When to Visit - Arts and Events

Each year, at the end of August, wine lovers and connoisseurs from around the world gather for the annual 'Stuttgart Wine Village' Festival. More than 350 different wines from the Baden- Württemberg region are sold from over a hundred highly decorated stalls on Marktplatz and Schillerplatz around the Altes Schloss. The largest wine festival in Germany, it lasts for ten days and eleven nights.
Running from late September to early October, the Stuttgart Beer Festival is 16 days of festivities around a 24 metre (79 feet) high fruit column, the symbol of the festival. Originating in 1818 as a harvest festival, it has evolved into the largest folk festival in the world with a funfair with over 300 different attractions.

First documented in 1692, Stuttgart's Christmas Market in is one of the oldest, largest and most beautiful in Europe with over 200 extravagantly adorned stalls on Marktplatz and Schillerplatz. Originally sited in the impressive inner courtyard of the Altes Schloss, the market runs from the last Thursday in November until the day before Christmas Eve, open daily from 10:00 am to 8:30 pm and 11:00 am on Sundays.

Stuttgart Dining

Traditional food of the Stuttgart region relies on good wholesome ingredients with beef, sausage and root vegetables featuring heavily. Stuttgart's 'national dish' is 'gaisburger marsch', a stew of diced beef, potatoes, vegetables andfried onions. Other local dishes include 'schwäbischer rostbraten' (slices of roast beef served with fried onions, sauerkraut, maultaschen and spätzle), 'maultaschen' (small pasta squares filled with meat, spinach, eggs, onion and parsley, served with potato salad) and Wein zwiebelkuchen (onion tart with sour cream and diced bacon), which is eaten in the autumn with a glass of new wine. There are a number of excellent restaurants in Stuttgart serving traditional German food as well other European dishes.

Stuttgart Tipping Advice

Hotel bills include a service charge, however it is customary to tip porters two DM per bag and to leave that amount each day for room cleaning staff. Restaurants add a service charge (Bedienung) and tax (MWST) to their bills, but it is usual to give around five percent (or a couple of marks) to the waiter or waitress on leaving. Taxi drivers will automatically charge 50 pfennigs extra for each piece of luggage and expect the fare to be rounded up to the nearest mark.