Been living in Köln/Germany for 5 years, from what I have experienced: - Yes, people in Köln are more friendly compared to other cities in Germany. But keep in mind that it is still Germany. Don't expect a southern europe level friendliness. - Many people live in Köln and work in Düsseldorf, Bonn or unfortunately in Ruhr area (Duisburg, Essen, Bochum) aka Isengard. -Winters are depressing as Köln is not super full of events like Berlin. Summers are nice (except this one). Many people who work remote leave in winter and come back in summer, subletting room/wohnung 😅 -For university students, especially in summer, finding friends are relatively easy. But if you are coming to work only you might find it hard to create friendships. (Join a Verein) Hope this helps for future Kölner!
that is useful to know, thank you for sharing. I am past college age so it sounds like it may be difficult to make friends there. I like living in a city that has a lot going on.
@@shalalala4875 I would say that other than Berlin most German cities are similar in that aspect. I cannot stress enough the importance of going out in summer to play games, dance or whatever to meet people. And some sort of hobby/sports club for the whole year round. Otherwise you might get mentally checked out easily in german winter.
I have visited 4 German cities and now live in Munich. I found Munich very clean and very safe. Few or almost no homeless. Very friendly people and plenty of jobs in the IT area. It is the perfect city to grow a family. The climate is similar to the other German cities, but being close to the Alps it snows a lot in winter. There is also much more sunshine than in the northern cities. The public transportation is also very clean although sometimes there are delays. I think that if you are looking for tranquility Munich and Bavaria in general is the place to live despite the high cost of living, it is worth it.
Nice idea ... one could also do a listicle with the most livable smaller/medium-sized cities such as Lübeck, Münster, Heidelberg, Augsburg, etc. Maybe an idea for a next video :-)
I think the rain is calculated by the amount of mm that rains on average each year, which can be misleading because in Dusseldorf or Hamburg the rain is more frequent but not as intense as in southern germany where it rains less days but on bigger amounts. Anyways great video! 🙌🏻
Warning to all expats who want to move to munich: it is very very hard to find an apartment or a room in a shared apartment. And if you are very lucky and find one, you have to pay at least 1000€ per month for a tiny 1-room apartment or 800€ for a tiny WG-Zimmer. Most new people in munich manage to find something temporary only and have to move every few month to the next room/apartment.
Being in the process of settling (or trying to) in Germany, I can't thank you enough for your content that indeed helps to do it more smoothly...(I just hope that one day it will be possible to do it completely smoothly ))))) Vielen Dank!!
I couldn't agree more. We stayed in Düsseldorf for a few months and it was clean, but it was boring. We got lucky and found a flat in Köln and couldn't be happier.
You are real "Düsseldorfer". Concerning tourism in Cologne you have to acknowledge that the Cologne Cathedral is the most visited building in Germany (4,3M visitors in 2022). 😀
I was just about to move to Germany but unsure about which city to live in, because i'll be working remotely. I was also thinking about joining Smoothlers club. Thank you very much for this video 🙂
And which city is most appealing after watching the video? Don’t forget there are also tons of cool smaller cities in Germany 😊 you’ll be more than welcome in The Smoothler Club 🤩
@@simplegermany After started to watch you ladies, i started to consider Dusseldorf and now with this video, Cologne is one of my options now. After research i had to remove Hamburg because i can't handle bad weather that much. I'm not into small cities because i like crowd and variety. I'm going back and forth in between Cologne and Dusseldorf. To be a bit flex, i'll research small cities around these two probably. Once my moving is settled, i'll see you in the Club 😃
Thanks for this video! Hamburg also has a brand new (well, 2017) concert hall. The absolutely weird wild crazy Elbphilharmonie hall. They took a red brick warehouse and put a glass "iceberg" on top of it, hollowed out the inside and created a seating-in-the-round concert hall where there are no bad seats. The acoustics are perfect although a little difficult for musicians because it's not as "live" and is rather reverb-free so you can hear little details of the music itself. I heard the Tchaikovsky Symphony 5 there last month. You can get tickets for concerts that are just one major work for cheap. If you have the Euros you can stay in the Elbphilharmonie itself since part of it is a hotel. I visited this summer and had to order a hamburger in Hamburg. It was really excellent, but it was an expensive restaurant. Haven't been to Frankfurt yet... And--not to criticize--if you had gone one city more, you would have gotten to Leipzig. It's home to 4 "orchestras of cultural significance" including the largest symphony orchestra in Germany, the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra with a roster of 185 full-time musicians. Many great works of German classical music were premiered and performed there. Every summer is the Bachfest, a 10 day, 160 performance celebration of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. If you are into classical music, especially German classical music, Leipzig is a city you must consider. Since it's part of the former East Germany, the cost of living is still relatively inexpensive. A lot of the transportation and infrastructure is new and it's very walkable. If I had to choose a place to live in Germany, this is where I'd be.
@@simplegermany Berlin is relaxed city with all kinds of people. Düsseldorf is the little but fine good for jobs in accounting and finance. Cologne is the NRW version of Berlin but more serious.
You would have also added public transport comparison, it is one of the main deciding factor to move, e.g. Berlin has the best public transport in whole Germany. I don't know if you guys have already made such video
We have a general video on public transportation but not comparing cities. We would say every big city in Germany has a good public transportation system 😊
I have no plans to move but love to visit, and enjoyed this video. You're so right that personal taste and gut feeling make a place. My friend moved from Munich to Düsseldorf, stayed only one year, hated it and moved back to Munich. I visited her in both places and didnt get it at all, I would rather live in Düsseldorf for sure, more laid back.
Only seen cologne they have a nice vibe beautyfull church ofc... The city itself is not that special the buildings are boring the library is outdated but around the shopping you have nice houses the field near university is nice to chill. I think they organise alot of events which make the city nicer and I liked the vibe ther. Next visit will be Dusseldorf and Bonn.
Yes I agree and am ready to move to any part of Germany once I get the job but initially to land in Germany without a job following are the parameters I am looking for: 1. Affordable accommodation 2. Easy to find a Part time job. 3. Expat friendly and English speaking environment.
I have heard a lot about Berlin, Munich and many others cities and I am sure they have their attractions. But I have only lived in your city Duessldorf, in Holthausen. So for me that is the best city. It has been my home, in my third home country, that is Germany. I am a big city boy ( man ), having borne and brought up in Bombay ( Mumbai ), and now living in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. So for me it is the Rhein Ruhr Metro area, the biggest metro area in Germany. The next choice would be Koeln or Frankfurt ( for the airport ). But NRW is my home state. I like that name. Maharashtra, California and NRW are my home states in my three nations.
@@simplegermany I have visited too, loved it also : D but I would assume the work situation is not as "peachy" as in the western bloc, but it should also lower the cost of living. Not that I am looking for a job in Germany yet : D Just browsing hah, thank you for all your vidoes and hard work you put into them!!
Stuttgart and Munich, in my own experience, are very "cold" and super expensive compared to where do I live now - Hamburg. However, the automobile industry is located there. North part of Germany aerospace, marine, and train industry's. Additionally, the culture and behaviour of native germans in the pointed cities are totally different. Even the bank holidays differ.
Okay but why you go to a country you are not wanted in ? There is a lot of countries that are more welcoming to black people ? I don’t really understand that
Could you do a video about less tradicional big cities ? Nos wird remote working options, I would like to consider moving from Munich to less tourist or big cities and save money on rent thanks! I visited Erfuhrt and it seems small but active
I will be visiting Dusseldorf, Cologne, and Munich, among some other cities. This trip is to both experience Germany some more and to explore moving there. When researching costs for restaurants and breweries in Dusseldorf I found several that only accept cash. Is this the norm or is it ok to use a card? Did I only find tourist locations?
@@simplegermany I live in Regensburg and love it. We have a huge medieval old town, a lot of bars, pubs, restaurants... And you are about 1 and a half hour from Munich and an hour from Nürnberg. There was a city rating by ARD (or ZDF?) a couple years ago and we where the 13th best city to live in Germany.
Haha the bad weather places sound like paradise to me. Tons of rain and overcast skies with snow being very rare? Perfection. Thank you for this comparison of those cities. Weather and LGBT+ openness are definitely things for me to factor in when I look at potential places to go to university.
Great video! Except for Stuttgart, I have visited all the cities you mentioned. I live in Berlin, which can become a bit of a challenge, when you grow older ;-) As you asked about the queer scene in Frankfurt: There definitely is an LGBTQ scene, with many associations from choirs, sporting groups, to fetish meetings. But the scene in total is not that big, considering that is situated in the middle of the Rhine-Neckar area, with several bigger cities close to each other. On the other hand, I felt quite safe in Frankfurt as a queer person.
Hey great video! One correction though: I believe you misread the population in Munich. You read out Hamburg’s population for Munich (which is more like 1.4 not 1.9 million).
Interesting Video but I disagree with your opinion about tourist attractions in Düsseldorf: There is the media harbour, the beautiful Promenade, Old Town (it's bars), the modern architecture around the city, the museums and the Japanese Quarter and Japanese Culture in general, lots of people are coming especially for that, maybe not many of them staying overnight. ✅
Great Video. I lived in Munich, Bonn/Cologne, Berlin & Hamburg. But by far the worst experience I had is in Hamburg. They have a nauseating level local-patriotism ("Hamburg meine Perle") and take themselves way way WAAAAAY too seriously. They really think they are as pretty as Venice or as cosmopolitan as London. I regret every minute I lived there. But I am also more warm and southern-european in mentality.
The biggest disappointment every time I visit Germany when it comes to cleanliness is the amount of graffiti tagging and cigarette butts everywhere. If I was King of Germany I would create a task force to stop this and create harsh fines and jail terms.
I was living in a little city at BW called Singen (until I got a divorce), and it was very charming, chill, with everything that you would need, city! Unfortunatelly there was no LGBT life there. ... I mean there was LGBT people, but no places. Unfortunatelly like all German, the rent prices were crazy. But it was very good to be a 2h30 train from Stuttgart, 1h from Zurich, 1h30 from Basel.
Visited all the cities in the ranking and can say: skip the rest go live in Hamburg or Munich. Unless you stay home and have no social life then pick the cheapest 😅
Its really nice that you are comparing how LGBTQ friendly the cities are, because it is definitely a reason for a lot of us foreigners to escape to an LGBTQ friendly country or specifically city. My experience has been great, Germany is overall very friendly, I live in Dresden, its an average sized city but very open and safe.
I'm an international student coming to Munich this September, I wanted to ask if you have information about Wasserwirtschaft job opportunities in the german job market
Most of chemical companies are in small cities, not big ones. So be ready to move. Probably you should start your search with Ludwigshafen and Manheim .
One of the biggest chemical companies in the world, Linde, is in Munich. The main Linde campus is about 20-30 mins south of the city centre, but we have plants all over the country and the rest of the world.
You can find jobs all the time. You can check out our playlist on the topic here: ru-vid.com/group/PLnp3hGZLHcOWdFqddbduUQMC_y_CbP2QV&si=5akwKOz892f2GF_C
I love this video, thanks for the breakdown and encouragement to be open to more areas. I would love it if you two also made more videos that include LGBTQ experience in different areas. Germany has such a resilient queer history that has persevered against all odds, it makes me so touched and proud ❤ LGBTQ friendliness is a huge factor, as I have definitely been places in the USA where people regard me with disgust, make me feel unsafe, and yell at me for being visibly queer or holding hands with my girlfriend. Would you two be willing to make a video or share resources about finding fellow LGBTQ community in Germany, connecting with queer culture, or LGBTQ organizations/meet up groups you would recommend?
Hey! Thanks for your suggestion :) The more we learn about life in Germany, the more we realize that each city has their LGBTQ+ scene and clubs. You can easily do a web search for LGBTQ+ and the name of the city you're interested in and I'm sure you will find some cool things. We did a video on how we have felt as a queer couple in Düsseldorf (where we live). If you haven't watched it yet, you can do so here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dyqCUFq8mic.htmlsi=YhuS2Orzb_vqWSi3
Your Americaness is going to vastly overpower your blackness in terms of how you are treated here. In which case, Germans will treat you like you are an alien.
I don't know if I missed it in the video, but it would be great to see a technical definition of the term 'young' when we speak of population, because I'm not sure if that means under 24 or something else
Yes, because these are the most popular cities for internationals. We also did a video on smaller more underrated cities where our community members live: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6txY4NUfgRQ.htmlsi=4fplriWzn3BsfFdJ
I live in Bremerhaven almost 5 years. It’s gray, rainy and cold most of the time. The weather impo is almost unpredictable. The sea is close, but rarely getting a chance to enjoy it, because of the weather.
@@afrz4454 Vancouver looks sunnier imo, at least what I see now in my weather app. In Bremerhaven most of the time of the year barely getting any sunlight.
Unfortunately, no numbers for rental costs, tourists visited or attractiveness for LGBTQ+. Munich could have rents 3 times as expensive or only 10% more expensive: it would still be the first. Of course, one can google, but then what is this video for?
For that we have other videos where we talk in more detail about rental prices - like this one ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-as9fQB_bLTg.htmlsi=u8H4IbgiFJcjSsg2 or this one ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-RGHinSifUEg.htmlsi=r1QC7D4RaepXEB9I
Generally yes; like much of western Europe, it's relatively safe in general, in my opinion.. .. and the large cities have good numbers of immigrants and people of color.
Don't come to Stuttgart unless you seek a job, family life, quiet boring life, or retirement :) And have German knowledge. As an international student, the city is like an expensive comfort zone that you hate and cannot escape until you graduate and seek new adventures. At least I have some friends (mostly other internationals) due to where I am. 🥲 However, I think if I had a job instead of studying here it would be okay to live actually. Oh also it has the shittest Auslanderbehörde and because of the Stuttgart 21 we still don't have a Hauptbahnhof and we walk to stations for around 6-7 minutes. Due to war most of the big buildings are newer than in other German cities and it makes me feel a bit comfortable interestingly. I like the order of transportation in this city but there are time-to-time constructions and delays, especially at s-bahns. In general, I have a bit of mixed feelings about Stuttgart.
