- A Brief Introduction to Mainz
- Getting There
- Introduction
- Pizza at L’Osteria Mainz 🍽
- Checking in at the Hyatt Regency Mainz 🏨
- Getting Some Boba from highlight bubble tea🧋
- A Light Dinner at Happy Sumo 🍽
- Breakfast at Lille Hus 🍽
- Admiring the Art at the Kunsthalle Mainz 🖼️
- Discovering (A Little Bit Of) Nature’s Storied Past at the Naturhistorisches Museum Mainz 🏛️
- Pho at Hà Nội Phố 🍽
- Final Thoughts
- Map
- Bonus: Song of the Trip
A Brief Introduction to Mainz
The capital of the Rheinland-Palatinate state and part of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region, the city of Mainz is located right by the Rhine river and is certainly a great place to visit, with something for everyone. Shopaholics can shop around the many stores in and around the Altstadt, culture and history buffs have the ruins of the Roman architecture from the past to see as well as the Jewish Cemetery (which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site), and foodies can enjoy a variety of cuisines to choose from.
Getting There
Being a major city and a notable transport hub to boot, Mainz has no shortage of transportation options to get there and to get to many other destinations around Germany, as you have the ever-(un) reliable DB train stations (the Mainz Hauptbahnhof and the Mainz Römisches Theater Hauptbahnhof were the closest ones to the area we spent the entirety of our trip in, and we both arrived to the city from the former), bus and tram stops along with taxi services available. Ridesharing apps also seem to work over here, although the only app I can confidently say offers services in Mainz would be the FREE NOW app.
Introduction
Being someone who loves to explore cities, I was ecstatic when my friend and I decided to visit Mainz for our weekend trip we took a month or so ago (this post was fermenting in the basement for quite a while, as with any other LLAMASODA post), as there were lots of exciting sights to see there, such as the Sanctuary of Isis and Magna Mater (which we didn’t get to go to), the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz Botanical Garden (we didn’t go there either), and the Kunsthalle Mainz (thankfully we did go there), and also because they had a few boba places as well (we went to highlight bubble tea which was really good), and I was in desperate need of some tapioca in my life at the time (and I still do now).
Mission: See all the museums and galleries and get some boba!
Pizza at L’Osteria Mainz 🍽
After arriving in the city from the train station, I met up with my friend, who probably is the very personification of patience as he had been waiting for me for almost two hours (I missed the train that I was initially supposed to take teehee). We hadn’t eaten much, so we decided to have lunch at L’Osteria, which was right by the Mainz Römisches Theater Hauptbahnhof.
Uncharacteristically I did not take notes for the meal for some reason, and on top of that, it’s been more than a month since the trip, so I can’t really give a detailed description aside from the pizza being decent and filling (we had to get half of it to-go because finishing it in one sitting was impossible), and the drink being pretty good. Hopefully, next time I revisit the city, I’ll come to the restaurant again to write a detailed description of the food!
L’Osteria Mainz
- 📍Holzhofstraße 7, 55116 Mainz
- 🕘 11:30AM – 11PM Monday to Thursday
- 🕘 11:30AM – 12AM Friday & Saturday
- 🕘 12PM – 11PM Sunday
- ☎️ +49061316937440
- ✉️ mainz@losteria.de
- 🌐 Website, Facebook, Instagram
Checking in at the Hyatt Regency Mainz 🏨
Once we were done eating, we walked to our hotel, the fancy Hyatt Regency Mainz (review here!), and it took us about 8-9 minutes to get there. Check-in was speedy and quick, and after scoping out our room, wowing at the lovely bathroom, and dropping our heavy luggage that was far too much for just a night’s stay, we got ready to explore Mainz and all the exciting stuff it had to offer!
Hyatt Regency Mainz
- 📍Templerstraße 6, 55116 Mainz
- 🕘 Check-in / Check-out: 3PM / 12PM every day (early or late check-in / check-out offered as well)
- ☎️ +4906131731234
- 🌐 Website, Facebook, Instagram
Getting Some Boba from highlight bubble tea🧋
With most of the places on our list being at that awkward distance of being a little too far to call it a short walk while also being too close to call a taxi, we had to make a choice, so we decided to save our money and make use of our bodies while they were still at their most youthful (this is definitely not me trying to convince myself, of course not!!). Nothing else can make walking a tolerable activity more than boba, so we headed to highlight bubble tea (stylized in lowercase for aesthetics) to grab a drink (Princess Rose to be more specific) and then walked to the Kunsthalle Mainz.
highlight bubble tea
- 📍 Seilergasse 3, 55116 Mainz
- 🕘 1PM – 7PM Monday to Thursday
- 🕘 12PM – 7:30PM Friday & Saturday
- ☎️ +49061316031840
- ✉️ service@highlight-mz.com
- 🌐 Facebook, Instagram
It turned out that we may have begun our adventure a little too late, as the Kunsthalle Mainz and other galleries and museums were closed already, so we just headed back to the Hotel but took our time wandering about by the Rhine river on the way.
Also not wanting to spend an arm and a leg on the snacks and beverages in our hotel room that were for sale, we stopped by a nearby REWE to get our supply of unhealthy sugar and alcohol.
A Light Dinner at Happy Sumo 🍽
After chilling around for a while, we were hungry, but not quite, so we headed to Happy Sumo (review here!) for a light dinner. We got back to our hotel and then spent a couple of hours chatting away until we dozed off (my friend couldn’t sleep as well as me, apparently, but when in my breathtaking presence, it’s understandable, what can I say).
Happy Sumo
- 📍 Holzhofstrasse 555116 Mainz
- 🕘 11:30AM – 3PM Monday to Saturday (Lunch)
- 🕘 5PM – 11PM Monday to Saturday (Dinner)
- 🕘 5PM – 11PM Sunday
- ☎️ +49061316192835
- ✉️ barsushi@yahoo.de
- 🌐 Website, Facebook, Instagram
Breakfast at Lille Hus 🍽
The next day we were determined to knock out the museums and galleries from our trip bucket list. We planned to visit them after having breakfast at this one waffle place (I can’t even find it on Google Maps now, weirdly enough, and I swear we weren’t on anything that morning) that was apparently located nearby our hotel, which we could not find at all. Not wanting to waste time, we gave up on the fabled waffle place (legends say it is only visible to children and the pure-hearted, and we’re not the former, or even the latter, it seems) and decided to have breakfast at Lille Hus in the Altstadt instead.
While enjoying our breakfast (the Pancakes with Mascarpone and Berry Compote were delicious!), we tried to plan out the places we could go, and because it was a Sunday (if you didn’t know, a lot of places get closed on Sundays in Germany, so plan ahead and don’t be like us!), only a few were open, with the Kunsthalle Mainz and the Naturhistorisches Museum Mainz being the only ones we thought were interesting enough to walk all the way to and also fit within our short schedule as we had planned to head to the station early in the evening.
Lille Hus Altstadt Mainz
- 📍Heiliggrabgasse 12, 55116 Mainz
- 🕘 9AM to 5PM every day except Tuesday
- ☎️ +49061312771665
- ✉️ hello@lillehusmainz.de
- 🌐 Website, Facebook, Instagram
Admiring the Art at the Kunsthalle Mainz 🖼️
The Kunsthalle Mainz (“Mainz Art Gallery” in Englisch) is a contemporary art museum that is known for its striking emerald-like exterior and for the frequent events that showcase interesting pieces made from uncommon techniques and materials.
Being the aesthete (or “pretentious tryhard” works fine, too) that I am, we had to visit here (even though the walk was torturously long), and while it was much smaller than we had expected, we still had a great time looking at the intriguing pieces throughout the gallery. We also came across a stack of black drawing papers and some crayons in the corner of one of the rooms, and we (well, I guess I am solely to blame) decided to just sit down on the floor and begin creating the next big history-making piece of work, to be put up somewhere like the Louvre and to be admired for eons by all… Until one of the staff approached us and informed us that it was meant for the group of kids arriving for an event soon. I can say for sure that you do not need to be reminded of this, as this is more of me reminding myself: if you see something and get even the slightest feeling of uncertainty, please ask!
Kunsthalle Mainz
- 📍Am Zollhafen 3-5, 55118 Mainz
- 🕘 10AM – 6PM Tuesday, Thursday, & Friday
- 🕘 10AM – 9PM Wednesday
- 🕘 11AM – 6PM Saturday & Sunday
- 🕘 11AM – 6PM Holidays (check website for further details)
- ☎️ +4906131126936
- ✉️ mail@kunsthalle-mainz.de
- 🌐 Website, Facebook, Instagram
Discovering (A Little Bit Of) Nature’s Storied Past at the Naturhistorisches Museum Mainz 🏛️
After enjoying our time (and embarrassing ourselves) at the Kunsthalle Mainz, we (yet again) walked to the Naturhistorisches Museum Mainz (“Natural History Museum Mainz” in Engelsk), the largest in the state.
Unfortunately, as mentioned before, many places get closed on Sundays. In this instance, the other exhibits besides those on the main floor were unavailable during our visit. I would say we were done looking around pretty quickly, like about 15 to 20 minutes or so (part of the reason being that everything was only in German, so I couldn’t really understand the texts). Nevertheless, the few things that we did get to see were interesting, and hopefully when we come back someday, we’ll see the other exhibits.
Naturhistorisches Museum Mainz
- 📍Reichklarastraße 1, 55116 Mainz
- 🕘 10AM to 5PM Tuesday to Thursday
- 🕘 10AM to 6PM Saturday & Sunday
- ☎️ +4906131122646
- ✉️ naturhistorisches.museum@stadt.mainz.de
- 🌐 Website, Facebook, Instagram
Pho at Hà Nội Phố 🍽
We were getting hungry, and we had to make sure we were close to the train station to ensure that we wouldn’t miss our train (you want to always make sure you’re at least 10-15 minutes early), so we looked for a place nearby to eat, and we fortunately came across Hà Nội Phố. We got to rest our weary legs and have some delicious food while we were at it, and after accepting the fact that we just can’t instantly teleport back home, we forced ourselves to get up and head to the station and said our goodbyes.
Hà Nội Phố
- 💵 Accepts cash only
- 📍Neubrunnenstraße 3, 55116 Mainz
- 🕘 11AM to 10PM Monday to Friday
- 🕘 12PM to 10PM Sunday
- ☎️ +49061312400505
- 🌐 Website
Final Thoughts
Although we didn’t even check off 30% of our travel bucket list, we still had a great time at Mainz, and I’m sure you will too! There is so much to do, and if you properly plan your itinerary and make use of the transportation options, you will be able to cover most (or even all) of them within a weekend and even have enough time to check out Wiesbaden or Frankfurt that is less than an hour away and also offers a lot of things to do and sights to see like Mainz.
Mission results: Barely passed, and plan better!
LLAMASODA 
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