Neighborhoods in Heidelberg

[anichka 2]

It's official as of Friday - I will be moving within the next month and starting my job there 1 May. I am pretty sure I will be working at Campbell Barracks.

 

From what I've been able to piece together from Wikipedia and the map of districts, I have been leaning towards Weststadt or Sudstadt. I am all about minimizing my commute, and I would like to be able to get to work within 20 minutes walking or by bike (I will have a car, but if I can manage without using it on a daily basis, I will be happier), yet I also want to be able to stumble home easily on a weekend from a night out. I'm ready to get out of this tiny little village!

 

A friend who lives there gave me the following advice:

 

 

As for the neighborhoods, Definately stay away from Boxberg and Emmertsgrund. As I said, I prefer Altstadt. Most of the single people I know live here becuase you can walk to everything and there is a lot of activity. Neuenheim, Bergheim, Weststadt, Sudstadt are all close in as well and nice places to live too. Just keep in mind the above neighborhoods are all somewhat cramped w/o much parking or open spaces.

 

Then there is Ziegalhausen and Schlierbach. The are up river a bit and pretty nice. I had a corporate flat in Schlierbach for 3 months and it was nice. Rents are a little cheaper here too.

 

Rohrbach is nice and they have a lot of new apartments there now. It is near Campbell Barracks. Some folks I know working at Campbell like to live up the hill in Gaiberg or Bammental. They are quiet hill towns and you might have better luck there with Lazlo. [my dog]

I've only been to HD once, about a month ago, for one night. It doesn't seem like if I go with the neighborhoods I am leaning towards it would be hard to get anywhere - to work or for a night out - but if anyone has any more advice, I would love to hear it. Thanks!

 

Oh, and if it matters - I am trying to find a place for less than 1000 a month. I could probably go higher, but I can be cheap about rent. After living in the UK, I am not concerned about having an especially large place, but a patch of grass nearby would make my life easier with the dog.

[rhody 3,170]

Welcome to the Heidelberg area then! I'd have to agree with your friend on Emmertsgrund. It is considered by some to have been a mistake to build. Basically it is mostly high rise, low income apartments with a few row houses scattered about. Boxberg is a little better with a bit more of these flat roofed houses overlooking the valley but also does not come up high on the list of places to live. It's a shame because it is right next to the forest too.

 

If you are working at Campbell, I would avoid Zeigelhausen/Schlierbach. Although nice, the commute by car is horrendous in the morning because of the slow moving traffic along the river. Even by bus it is not very nice. Schlierbach at least is on the side with the S-bahn but then you are either hearing the trains all the time or have to trek up and down the steep hill to get to the station. Plus the S-bahn to main station and then change to bus (or tram and walk a bit) to get to Campbell is more than 20 minutes. Gaiberg and Bammental are very sleepy places with the same slow moving winding roads through the hills. It tends to be cloudier up there more often and usually a few degrees cooler but on the other hand they are right in the middle of the Oldenwald forest.

 

Weststadt, Sudstadt, Rohrbach are all very nice (I've lived in all three) but finding affordable housing is difficult and finding something you really like almost impossible although sometimes with LQA you might fare better as some landlords look to capitalize on a higher rent. I would recommend looking for something on Von-der-Tann Strasse, Goerrestrasse or Panorama Strasse. From here you can walk to Campbell. These would probably suite you well as they abut right up against the trail heads into the forest (steep but not bad) and are a short walk to the tram stop into Heidelberg. Altstadt can be nice too but the apartments tend to be much older and the noise levels much higher. Neuenheim and Handschuheim on the other side of the river are very nice as well but availability is extremely tight. Plus I'd say the Altstadt is not very dog friendly.

 

I chose to move out to the Schwetzingen area because IMO the value for money is better. Near to fields and forest and an easy 12 minute commute to Campbell on the B535 and then the B3. A grand total of 3 traffic lights and I sometimes went home for lunch! Very dog friendly, close to Patrick Henry Village (commissary etc). Easy trip into Heidelberg by car, not so bad by bus/tram (24 min). Might not be right for you if you want to be in the middle of the action in Heidelberg but I find I like it better and can go into Heidelberg easily whenever I feel the need for more crowds. Taxi ride is 20 euros after a Saturday night piss up.

 

Hope this helps!

[anichka 2]

 

Welcome to the Heidelberg area then! I'd have to agree with your friend on Emmertsgrund. It is considered by some to have been a mistake to build. Basically it is mostly high rise, low income apartments with a few row houses scattered about. Boxberg is a little better with a bit more of these flat roofed houses overlooking the valley but also does not come up high on the list of places to live. It's a shame because it is right next to the forest too.

 

Weststadt, Sudstadt, Rohrbach are all very nice (I've lived in all three) but finding affordable housing is difficult and finding something you really like almost impossible although sometimes with LQA you might fare better as some landlords look to capitalize on a higher rent. I would recommend looking for something on Von-der-Tann Strasse, Goerrestrasse or Panorama Strasse. From here you can walk to Campbell. These would probably suite you well as they abut right up against the trail heads into the forest (steep but not bad) and are a short walk to the tram stop into Heidelberg. Altstadt can be nice too but the apartments tend to be much older and the noise levels much higher. Neuenheim and Handschuheim on the other side of the river are very nice as well but availability is extremely tight. Plus I'd say the Altstadt is not very dog friendly.

 

I chose to move out to the Schwetzingen area because IMO the value for money is better.

 

Hope this helps!

It helps a lot, thank you! I was wondering what was so bad about Emmetsgrund and Boxberg. I didn't see a whole lot of Heidelberg (I was there for a Vampire Ball for Fasching, just overnight), but I didn't see anything that looked scary.

 

I do know I don't want to live in Aldstadt... I just can't deal with that much activity. I lived on the High street here in a small town when I first moved to Britain and I don't think I ever got a good night's sleep.

 

Sounds like you've moved around a lot. I am really hoping I can find something I will like for three years because I don't want to deal with the agent fees more than once. Did you find most of your places through classified ads?

 

When I first moved to the UK, I lived in a small town (pop 20K) in a tiny terraced house. Even though I wouldn't move there again, I do miss being around people and at least having the option to go out. There's really nothing happening here where I live (village of 150 people, 7 minutes to work), not even a pub. Is Schwetzingen lively at all? I don't need a lot, but at least a local pub is nice.

 

I won't have LQA (I am a contractor).

[carter101 146]

We live in Kirchheim, just west of Rohrbach. It's close to Campbell barracks, although Rohrbach is closer. It has a good tram service into town and regular buses into the station. It's probably about 10 mins on the bike to Campbell barracks, depending on which side you live. Nice district, sort of villagey feel to it.

[anichka 2]

Cool, I will have to check out Kirchheim then. I hadn't heard anything about it, and looking on the map, I figured it was kinda spread out suburb-like. I really don't know what to expect with the "districts" there.

[kato 3,560]

A few notes on the mentioned districts:

 

Kirchheim is sorta split between very tight old-village streets towards the east of the district and a very suburb-like spread towards the south and west. Good infrastructure throughout. Northern part has a rather... low social level? *cough*

 

Südstadt is completely suburb-like, except for a single high-rise in the north and some apartment blocks around that area. Note that Südstadt doesn't have any real infrastructure (banks, grocers, supermarkets) within the district, gotta go to Rohrbach or Weststadt for that every time (although that's all within 2 km of course). Over one-third of the district (everything around Römerstraße) consists of Mark-Twain-Village and Campbell Barracks, both fenced off with no access without MILID nowadays.

 

Rohrbach essentially consists of four quarters nowadays: a) the old village center towards the east, within the tiny valley of the Rohrbach creek, and facing the hill. a suburban extension from the village center to the south. c) apartment blocks mostly, with some single houses between Rohrbach village center towards Kirchheim. d) High-rise apartment blocks south of that, not a nice area. Good infrastructure in the old village center area, plus there's a mall in a large commercial area south of Rohrbach.

 

As a side note, both the northeastern part of Rohrbach and southern part of Südstadt will see heavy road construction between May '09 and June '10 (second half of Rohrbacherstr. reconstruction). As in loud work under floodlights at night every few weeks, and even louder work throughout the day.

 

Weststadt's older parts used to be the "alternative quarter" back in the 80s, and still has a rather... peculiar sort of people living in it in some corners. The kind that, whenever you drive by them any faster than 20 kph, looks like they're either gonna do a sit-in or get out the pitchforks. Very much sought after by students nowadays (partly because it has old, large apartments for WGs), and the priciest of the mentioned districts. Northern and eastern edges (Bahnhofstraße, Rohrbacherstraße) tend to be rather loud, southwestern and northwestern edges too (as it's facing the railway and a number of busy streets).

 

Schwetzingen and the surrounding villages (Oftersheim, Plankstadt, Ketsch, Brühl) aren't really all that small, especially when lumping the villages together - about 70k people living within 6-7 km of Schwetzingen's center, Schwetzingen itself has 30k including completely intervowen Oftersheim. Some tight village centers with a couple pubs and restaurants (Schwetzingen has a small old town between castle and train station), a small low-level shopping street in Schwetzingen itself, and surrounding that is suburban spread pretty much. The five communities were planned to be combined into a single suburban community in the 70s btw, something that didn't come about. All five are essentially a suburban sleeper community nowadays for Mannheim to the north and Heidelberg to the east.

 

Gaiberg is one of a number of small villages up on the hill. Absolutely needs a car to get anywhere, like most of the villages towards the southeast of Heidelberg (note: while Gaiberg is only 5 km from Campbell Bks, it's also a 400m altitude difference).

[rhody 3,170]

Don't worry about moving around a lot - it's not that normal here. I had a temp flat in Weststadt, then a 1.5 year lease on Panorama (also not normal but it was too good to turn down) and then a permanent in Rohrbach on Von-der-Tann. Most leases are perpetual here and I hate estate agents enough that I managed all my places directly with the landlords. You need to speak German though to pull that off or maybe the housing office can help find one for you. You can see local adverts on www.rnz.de

 

Schwetzingen isn't as lively as Heidelberg or Mannheim but on the weekends in the warm months the cafes and brewery at the Schlossplatz are actually better than in Heidelberg in that you get a seat and there are more of them. Seems to be a problem in Heidelberg with outside seating or something (kato probably knows why). There is no real pub culture in Schwetzingen with expats though. If you like beer, Zum Ritter is great in Schwetzingen. I go into Heidelberg to one of the Irish pubs for the expat pub experience myself. There are three: Brass Monkey, Dubliner and O'Reilly's.

[kato 3,560]

 

Seems to be a problem in Heidelberg with outside seating or something (kato probably knows why).

The city doesn't like outside seating in the Old Town much because it tends to be rather loud on the nearby residents and it's a nuisance when navigating through streets for pedestrians (hence almost no outside seating in Hauptstraße for example). All the squares and plazas have plenty of outside seating though, with some exceptions where the city has been curbing it down the last couple months. It's actually a rather heavily contested subject as of late, e.g. when the city completely outlawed outside seating on Kornmarkt square next to the city hall recently.

[anichka 2]

Thanks for all the advice, guys. I think Sudstadt may be off the list for now.

 

I've been looking at the classifieds on the RNZ site (along with immopool.de and www.immobilienscout24.de). I don't speak German, but I am able to figure out the advertisements. A friend who moved down three months ago basically went through newspaper ads and found a few that she liked, then went to the housing office to arrange viewings. She didn't end up paying the agent fees and got a cheap (but tiny) place for about 500 or 550.

[wren 4]

We live in Rohrbach (kato's a. category) and they have been doing construction on the main strip (basically from Weststadt-Sudstadt haeltestelle to Rohrbach Markt) for over a year now. If you don't live on the main street, it shouldn't really affect you apart from during your commute (but if you work at the barracks you won't really be able to avoid that). It does seem like lots of people in Rohrbach have dogs, or are at least walking their dogs up in the forests that back onto Rohrbach.

 

I agree with others that Rohrbach, Kirchheim or Weststadt might be good areas of HD to focus on. There's also Eppelheim, which I've heard is nice but it is further away from the base than the three areas that people have been directing you towards. I don't think anyone has mentioned Bergheim yet. This is basically the area around the Hauptbahnhof. It's like a scummier Weststadt and doesn't have any green spaces that I'm aware of. Good luck.

[anichka 2]

Excellent, thanks again for the advice - this is all really helpful. I'll hope to be able to meet up with a few of you and reimburse the advice with a pint or two before too long.

[kato 3,560]

 

If you don't live on the main street, it shouldn't really affect you apart from during your commute

Apart from every single piece of sidewalk in the area being used for parking, parked side streets becoming impossible to navigate with anything bigger than a compact, 3-km traffic jams every morning out from Römerstraße through Rohrbach south to the B3 (ok, instead of the regular 2 km...).

 

The construction the last 1.5 years was between Weststadt/Südstadt S-Bahn station and Rheinstraße tram stop and from May they'll continue from there to just northeast of Rohrbach Markt, which is (again) being redone during the current half-year "break". Tram lines will be "adapted" again starting in May, they're already doing preparation work for that now.

 

 

I don't think anyone has mentioned Bergheim yet. This is basically the area around the Hauptbahnhof. It's like a scummier Weststadt and doesn't have any green spaces that I'm aware of.

Bergheim has some green spaces in the West (Ochsenkopf area) and along the Neckar (around the Psychiatric Clinic and Thermalbad).

[Spartak 0]

cant believe Dossenheim hasnt been mentioned.

 

i live there and its a beautiful town. a bit further out but grand for heidelberg and as long as you dont need to get out to the barracks every morning.

 

its just past handschusheim, check it out if you can.

[leky 173]

 

I agree with others that Rohrbach, Kirchheim or Weststadt might be good areas of HD to focus on. There's also Eppelheim, which I've heard is nice but it is further away from the base than the three areas that people have been directing you towards. I don't think anyone has mentioned Bergheim yet. This is basically the area around the Hauptbahnhof. It's like a scummier Weststadt and doesn't have any green spaces that I'm aware of. Good luck.

Eppelheim is ok & you get more for your money here, but the OP said she wanted to walk or bike to work in 20 mins or so & it would take a bit longer than that from Eppelheim, you can get the strassenbah ok but it takes a while in the mornings, there are plenty of places to walk the dog though. There is also a moonliner Friday & Saturday nights & taxi is about 14eu, cheaper with city car or whatever it's called.

 

Best bet for walking to work is Rohrbach as others have said, if you can you should get a temp place for a month while you check it out for yourself, have a look here .heidelberg-marketing.de they have a list of Ferienwohnungens available.

 

Good luck

[alistew821 0]

very good information here, can you tell me more about the Neuenheim area?

[wren 4]

 

cant believe Dossenheim hasnt been mentioned.

Dossenheim is probably a little far away for the OP. She wants a quick commute.

[anichka 2]

 

Best bet for walking to work is Rohrbach as others have said, if you can you should get a temp place for a month while you check it out for yourself, have a look here .heidelberg-marketing.de they have a list of Ferienwohnungens available.

The company is reimbursing me for relocation, including temporary housing, and they recommended a few places. I think I am going to stay at Keller Residence (if it's available) since they allow dogs. Thanks for the site though - if Keller doesn't work out, I'll need to look into other options.

[Ameiva 0]

 

very good information here, can you tell me more about the Neuenheim area?

Neuenheim and Handschulsheim are very nice, but tend to be expensive due to being next to the river, university, DKFZ and town. We were initially in Handschulsheim (subsidized by my work) , which was very convenient and pleasant. If you hate commuting and can afford it is very nice. One thing to consider though is you aren't particularly close to any large supermarkets if you haven't got a car (unless you are at the Dossenheim end of Handschulsheim).

[Mona78 0]

Hi,

 

I hope you already found a place to stay. We were looking for a place in Heidelberg half a year ago and had one day here to look at places. You have gotten a lot of advice already, I just want to add, that Emmertsgrund has quite a bad reputation, but is otherwise a great place to live.

 

I have met incredibly many people who all can tell you how bad it is up here, but have never been pysiclly present!

 

We live in one of the higher buildings and have a view over the whole valley, we didn't have to turn on the heater much, since we have a south front with no wall - all window and a lot of sunlight. To get to the vineries we walk seven minutes, same distance for the forrest. Grocery shopping can be done up her (5 minute walk), as well as GP, pediatrician, dentist...

 

By bus we reach the mainstation in 25 minutes, Bismarckplatz in 20 to 30, depending on the connection.

 

Beyond the highrise buldings there is a lovely area with houses and smaller apartment houses.

 

Yes, the average wage might be lower up here, but so are rents. We have 100 squaremeters for 670 (including all cost). People are nice up here and open and there is a lot of life on the streets now. And yes, there are a lot of foreigners... but we are too.

 

Just wanted to praise my neighborhood a bit!

 

Hope you are settling in well and come up to Emmertsgrund at least for a nice hike!

 

Mona

[rhody 3,170]

Just curious - if you are a foreigner, why do you say you are German in your profile? Or do you mean you are not a Kurpfalzer and therefore not native? Sometimes Hochdeutsch is a foreign language here too. ;)