Where to Find the Best Cherry Blossom Spots in Bonn
Besides being the birthplace of Beethoven and the capital of former West-Germany, Bonn is also famous for its cherry blossom streets. Bonn turns into a pink heaven during spring and this makes it one of the most Instagrammable cities throughout the season. The cherry blossom trees in Bonn were planted in the 1980’s to make the city look prettier, and boy did they achieve that goal! In this blog post, we’re sharing where to find the best cherry blossom spots in Bonn and when it’s the best time to visit them.
This post was originally published on March 28th 2022. It has been updated on April 12th 2023 to give you the most recent information.
Heerstrasse and Breite Strasse
The Heerstrasse and Breite Strasse are the most famous cherry blossom streets in Bonn and are definitely the most Instagrammable. The trees here are of the ‘Kanzan’ type which have large, fluffy and bright pink blossoms. Every spring, the sakura trees turn these streets into pink flower tunnels.
Heerstrasse is also referred to as Cherry Blossom Avenue
At the crossing of Breite Strasse and Marxstrasse, you’ll find this famous photo spot with the Altstadt sign and the tunnel of cherry blossoms right behind it.
Best Time to Visit Bonn to See the Cherry Blossoms
When the cherry blossoms exactly bloom strongly depends on the weather. The warmer it is, the earlier they bloom. In general, the blossoms in the Heerstrasse and Breite Strasse are at their peak bloom in the first two weeks of April, and those at the Maxstrasse and Peterstrasse are at their peak around the last week of March and the first week of April. The cherry blossoms in the other streets mentioned before all start blooming earlier than that.
The cherry blossoms at the Heerstrasse were the main objective of our visit to Bonn. We visited the city in the third week of April (18th until 21st, 2019), right after their peak bloom. We were just in time to catch some of the last pink blossoms. The trees were already losing some of their pink color and were slowly starting to turn green. The big advantage of this is that the streets are covered in pink blossoms too!
The weekend we visited was very hot for the time of year (around 25 degrees Celsius) and at the end of it we noticed the trees had turned green a lot more over the course of 2 days. Therefore, we would recommend visiting in the first two weeks of April to be sure you won’t miss the pink blossoms on the trees. The first week of April might be your best bet if you want to check out the cherry blossoms at Maxstrasse and Peterstrasse as well. The trees in these streets were completely green when we visited.
Tip: If you’re flexible and want to time your trip to Bonn just right, you can check the current state of the blossoms at any of the cherry blossom streets on Instagram. Simply search for the street name under places, and check the recent posts. Be aware of throwbacks from previous years though, so always read the captions. We use this trick with all kinds of seasonal Instagrammable places around the world.
While doing research for this blog post, we stumbled upon a blog from the owner of a print shop in Breite Strasse. Every spring, the owner posts updates about the cherry blossoms in the Breite Strasse and Heerstrasse on her blog. It’s a great way to check when the cherry blossoms are at their peak bloom. The blog is in German, but you can use the Google Translate plugin if needed.
2023 Update
After spending Easter weekend in the Moselle Valley, we spontaneously decided to have lunch in Bonn on our drive back home to the Netherlands. We didn’t expect the cherry blossoms to be blooming already as it was still early April and it had been a relatively cold spring. However, we were pleasantly surprised. While you could see that not all blossoms were open, the trees in Heerstraße already turned pretty much pink. We bet the trees would be in full bloom a few days after we visited Bonn on April 10th 2023.
The cherry blossoms in Heerstrasse on 10 April 2023
The cherry blossoms in Heerstrasse on 10 April 2023
The cherry blossoms in Breite Strasse on 10 April 2023
Best Time of the Day to Visit the Cherry Blossoms
Both Heerstrasse and Breite Strasse are very popular streets among locals and tourists during cherry blossom season. Therefore, we would recommend getting there as early as possible, especially if you want to take photos. We arrived in Heerstrasse around sunrise and there were only a few people, all of them were photographers (with and without models). Around 10 o’ clock, people start arriving in the streets and in the afternoon the streets are flooded with people.
Heerstrasse in the afternoon on 10 April 2023. If you're patient, you can take photos without too many people in the background during the day.
Other Cherry Blossom Spots in Bonn
While walking around Bonn, we stumbled upon a few more cherry blossom spots. Which trees are blooming of course depends on when you’re visiting. We found the following spots during our stay in the third week of April.
Vorgebirgsstrasse
While walking from our hotel to Heerstrasse, we saw this white blossoming tree. We loved that the tree is located in front of a peach and green-colored house, and were lucky to catch this one at its peak bloom.
Cherry Blossoms near Martinsplatz
Near Martinsplatz, we stumbled upon a few Kanzan cherry blossom trees just past their peak bloom. Even though the trees were losing some of their blossoms already, there were plenty of pink blossoms left for a good photo. It’s pretty cool that you can frame this spot with the towers of the Bonner Münster.
Sterntor
The original Sterntor was built around 1244 and was part of the medieval fortifications of Bonn. In 1898, the last remaining gate of the fortifications (including the Sterntor) was demolished. Two years later, the Sterntor and a part of the gate were rebuilt a few meters north of the original location. Now there’s a cherry blossom tree located right in front. It’s the perfect photo spot with the medieval Sterntor and the pink blossom tree. As you can tell, this tree was also already past its peak bloom when we visited Bonn in 2019.
germany-bonn-cherry-blossoms-sterntor-1 The cherry blossom tree at Sterntor on April 10th, 2023
More Cherry Blossom Streets in Bonn’s Altstadt
According to the official tourist information website of Bonn, you can also find cherry blossom trees in the following streets in Bonn’s Altstadt:
- Maxstrasse
- Michealstrasse
- Dorotheenstrasse
- Franzstrasse
- Georgstrasse
- Paulstrasse
- Wolfstrasse
- Schützenstrasse
- Peterstrasse
The cherry blossoms in these streets are at their peak bloom in early spring (between mid-March and the end of March). When we visited in April, the trees in these streets already turned green.
Where to Stay in Bonn
Bonn isn’t a very large town and you could easily see everything on a day trip. However, we would recommend spending the night in Bonn, especially if you want to see the cherry blossoms. This way, you have plenty of opportunities to check out all the spots and you can beat the crowds by getting there early in the morning.
We stayed in the Ibis Hotel Bonn, which is a great option if you’re traveling by car and want to see the cherry blossoms. Just like every Ibis Hotel, it’s basic but it has everything you need and the prices are always very reasonable. The hotel has a private car park which costs €15 per day. You receive a coin which allows you to drive in and out of the car park whenever you want to. If you need more coins, just ask the reception. From the hotel, it’s only a 5-minute walk to Heerstrasse. For us, this was the perfect place to stay during our time in Bonn
Click here to book a room in Ibis Hotel Bonn.
Click here for other accommodation options in Bonn.
How to Get to Bonn
By Plane
The closest airport to Bonn is Cologne-Bonn Airport. From Cologne-Bonn Airport, you can take a direct train to Bonn Hauptbahnhof that only takes 30 minutes. Bonn is a very walkable town, so once you’re at Bonn Hauptbahnhof you can walk everywhere. In case you want to check out the cherry blossoms right away, it’s just a 15-minute walk from the Hauptbahnhof to Heerstrasse.
By Train
Bonn is well-connected by (high-speed) train to other cities all over Germany, such as Cologne and Düsseldorf nearby, but also cities further away such as Berlin and Munich. From Cologne to Bonn it’s only a 20-minute direct train ride and from Düsseldorf to Bonn it’s 45 minutes. Getting to Bonn from Berlin and Munich takes a little longer because of the distance. From Berlin, the direct high speed ICE train takes you there in 4 hours and 45 minutes. From Munich it’s also 4 hours and 45 minutes, but you’ll have to take a tram from the nearby station of Siegburg/Bonn.
By Car
Depending on where you live or where you’re coming from, you can also drive to Bonn with your own car or a rental. As we live within driving distance from Bonn, in the Netherlands, we decided to go by car. You don’t need a car in Bonn so it absolutely isn’t necessary to travel by car. We left our car at the hotel almost the entire time and only used it to drive to the nearby castle Schloss Drachenburg (which is also accessible by public transport).
Let us know in the comments below if you’ve added the cherry blossoms in Bonn to your travel bucket list (if it wasn’t on it already)!
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