Cuxhaven sits at the mouth of the Elbe, where river traffic, North Sea wind, beaches, and tidal flats all meet. It is one of Germany's big seaside resorts, but it still feels like a working fishing and harbour town rather than a polished beach escape.
The strongest day starts at the waterfront: watch ships from Alte Liebe, walk out to the Kugelbake, and leave time for the harbour and shipwreck museum. The Wadden Sea is the deeper reason to come; at low tide, the shore becomes a wide, strange landscape of mud, sand, birds, and moving water.
Cuxhaven is not a perfect old town, and that is fine. It works because it has a clear coastal identity: ships, fish, tidal flats, wind, and enough maritime oddities to fill a day without forcing it.