tübingen, with many music events and a lot of food and beer. If I was still living in Tübingen, I wouldn’t miss it!
Umbrisch-Provenzalischer Markt
In September, in the Tübingen city centre, there is the Umbrisch-Provenzalischer Markt, a strange fair mixing the French and Italian food culture. It was a good opportunity to taste something different and have a nice evening.
Europa-Park
Europa-Park is considered to be the second biggest European theme park and the first in Germany. I love theme parks, so I also really liked its theme based on different European countries. Moreover, there are at least three or four adrenaline-filled roller coasters that are above average. However, reaching Europa-Park from Tübingen is not easy: the only option to visit it on a one-day trip is taking a Flixbus very early in the morning.
Hikes
I already talked extensively about my hikes in the area, you can find everything in my Tübingen Hiking Guide blog post.
Sights
I also wanted to point out a few places in the Tübingen larger surroundings that I had the pleasure to visit during my stay. I’ll not include every single city and town, since you could easily track them in any tourist guide (e.g. the Baden-Württemberg Lonely Planet), but I’ll cover some castles and some panoramic viewpoints.
Castles
There are three (plus one) major castles in the larger area surrounding Tübingen. The first one, which is also the easiest to reach, is the Hohenzollernschloss Sigmaringen. I had the opportunity to visit the inside and it was worth it.
The second castle is the majestic Burg Hohenzollern, whose courtyard was really nice, way more than the inside. In this case, I would suggest an hike, since that would also give the opportunity to have a view of the castle from different perspectives.
The third and last one is the Schloss Lichtenstein, which, more than any other, gives those fairy tale vibes. The small internal courtyard is actually very nice, with a great view of the castle laying on the rocks.
There is actually an addition to those three castles, even if it is more a palace than a castle. North of Stuttgart there is the Residenzschloss Ludwigsburg, a really nice palace with some amazing gardens. A visit in spring or summer is highly recommended, with particular attention to the plants and flowers in the park. Moreover, in summer, they also organize some music-themed fireworks displays that were surprisingly good.
Panoramic Views
I also wanted to point out some elevated viewpoints from which you could admire the Württemberg landscapes. The first, which is also my favourite one, is the Schönbuchturm in Herrenberg, about 15/20 km from Tübingen. From the top of the tower, there is a pretty good view of Schönbuch park.
The second is the TV Tower (Fernsehturm) in Stuttgart, which is more than 216 m high and, from the observation decks, there is a view of Stuttgart, going from the forests and vineyards in and around Stuttgart to the Swabian Jura and the Black Forest.
The third and last is the Rottweil Test Tower, which is also the tallest, standing at 246 m. At 232 m, the tower contains Germany’s tallest observation deck.
German Food
I’ll start the food chapter with one of my favourite paragraphs: when I spent time in a place, I always try to dive deep into the local culture and, even if for some of my Italian friends was quite hard to adapt to the German dishes, I actually enjoyed them almost immediately. Therefore, I tried to create a shortlist including both affordable restaurants and some German-priced restaurants (that could be out of budget for students, but that I suggest trying at least once during your Tübingen experience). The secret, I believe, is to find a good recurring and low-priced solution that you will visit often and to choose wisely the more expensive places that deserve a shoot.
While typical food and I got along pretty quickly, the same cannot be said for drinks. I honestly didn’t like Baden-Württemberg’s beers, while I was able to find some acceptable wines. Not liking the bier in Germany could be a threat to your survival.
My suggestions are Gasthaus Bären, Landgasthaus Waldhäuser Hof and Restaurant Mauganeschtle Tübingen. On the other side, I suggest you avoiding to insert in your everyday life places like Gasthausbrauerei Neckarmüller. While this is a pretty typical touristic choice because of its location, immediately close to the Neckarbrücke, service is terrible (a characteristic that it shares with many other German restaurants) and the quality level is quite random. My suggestion is to go there rarely and just have a beer and a Flammkuchen, avoiding a complete meal.
Tapas: Gasthaus Bären
The Gasthaus Bären is an affordable restaurant and bar, which I found to be very attractive for students. Bären has an interesting “tapas” approach, since they serve small portions at a reasonable price, you will be able to taste some good dishes for less than 5 euros and I believe you could be satisfied by spending about 12/15 euros, depending on what you decide to drink.
Bären is that place on which everybody could agree when everybody is too lazy to find something new and I strongly believe it deserves to be your choice for your first dinner out in Tübingen. I had the best Käsespätzle ever here and also the Zucchini Frikadellen deserve to be tried.
The only downside is that, due to limited space, during winter time, you need to be there way before 7 p.m. to be sure you’ll have a table.
Meal price: 10-15 euros. Here there are the Google Maps location and their Tripadvisor page.
Location: Landgasthaus Waldhäuser Hof
I probably never felt so well integrated into the local culture as when I tried the Landgasthaus Waldhäuser Hof. The food was good, but the setting is probably even better, just in the middle of the Waldhäuser farms area. And, in fact, the location is probably the main highlight of this place!
Prices here definitely rise, at least if compared to the first proposal, and become similar to those you could find in the majority of German restaurants in the area (prices similar to Gasthausbrauerei Neckarmüller, but the quality is in my opinion way higher). I would probably suggest trying meat dishes here.
Meal price: 25-35 euros. Here there are the Google Maps location and their Tripadvisor page.
Swabisch: Restaurant Mauganeschtle
Here prices get higher, at least for students’ standards, but the Restaurant Mauganeschtle was the first suggestion for tasting real Swabian cuisine by Swabian people themselves. Here you could taste Maultaschen, Käsespätzle and many other Swabian dishes, including good meat. Quality is high and it comes at a price: the main dishes go up to 30 euros.
Meal price: 30-45 euros. Here there are the Google Maps location and their Tripadvisor page.
International Food
Despite being a relatively small city, a pretty good selection of international food can be experienced in Tübingen.
Pub’s Food: Saints & Scholars
Saints & Scholars is an Irish pub in a very convenient location. Being so close to the main library, it has always been a valid alternative to the University canteen.
Considering the large portions, prices are pretty good. There, I appreciated the typical pub food, as, for example, hamburgers and the club sandwich, always served with fries. In addition, the location is big enough so that you can be confident to always find a spot.
Meal price: 20-25 euros. Here there are the Google Maps location and their Tripadvisor page.
Greek: Faros - an ouzo philosophy
There are quite a few Greek restaurants in Tübingen and Faros might be the fanciest one. The location, in Waldhäuser Straße, close to WHO, is nice and the food is actually good too.
Prices are a little bit higher than average, considering that you would probably want to order more than one or two dishes per person. You may also want to share different dishes to try out different kinds of Greek traditional food. For example, since I’m a great fan of Greek cheese, I enjoyed both the Feta Psiti and the Tiri Saganaki.
In case you just wanted to have a quick Pita, just outside the restaurant, there is the Yellow Donkey, a fast food and take-away stand, with a lean menu.
Meal price: 30-35 euros. Here there are the Google Maps location and their Tripadvisor page.
Pizza: Da Michele
In Tübingen, there are probably as many Italian restaurants as German ones. There are also many pizzeria, but the quality and the prices aren’t usually very convenient. Da Michele, in Derendingen, probably offers the best pizza in Tübingen at a price, that, in Germany makes perfect sense.
While all that glitters is not gold and the service was far from perfect most of the times I was there, it often makes sense anyway to prefer Da Michele to the other pizzeria.
Meal price: 20-30 euros. Here there are the Google Maps location and their Tripadvisor page.
Fast Food
The city centre in Tübingen is littered with fast food places. Many of them, as typical in German cities, are primarily kebab places, but there is also falafel and Asian food around.
Falafel: Kichererbse
Falafel offers a suitable vegetarian alternative to kebab. Kichererbse is probably the best falafel place by democratic decision. Very often, there is a queue outside at lunchtime, demonstrating how this place is appreciated by students and locals in general. My friends and I particularly liked the falafel sandwich with eggplants…
Meal price: 8-10 euros. Here there are the Google Maps location and their Tripadvisor page.
Kebab: Lustnauer Imbiss
There are so many kebab (or kebap) places in the city centre, in particular along Mühlstraße. I think I tried all of them, but, honestly, none clearly emerged as the best one.
The only place that surprised me in some way was Lustnauer Imbiss. I tried both the kebab and other offerings, such as the pide and lahmacun, and I liked it better than all the other places. The place is not that far away from the University Sports Center and the Österberg, so you could take some food for a picnic somewhere close.
Meal price: 8-10 euros. Here there is the Google Maps location.
Chinese: China Restaurant San Bao
While the San Bao is actually a restaurant, with table service, I mostly got take-away food from there. I liked the noodles, which were a valid alternative to the always-present kebab for those dinners in the library. Close to San Bao, there is also Hao’s Box: these two places are both good and almost exchangeable for me…
Take-away meal price: 8-12 euros. Here there are the Google Maps location and their Tripadvisor page.
Pubs, Bars and Clubs
While it is pretty easy to find a good pub in Tübingen where having a beer, it is at the same time hard to find some good drinks. While highly questionable, I tried to give some indications to have an enjoyable night in the city.
Pub: Stadtpost
If you asked ten different people, they would probably give at least eight different answers to the question “Which is your favourite pub in Tübingen?”.
Personally, I always had a preference for Stadtpost, but it is not fully rational. I actually liked the atmosphere and the low prices (a beer and fries are quite cheap), but I’m pretty sure my friends would appreciate some other pub more than this.
Here there is the Google Maps location.
Cocktails: Schmitz Katze
A great atmosphere can also be found in Schmitz Katze, along with excellent cocktails. This was my favourite choice for having a chat with a small group of people.
Here there is the Google Maps location.
Cinema: Kino Atelier
The Kino Atelier (similarly to the Kino Arsenal) is a small and single-hall cinema, projecting mostly international and German independent films. For example, there I watched Everything Everywhere All at Once when it was first released, way before it won the Academy Award for Best Picture. The small hall contributes to an intimate and cosy atmosphere, making it a really nice experience.
Clubs
I will not hide my thoughts on this theme, the Tübingen clubs situation has some large margins of improvement.
Schwarzes Schaf was funny, but only when with the right group of friends. The student-organized parties in Clubhaus are the best alternative to clubs in spring and summer, while Kuckuck is the best choice for those living in WHO. Of all the (few) other clubs I’ve been in, I actually didn’t like the atmosphere enough to suggest them.