The Off‑Program

Baroque geometry at full scale — 50 hectares of clipped hedge, fountains that actually run, and the Grotto that Niki de Saint Phalle lined with mirrors and glass. The single best hour you can spend outdoors here.

An aquarium tucked in beside the gardens: tropical tanks, sharks, sea turtles and a tunnel you walk through. The obvious answer to a wet afternoon, and it pairs neatly with Herrenhausen next door.

The city's front garden — a lake in the middle of town with a flat path all the way round. The loop is about six kilometers: an hour at a walk, twenty minutes on a bike. Rowing boats, a passenger ferry, ice cream, and beer on the north shore.

Twice the size of Central Park, and it begins a short walk east of the venue. Centuries-old trees, streams, sunbathing lawns, fitness trails and the Waldstation forest-education center. Walk in on any path and you stop hearing the city within minutes.

One of the most-copied zoos in Europe: animals in built worlds — Yukon Bay, Zambezi, Gorilla Mountain — rather than enclosures. It is bigger than it looks from the map, so give it a proper afternoon.

An easy walk from the venue, and the easiest thing on this list to organize on a whim. Bouldering means climbing at jumping height — no ropes, no partner needed. Routes run from complete-beginner to genuinely hard.

A standing wave built into the river in the middle of the old town, right beside the state parliament. River surfers take it in turns while the rest of the city watches from the bridge. Easily the strangest ten minutes you can add to a walk into town — and free.

Eighteen holes of blacklit mini-golf played in 3D glasses, where the walls appear to move. Gloriously silly, entirely weatherproof, and about the most reliable icebreaker there is for a group who have only just met.

A warehouse full of trampolines in the Nordstadt, right by Beta: jumping zones, dodgeball courts, a ninja-warrior course and airbags for the ambitious. Exhausting in the best way, and completely indifferent to the weather.

Germany's largest video-game museum: a thousand square meters, fifty years of hardware, and more than a hundred consoles and arcade cabinets all switched on and free to play once you are inside.

A corner pub three minutes from the Welfenschloss, decorated by accident over about thirty years and beloved by students for it. Pizza, burgers, baked potatoes, cheap beer, no hurry. There is no website, which tells you most of what you need to know.

The archetypal German student pub, essentially unchanged since the 1970s: dark wooden tables, left-alternative posters, regional beer poured properly and hearty food at fair prices. Two minutes further than Extrakt and a different century.

The Nordstadt's cocktail institution: an enormous list, student prices, low light and a room that is always slightly too full. Four minutes from the venue and open long after the posters come down.

Sand, deck chairs and a bar where the Ihme meets the Leine. Shoes off, drink in hand, sun going down over the water — the closest Hannover gets to a holiday, seventeen minutes from your last session.

The classic: gravel underfoot, tall trees overhead, long benches you share with strangers, and cold beer with something fried. Big enough to absorb a conference-sized group without a reservation.

Dark wood, long tables, schnitzel that overhangs the plate, pork knuckle for the brave and Bavarian beer by the liter. If a visiting colleague asks for "proper German food", this is where you take them.

Sports bar and karaoke room in one, in the middle of town. Burgers, nachos, screens, and a regular karaoke night that has ended more than one academic reputation. Go if the group wants noise rather than conversation.