☰St. Pauli

Hamburg's most famous and most notorious district, wrapped around the Reeperbahn — the kilometre-long strip of music venues, theatres, sex shops, bars and currywurst stands that calls itself "the most sinful mile". The Beatles played the Indra and Star-Club here in 1960 and 1961, and the area is still one of the great German live-music neighbourhoods. By day it is unglamorous and a bit grimy; by night it fills with stag parties, theatregoers, footballers and tourists. The Hamburger Berg side street is the local crowd's preferred drinking strip; the Herbertstrasse, walled off behind metal barriers, is reserved for prostitutes and male customers.