bonn in november hits different when your bank account is crying
so here i am. bonn. three days into what was supposed to be a weekend trip and i'm still here because my hostel doesn't refund after 6pm. the weather outside is doing that thing where 9 degrees celsius feels like 7 because the humidity is sitting at 81% and the pressure dropped to 999 which basically means the sky has been moody since tuesday.
i picked this place because someone on reddit said "bonn is boring and that's the whole point" and honestly? i felt seen.
Quick Answers
Q: Is this place worth visiting?
A: yeah but only if you like grey skies and cheap beer. bonn doesn't try to impress you and that's kind of the deal. go if you want silence and good falafel, skip it if you need instagram content.
Q: Is it expensive?
A: no. a döner kebab is 4 euros, a beer at a non-touristy place is 3.50. hostels run 25-30 a night. you can survive here on maybe 40 a day if you stop buying the weird pastry things at bakeries.
Q: Who would hate it here?
A: anyone expecting berlin energy. bonn is the older sibling who reads during dinner. if you need constant stimulation you will feel like you're suffocating by hour two.
Q: Best time to visit?
A: spring or early autumn when the rain is light but not committed. november works if you don't mind grey. avoid july because it gets weirdly hot for germany and everyone's cranky.
*MAP:
walked from the train station to the rhine in maybe ten minutes. the river is right there, wide and brown and not interested in performing. Cologne is like 30 minutes by train if you want to go somewhere louder. Some local told me the train costs 5 euros each way which is a lie apparently, it's more like 7.50 but you can get a group ticket if you're with people.
the hostel i'm at is in a building that was probably someone's dream in the 70s. wallpaper peeling, radiators that clank, common room smells like instant coffee and regret. but the people here are okay. there's a guy from ghana who's been living in bonn for two years studying something boring and he keeps telling me the university cafeteria has the best rice I've ever had which feels like a strong claim.
i went to the old town on day two. it's not really an "old town" in the dramatic sense, more like a neighbourhood that remembers being important. Beethoven's house is here which i almost skipped because i thought it would be boring but then i walked past and something about the quiet street made me go in. entry is like 8 euros. The museum itself is small, three floors, and it's honestly more about the rooms than the music.
TripAdvisor lists bonn as "underrated" which is the kind of phrase that makes me want to fight the algorithm. It's not underrated, it's just not for everyone. I saw someone on Reddit describe bonn as "the city your parents would be comfortable visiting" and i think that's the most accurate review i've read all year.
bold takeaway: the currywurst at that one stand near the station is genuinely better than most things i've had in bigger cities. don't ask me which stand, i forget, it's near the bakery with the crooked sign.
night one i went to a bar that had maybe 15 people in it. the bartender was reading a paperback and still served me a proper pilsner. safety vibe: bonn feels safe in the way that small german cities feel safe, meaning you won't get mugged but also nothing is happening after 9pm. A local warned me that the area around the Hauptbahnhof after midnight "gets a little colorful" but i walked it fine at 11:30 with no incidents.
day three i just sat by the rhine with a sandwich and watched a jogger argue with a goose. the temperature maxed at 10.4 today, the humidity stayed around 80, and i was genuinely fine. Sometimes that's enough.
i went to Yelp to look for restaurants and the reviews were all like "nice but quiet" which is either a compliment or a warning depending on your attachment style. r/travel had a thread from 2019 saying bonn is "what you get if you asked germany to be gentle" and i haven't stopped thinking about that.
the pressure is 999 hpa right now which apparently means the weather is stable but grey. it's been grey since i got here. the rhine looks like it's not going anywhere so neither am i.
Lonely Planet gives bonn a 4.2 which is a weirdly specific rating. i'd say 3.5 from me but i'm grading on vibes and that's not fair. You could do bonn in one day if you're rushing. two days if you actually want to sit somewhere.
i'm still here. the hostel wifi is slow and someone's playing lo-fi in the kitchen. tomorrow i might take the train to cologne or i might just walk to the bakery again. either way the bank account is fine for another day.
Atlas Obscura has a write-up on the Beethoven house that's better than mine, go read that instead of this mess. seriously.
go. it's fine. it's bonn.*