Germany in May
· Updated · BootsnAll
May is the month Germany goes back outside. Beer gardens that have been shut since October open their chestnut trees to the light, the asparagus stalls appear at the side of the road, and everything that can be done in a park is done in a park. It is also, in our view, the best value month in the German calendar: the weather is usually good enough and the summer prices have not fully arrived.
Weather and what to pack
Spring weather here is not reliable, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. You will get warm bright afternoons and you will get a cold grey day with rain that sets in and stays.
Long-term averages for May give you a rough idea:
- Berlin, average high 18C, average low 7C
- Düsseldorf, average high 18C, average low 8C
- Frankfurt, average high 18C, average low 8C
- Hamburg, average high 16C, average low 7C
- Munich, average high 17C, average low 6C
Averages hide the spread. Late May can touch the high twenties and early May can sit at ten degrees and drizzle. Pack layers and something properly waterproof, not a fashion jacket. Munich and the south sit higher and get colder nights than the numbers suggest.
What is on
1 May is a public holiday and it is the one to plan around. Banks, offices and most shops close. In Bavaria the maypole goes up, villages make a day of it, and neighbouring villages have a long tradition of trying to steal each other's pole. In Berlin the first of May is a rather different event, political and loud, and Kreuzberg is where it happens.
Two more holidays usually fall in May and both are movable, so check the year you are travelling. Ascension Day doubles as Father's Day, which in practice means groups of men pulling wagons of beer through the countryside. Whit Monday is a long weekend and the trains fill up.
The asparagus is worth planning a meal around. Spargelzeit runs from around April to 24 June, it is white asparagus rather than green, and restaurants build entire menus on it for the duration. It is taken far more seriously than you are expecting.
Along the Rhine, the Rhine in Flames season starts in early May with the Bonn event, fireworks along the river with boats out on the water.
Getting around
Trains. Germany is a country where the railway genuinely goes everywhere, and May is a good month to use it.
Two things to know about the money. Deutsche Bahn sells cheap advance fares, Super Sparpreis and Sparpreis, in limited numbers up to a year ahead, and the full Flexpreis walk-up fare is several times as much. And the Deutschlandticket costs 63 euros a month as of January 2026 and covers every regional train, S-Bahn, tram and bus in the country. It does not cover ICE, IC or EC.
If you are here for a few weeks and are not in a rush, the Deutschlandticket changes the trip. You stop pricing journeys and start taking the slow train to places you had not planned on.
Booking
Airfare and hotel rates climb through spring without reaching the July and August peak. Book a couple of months out and May is one of the better deals in Europe. Leave it to the week before and a public holiday weekend will cost you.