Things to do in Dusseldorf

Landmark · Stadtmitte

A canal lined with chestnut trees, luxury flagships on one bank and offices on the other — the city's shorthand for itself.

Local tip: Known universally as the Kö. The shopping is not the point unless it is; walk the eastern bank for the shade and the water, and carry on north into the Hofgarten, laid out in 1769 as one of the first parks in Germany opened to the general public and immediately free of everything the Kö is about.

Neighborhood · South of the old town

A working harbour converted into an architecture park, with Frank Gehry's three leaning buildings at its centre.

Local tip: The Gehry buildings photograph best in late afternoon from the far quay. Come for a weekday lunch rather than a weekend evening — the restaurants price for expense accounts and the district is oddly empty at weekends.

Food · Behind the Hauptbahnhof

Two blocks of Japanese restaurants, bookshops, bakeries and supermarkets serving the largest Japanese community in continental Europe.

Local tip: This is a genuine community district rather than a themed one, and the ramen and tonkatsu are held to a standard that regular Tokyo commuters enforce. Queue at lunchtime with everyone else, and go to the Japanese supermarket for ingredients you will not find in any Rewe.

Nightlife · Old town, by the Rhine

Around 260 bars and breweries packed into half a square kilometre, including the four surviving Altbier brewhouses.

Local tip: Uerige, Füchschen, Schumacher and Schlüssel brew on the premises and are where locals actually drink; the streets between them are for stag parties. Order 'ein Alt' and say nothing else. The waiter is called a Köbes, and being brusque is part of the job description.

Nature · Riverfront

A riverside promenade built over a buried motorway, running from the old town past the parliament to the 240-metre telecommunications tower.

Local tip: Burying the road in a tunnel in 1993 is the single decision that made this city pleasant, and locals will tell you so. The Rheinturm's light column is the world's largest decimal clock — once you know how to read it you cannot stop.

Culture · Niederkassel and Golzheim

A complete Japanese Buddhist temple with a garden and a tea house on the left bank, and a formal Japanese garden across the river in Nordpark.

Local tip: EKO-Haus is the only Japanese Buddhist temple complex of its kind in Europe, built for the Japanese community rather than as an attraction, and almost no visitor to Düsseldorf ever crosses the river to find it. Both are free or nearly so, and both are at their best in the first week of cherry blossom.