North Rhine-Westphalia
Altstadt — 'die längste Theke der Welt'
Düsseldorf's old town, sold as the 'longest bar in the world': why you come for the Altbier breweries rather than the sights, and how to actually get a seat.
Where
Düsseldorf, Germany
Opening hours
Open access (always open) to walk the streets. Individual breweries and bars set their own hours, typically late morning until late night, with the area busiest on Friday and Saturday evenings. Confirm current hours and prices on the official site.
Tickets
Free — no ticket needed to wander the old town. You only spend on food and drink; a glass of Altbier at a brewery tap is about €2.50, and the small glasses keep coming until you signal you have had enough.
Time needed
An evening of two or three breweries, or a couple of hours if you just want a stroll and one beer.
In short
Visiting Altstadt — 'die längste Theke der Welt'
Düsseldorf's old town crams roughly 260 bars and pubs into about half a square kilometre, which earns it the nickname 'the longest bar in the world'. You come here to drink Altbier at the brewery taps — Uerige, Schumacher, Füchschen — rather than for monuments. It is free to wander, an Altbier runs about €2.50 a glass, and a weekday visit is your best shot at a seat.
The longest bar in the world
The nickname does most of the marketing: pack roughly 260 bars and pubs into about half a square kilometre of cobbled lanes and you get “die längste Theke der Welt”, the longest bar in the world. Set your expectations accordingly. This is not a sightseeing quarter — there is a handsome river frontage on the Rhine and a few churches, but nobody comes to the Altstadt for monuments. They come to drink Altbier, and the streets are the connective tissue between one brewery tap and the next.
It is free to wander, and pleasant enough by day, but it only really makes sense in the evening when the lanes fill and the brewery doors swing. A glass of Alt is about €2.50, and the glasses are small and keep arriving until you stop them.
How to drink it properly
The thing to understand is Altbier — Düsseldorf’s own dark, copper top-fermented beer, the local answer to Cologne’s pale Kölsch a short train ride south. Head for the four house breweries: Uerige, Schumacher, Füchschen and Schlüssel, each brewing on the premises. At these traditional taps the aproned waiter, the Köbes, simply swaps your empty glass for a full one and pencils a stroke on your beer mat each time. When you have had enough, lay the mat over the glass — otherwise the beer keeps coming.
Uerige is the most characterful and, predictably, the most crammed; the others are kinder if you actually want to sit down. The honest tip is to go on a weekday, ideally early evening before the after-work crowd lands. Friday and Saturday nights you will be drinking on your feet in a crush. Try two or three taps in one stroll rather than digging in at the first, and you will have done the Altstadt exactly as it is meant to be done.
Planning the rest of your trip? See the Düsseldorf city guide.
