On this page we will give you tips on culture, food and drink, tours and mobility, as well as information on finding offices and studios. We do not list the addresses you will stumble across anyway, e.g. the big cinemas or “normal” restaurants. If you want to tell us something about the entries, please mail us at fun@freewalkingtour-aachen.de. Thanks!
Culture: Music | Theatre | Cinema | Specials
Gastronomy: Restaurants and coffee shops | Bars, Pubs and Clubs
Miscellaneous: Tours | Mobility | Graffiti | Shops | shared creative space | Maastricht | Books | Photo Galery (Pinterest)
Culture
Music
● Musikbunker Alternative concerts in a special environment
● Franz Super programme of various forms and styles – music, stand up comedy … You can also perform yourself!
● Tango at the Elisenbrunnen a must for all tango lovers. In the rotunda of the Elisenbrunnen with different DJs/ DJanes. Free admission. Due to Corona no dates at the moment – check the calendar!
● Burg Wilhelmstein Concerts, theatre, cabaret at the foot of a castle. With picnic option
● Café Chantant at Egmont pub – with guests from Liege. Everybody can sing (in Liège the toilet cleaners also do it), professionally accompanied. The band follows every pitch change with the singers …
Theatre
● Theater K private company, super productions, e.g. today Santa Claus comes …
● DasDa-Theater also super productions, often refreshingly unconventional, in summer Shakespeare in the castle (Frankenberg)
● Theater 99 also private troupe, also super productions, in summer Shakespeare in the castle
● Mörgens experimental department of the municipal theatre, highly recommended
Cinema
● Apollo Kino & Bar The ingenious combination: Committed cinema programme, many original versions, not just mainstream. And club with live DJs. And cocktails …
Specials
● Art: Ludwig Forum Aachen Museum for modern Art: Always interesting, changing exhibitions near the city centre
● Café in the forest with good hiking possibilities: KuKuK directly on the Belgian border Eupener Straße 420, directly opposite you can get Belgian fries …
● Reading for hours in the bookshop: Bookstore Backhaus “Spätlese”: you will be locked in the store, read as much as you can or want, with coffee, wine, snacks and nice people – the very special experience
● Magic: Black Table Close up magic theatre – and you still don’t see how they do it. Unbelievable. Recommendable!
● A mountain in the middle of the city: The Lousberg landscaped forest with beautiful old trees, an ultimate view over Aachen, hammocks with a view and a rotating tower with restaurant
Gastronomy
Restaurants and coffee shops
● Leni liebt Kaffee best coffee, best breakfast, cake and dinner, with outside area
● Nela’s Coffee & Kitchen has pretty much the best cakes far and wide, homemade, especially the tiramisu cake, vegan cakes, toasts, salads and more. Right next to the theatre – soon to have a car-free outdoor terrace in the middle of the city.
● Last Exit the best bowls in Aachen – better than in the bowls stores (and cheaper), exciting noodle recipes, super nice atmosphere and always lovely staff
● Mehlwölkchen Greek crossover cuisine. Breakfast, various bowls and other delicacies for breakfast and snacks in between. Super nice staff, 2x in Aachen, highly recommended
● Best Friends delicious food, wide range, good cocktails, beautiful outside area, Pontstraße
● Oishii right next door Super Sushi, watching while preparing, outside area Pontstraße, private room
● Bar Cantona small restaurant, interesting cuisine, nice courtyard
● Homeburgers best burgers, super sauces, no chain, reasonable prices, fancy good vegetarian burgers! The meat comes from particularly species-appropriate and environmentally friendly animal husbandry. (The website unfortunately has no certificate, but you can trust it …)
● Boulevard Dreissig – great cuisine in a great ambience at Campus Melaten with a view over the Schneeberg, lots of greenery and peace. And on some weekends from 9 to 3 (at night) DJ and deckchairs and fire bowls.
● O’Fra (Oh Brother) small but super nice and super tasty pizzeria (no pasta) with a nice atmosphere and service and limoncello and generally …
● Mei Choi not only fancy pasta dishes, but also delicious ice cream! Lime peppermint with mint leaves, dark chocolate and strawberry with pieces … And super nice staff!
● Restaurant Mostard super tasty cuisine from Sri Lanka and India, very nice, Indian atmosphere, if you order spicy here, it’s really spicy!
● Noorjahan also super tasty, also better to order medium spicy – unless you are hardened. Real Indian atmosphere. They also serve thalis!
● AKL Lebanese cuisine of the finest in the upper Pontstraße – you always will find queues in front … but you can have a drink at Cafe Egmond next door and order food from there at AKL!
● Pippin one of the smallest but finest. A new theme menu every month
● Madam Tam delicious Vietnamese cuisine
● Ferbers in a park. breakfast, coffee and (great) cake, dinner
● Bella Italia Dining like in Italy, small and intimate – best to reserve
● Leana und Luise the best ice cream far and wide. At weekends also breakfast
● Baristinho best home-roasted coffee, delicious breakfasts, cakes and smaller dishes in the middle of the city and at the weekly markets
● Maier Peveling’s better fries than in Belgium and Holland – honest!
● Café Liege Belgian cake in its finest form, in different places, i.e. on the square „Fischmarkt“
Traditional places with good and typical Aachen food: Am Knipp and Aachener Brauhaus
Bars and Pubs
● Dry Super quality, good advice, outdoor area, no hangover the next morning
● Hopfen und Malz one of the two craft beer pubs. You can drink and buy a lot of delicious beer brands. Additional beer brewing courses! They have the only good tasting non-alcoholic IPA I know: “Le Chauffeur”.
● Wingman the other craft beer address in Aachen. 100 Beers. Large outside area
● Die WG und Kiez Kini the completely different gastronomy. Speciality in the Kiez Kini: Astra beer cocktails! Seriously!
● Café Kittel (currently no own website due to change of owner) beautiful beer garden in the center of the city, hasn’t aged in decades
● lastexit just newly enlarged and redecorated, outside area with a view of the sun until sunset
● Vertical – die Weinbar wine bar open wines, food and drinks, whiskey and spirits, beautiful outside area
● Domkeller a must go, directly by the cathedral, sometimes with live music, large outside area (“Hof”)
● Dumont another scenic beer garden in Aachen, rustic surroundings and concerts
Clubs
● Nox According to its own statements “Chic club with DJ sets”
● Apollo Kino & Bar primarily a cinema, but often also a party – check the diary (under the link at the beginning of the line!)! In the centre of the Milky Way
● Lessie Fair Club in Pontstraße/ near Milchstraße
Other
Tours in the “three country corner” (Germany, Belgium, Netherland)
● The idyllic city of Maastricht (Netherlands) can be reached very cheaply with the “Schnellbus 350” from the train station or by train. Maastricht is the town for shopping, architecture and bars.
● There are many trains to the scenic city Liège (Belgium) every day. Just arriving there at the train station is an experience in itself. And the rest of the city too.
● There are plenty of cycle paths around Aachen and to Holland and Belgium. Best map: “Radwegekarte der StädteRegion Aachen” – it contains more junctions than there are currently … There is also an App for this. The map is available (free) in Zollernstraße at the StädteRegion administration.
● The Vennbahn (bike road) is a green axis through the city to Raeren and further (Luxembourg and Trier). As a former railway line, it rises only slightly from Aachen towards the Eifel. With gastronomy along the route. At the weekend also sometimes crowded.
● The tour from the Dreiländereck to Liège by bike is particularly attractive – the entrance to the Ravel is here and from here you follow the Ravel 39 and later the Ravel 38. The junctions are 58-57-55-53-52-51-48-47-44-43-41-38-35-32-11-6-5-4, the route is 61km from Aachen and 54km from the entry. It is almost level all the way. It is best to cycle to Liège and return by train. The route is new, mostly in top condition and well signposted. On Sunday mornings there is a large market in Liège on the Meuse, which is very worthwhile.
mobility
● Cambio Carsharing, eScooter (Voi and TIER) | eBikes: VeloCity and MCI (uncomplicated and very friendly)
● StreetScooter and e.go. When the Post Office asked VW, Mercedes and BMW in 2009 whether they could produce a small electric truck for parcel delivery in city centres, they declined. Professors Schuh and Kampker from Aachen took a different approach: within 4 years, they developed the StreetScooter from concept to production stage in cooperation with institutes of the RWTH. The German Post bought the company in 2014. The small car e.go followed in 2014 and went into series production in 2018. The story is super exciting, with production taking place in Aachen and Düren. At the moment both models are no longer in production, negotiations with investors are in progress. Corona didn’t make things any easier either …
Murals and Graffiti
Aachen has a long culture of murals and graffiti. There are lots of them – if you walk around with your eyes open. One of the first (political) artists was Klaus Paier from 1978 on – he was out at night and always had to expect to be caught. Today, his works are under monumental protection. Irony of history … A super site, where you can easily find murals and graffiti, is streetartcities.
“Regular” shops and those “wich make women happy” (shops where you can always find a nice present for yourself or others)
● Buchhandlung Backhaus: no chain, small nice, dedicated, super assorted shop. Terrace for reading. Delivers as fast as Amazon – you just have to pick it up from nice people …
● Hubert und Therese: fair organic fashion store, clothing, cosmetics and much more, e.g. “Zero Bullshit” – a deodorant without aluminium that works. All certified according to internationally recognised and valid quality seals such as “GOTS” (Global Organic Textile Standard), “FAIRTRADE” and “Fair Wear”. Buy locally without sand waste.
● Neooro: “Journey through the variety of tastes of hand-selected wines from Europe & distillates from all over the world.” And specialities from Aachen.
● mancherlei: “The special shop for individual and unusual jewellery” in the Jakobstraße
● Margoo: concept store on Franzstrasse. Jewellery, bags, decoration, cloths, small furniture, clothing …
● Van Hout Partout: furniture, home accessories, spices, luxury and delicatessen products close to chicken market
● Caros Lädchen: Gifts. interior design. stationery. Porcelain. Own design. retro. jewellery…
Workspace
● Free website to search for and offer free space in offices and studio communities. Also dates for events such as workshops, exhibitions and guided tours as well as a marketplace for exchanging work materials: atelier-buero.de
Maastricht
Maastricht is a young, modern city with old architecture and new architectural experiments, stores with different fashions than in Germany, nice pubs along the Maas – in other words: there is a lot to see. The express bus 350 takes you from the train station or the Elisenbrunnen in an hour every quarter of an hour to the vicinity of the main train station – 10 minutes from the center. Round trip currently €10.50. There is a lot to see – here are just three exemplary highlights:
● The Kruisherenhotel a church converted into a hotel, a unique combination of sacred space and modern use – with a gastronomic corner halfway up and a toilet with a one-way mirror – feels a bit strange at first …
● The Studentshotel an old ceramics factory (with exhibition) and a super nice hotel with rooms with industrial charm, rooftop bar, overall very exciting architecture.
The Lumiere a cinema with exciting interior design, very good gastronome at the Bassin – an inner harbor with boats directly on the outside terrace.
Otherwise, you pass many nice pubs and restaurants on the way to the student hotel. It is worth visiting the side with the train station – it is completely different from the one with all the big stores and the marketplace.
Books
– if you understand German look at the German page of this one
last updated 30-12.2023