Schlenkerla Brewery and Tavern

If beer is what you're coming to Germany for, and your trip doesn't coincide with Oktoberfest, head to Bamberg and compensate for the loss at one of its best breweries. Big deal, you may say. One doesn't need to go all the way to Franconia to get a glass of decent barley pop, but if you dig the idea of having one-of-a-kind smoke beer tapped directly from the wooden barrel, Bamberg, and especially Schlenkerla, is the place. Let alone that the town has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the grounds of exerting a major architectural influence over the country and being the centre of the Enlightenment in southern Germany. Cheers!