How to Visit the Cherry Blossom Trees in Bonn, Germany

Spring is in the air here in Germany, despite the surprise cold front we have been getting the past few days. Nevertheless, the cherry and almond blossom trees have been showing off their beauty within the past few weeks, and it is breathtakingly beautiful! They are everywhere! I wanted to see more of these beautiful trees in Germany, so when I researched where to find the best Cherry Blossom trees in Germany, I stumbled upon one of my favorite cities in Germany, the city of Bonn!

Bonn, Germany

Quick tidbits about this wonderful city:

• Bonn is a German city on the Rhine river
• It was once the capital of West Germany from 1949-1990 (during the Berlin Wall before the German reunification)
• It is the birthplace of the one and only Ludwig van Beethoven
• It’s the birthplace of the HARIBO gummy bears
• They have an amazing Christmas market (more on that in another blogpost)

History of these Famed Cherry Blossoms

Native to Japan, these Cherry Blossom trees (Prunus serrulata trees) were planted along the old town (Altstadt) of Bonn at the end of the 1980s to redevelop and beautify the city. The city had originally planned to plant Hawthorne trees, but at the time, it just didn’t work out in their favor (not enough in stock), and thank goodness! Since then, the beautiful, pink tunnel of blossoms has made the cherry blossoms in old town Bonn an Instagrammable spot and is one of the top places to visit in the Spring in Germany.

There are about 300 trees lined up along Bonn’s Alstadt. Furthermore, there are also other different varieties of cherry blossom trees around the city. So, it’s easy to see why, when these trees are in bloom, people flock to Bonn to admire the beauty of these trees. There is a Japanese word “Hanami,” which means to view these beautiful blossom trees and enjoy their beauty when they are in full bloom. In Japan, Hanami is also a sign of winter ending, and farmers can begin planting for the season.

Where to Find the Cherry Blossoms

Now, on to the important piece, where can you find these trees? Here’s a list of places to find these beautiful pink blossoms around Bonn.

1.)  Heerstrasse Avenue

• Known as one of the most beautiful avenues in the world, this famed street is located in Old Town (Altstadt) and is the most popular location to find the tunnel/canopy of pink Cherry Blossom Trees. 
• The Kanzan variety of cherry blossoms is the most notable cherry blossom in this street, as well as Breite Strasse (see below).  
• It’s typically the most instagrammable spot in the city when the blossoms are in full bloom.
• It’s also one of the last streets to bloom in the season, around mid-April. 
• Since it’s the most popular spot for photog lovers, get there as early as before 8 am!  After 11 am the crowds will be crazy! It sure was when we visited! 

• The best photo light is between 7 am, and 9 am.
• Don’t forget to use the #kirschblütebonn or #heerstraße for your hashtags.

2.) Breite Strasse:

• Wanna find another popular area for photos?  Breite Strasse also has beautiful canopies of these Kanzan flowers, as well as the iconic Alstadt sign!

• Here, you’ll find the road stretched out in its cobblestone street and the famed Alstadt sign underneath the canopy of cherry blossoms. 
• The Alstadt sign also lights up at night, a wonderful photo opportunity with the canopy of flowers drooping over the sign.   
• Alstadt sign Location: On the corner of Breite Strasse and Max Strasse 

• You’ll also find the Print&Paint shop on this street, the owner who writes the blog, Kirschbluete-bonn.de. I mention more about that below.  Address is Breite Str. 65, Bonn, Germany.  I was able to enter the store with my negative covid test (more on that later).  The owner was so kind too and helpful with questions (speaks perfect English). 

• But you can purchase right outside her door if you do decide not to take a rapid Covid test that day and wanted to purchase an item from her store.  I feel like this was the case for most stores in that area.  

3.) Max Strasse:

• If you’re looking for a quiet street, yet with some blossoms blooming, head over to Max Strasse.
• You won’t find the canopy of flowers on this street, but rather small Japanese column cherries (Prunus serrulata ‘Amanogawa’) bloom there in April. These light pink cherry blossoms were purposely planted to not provide too much shade for the apartments on that street.  
• We found a small cafe along this street offering Turkish delight and baklavas galore and picked some of these goodies up for the road!

4.)  Other Areas for Cherry Blossoms:

• Bonn Minster (Bonner Münster) Cathedral: Bonn’s oldest Cathedral church 
• Sterntor Gate (Star Gate) at the Alstadt city center

• Other streets to find these blossoms but may bloom as early as mid-March:
  • Michaelstraße
  • Dorotheenstraße
  • Franzstraße
  • Georgstraße
  • Paulstraße
  • Wolfstraße
  • Schützenstraße

5.) Local Tip 

• As mentioned above, there’s a website to follow for updates on the Cherry Blossom blooms.  The owner highlights a circular route through Old Town that you can enjoy the blooms during your visit.  Here is the route she recommends:
  • Start from the City Center and walk towards the Old Town (Alstadt) towards the famed “Alstadt” sign (located on the corner where Maxstraße and Breite Straße meets.
  • Walk up along Breite Straße past Dorotheenstraße and Wolfstraße (don’t forget to visit the Paint&Print Shop at building number 65) along this road. 
  • Turn left into Paulstraße, where you’ll find white cherry blossoms
  • Walk along Paulstraße until you meet Heerstraße and walk till you get to the Jupiter column
  • Enjoy Heerstraße for photography
  • Continue on Heerstraße and turn left onto Dorotheenstraße or Wolfstraße 
  • Continue to explore the old town from here
• The route we took:
  • We took a slightly different route by starting at the corner where Maxstraße and Breite Straße meets at the Alstadt sign. 
  • From there, we walked along Breite Straße and continued on that road. 
  • We made a stop at the Paint&Print Shop to grab my postcard.  I was able to go inside the store with a negative covid test paper with me.  There are also several other stores around Breite Straße that were open when we went.  
  • We continued on Breite Straße until we hit the end of the street. 
  • From there, we made a left and headed for the next street, Heerstraße, directly on our next left. 
  • We then followed Heerstraße until we ended at Maxstraße and made a left there until we walked right into the Alstadt sign.

*** Psst, the map below is the route we took. Purple points are points of interest. Click on the box in the upper left-hand corner to view the direction details. Point E ends at Point A @ the Alstadt Sign (back at the starting point).

When is the Right Time to See the Cherry Blossoms

Late March, early to mid-April is the perfect time to see the tunnels of pink in Bonn. However, each year may differ, depending on how the previous winter has been.  If you are worried about missing the cherry blossoms, tip:  follow Kirschbluete-bonn.de or their IG page for the most up-to-date information on their current bloom.  The site is owned by Victoria Harlos of the “Print and Paint” shop on Heerstraße. Victoria’s site has been beneficial for our visit.

Stumped for time and can’t visit the big finale of the Cherry Blossoms in mid-April but still want to see some of the blooms?  I’ve listed in the order when the trees bloom from start to finish starting from Mid-March to around Mid-April, and where to find them! Keep in mind that different varieties of these Japanese Cherry blossoms are growing throughout the Old Town (Alstadt) of Bonn from Mid-March to Mid-April.

• Per the Bonn tourist page: 
  • Cherry Blossoms starts around Mid to end of March on a small cul-de-sac on Maxstraße, then gradually follow Zierkirschen in Michaelstraße, Dorotheenstraße, Franzstraße, Georgstraße, Paulstraße, Wolfstraße and Schützenstraße.
  • At the beginning of April, the main trees in Old Town start to bloom around Maxstraße and Peterstraße.
  • The Cherry blossom finale on Heerstrasse and Breite Strasse show off their blooms in mid-April.

**Tip and Reminder again, lol: keep an eye on this website and Instagram posts like a hawk and look for Instagram hashtags relating to the Bonn Cherry blossoms for the most recent photos. We almost visited last weekend, but it wasn’t the right time due to the weather, nor were the blossoms fully bloomed yet.  We only knew this through the website mentioned above, so it was great to have that as an update for when to visit.  

Covid Restrictions

Update (January 2022) Note: Please keep in mind this was written in April 2021. Restrictions are currently different now. Click here for the most recent Covid Restrictions.

It’s good to note, the city requires masks on in public when visiting the Cherry Blossoms, so it is mandatory at this time. It’s the only way to visit the Cherry Blossoms without the city shutting down the street.  For more information, please visit the Tourism of Bonn website.

More information here for specific Covid information from Bonn’s website

While walking around, we observed many people taking their masks off when taking photos only; but then, would put them back on when walking around the area.  We’re not encouraging taking your masks off, but just putting out what we saw.  We did see the local police enforcing masks along the way. 

*** The local police may or may not turn people away, we didn’t encounter the police turning anyone away at the time we were there, but I could see them doing so if the crowd gets to be too much.

Visiting Stores

When we arrived in Bonn, we immediately visited one of the Apotheke’s (local pharmacy) that offered free rapid Covid tests once a week with proof of ID.  We went here for our testing as it was listed as one of the locations here. 

• We brought our IDs, passport, and proof of a bill with our German address.  They ended up asking for our ID (which we gave them our passport) and your German home address. 
• We did wait about an hour for this test as each person takes 15 minutes to test, hence why we got to the Cherry Blossoms at noon.  If we hadn’t wanted to visit any stores, we would have skipped this. 
• All in all, the experience was a learning one, and we appreciated how the staff was so welcoming and professional. 
• Luckily, we were all good to go!  We were given our Covid negative result paper to take with us to show the stores we had tested that day, and we had been negative.  Note, this test is only good for 24 hours at the time of our visit (2021)!

Parking

Parking garages are available if you plan to drive to Bonn to see these beauties. Click Here to find parking around Bonn. Additionally, you can use parking along Heerstraße as an option, but most of that parking may be reserved for residents. Honestly, I would not park in HeerStraße or Breite Streiße as this street was busy during Cherry Blossom season, and it would be hard to get in and out of this busy road with everyone there to see the blossoms.  Click Here to find other street and garage parking near Heerstraße.

We parked here.  We were there for about 4 hours and only paid 10 Euros for parking when we left.

Wanna Find More Cherry Blossom Sights in Germany:

Check out this website for more inspirations for Cherry Blossoms in Germany.  I plan to put those on my future list of things to see next spring!  

Final Thoughts

Bonn is a beautiful city to visit any time of the year, but it is such a special time to see this beautiful city during the Cherry blossoms season. I can see why people make this a top place to see Cherry Blossoms in Germany.  I would add this to your bucket list of places to see in the spring, but come the right time when the blossoms are in full bloom as it was the most beautiful display of blossoms I had ever seen! As a bonus, experience Bonn and everything this hidden gem of a city has to offer.  I have a blog or two about this city coming soon! It really is one of my favorite cities in Germany!

Friendly Reminder again, GET THERE EARLY, before 1100 am!!!  I can’t stress this enough if you are a photography guru and love to take photos!  We had intended to get there early, but life lol.  We wanted to take the Covid rapid test to get into stores, so factor that into your time (it took us an hour to wait to get tested and the results).  I hope to return next year for the evening photos of the Alstadt sign!  

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope you get to experience the beauty of Bonn’s Cherry Blossoms soon!  Until next time!  Tschüss!  

*** Disclosure: All views expressed on this site are my own and do not represent the opinions of others and in no means an affiliate to any of the companies discussed.***