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TRAVEL

REVEALED: Germany’s favourite spots for a short staycation

From canoeing in the Spreewald to hiking high up in Saxon Switzerland to just napping at a Baltic Sea beach, a new survey reveals Germans' top picks for a holiday outdoors in their own country. Here are the top picks to inspire you on your next German getaway.

Published: 9 May 2023 16:48 CEST
A hiker at the Schrammstein lookout in the 'Saxon Switzerland' region in the spa town of Bad Schandau.
A hiker at the Schrammstein lookout in the 'Saxon Switzerland' region in the spa town of Bad Schandau. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-Zentralbild | Robert Michael.

Whether kicking back in a Strandkorb at the beach, wandering through one of 16 national parks, or taking in mountainous fresh air, Germans have no shortage of holiday destinations in their own country.

News portal t-online asked its German readers what their favourite destinations were for a staycation in the great outdoors.

More than half of the survey participants (57.8 percent) voted for one of Germany’s two seashores, the North Sea or the Baltic Sea (Ostsee).

READ ALSO: North Sea or Baltic Sea? How to decide between Germany’s two coasts

The Baltic Sea snagged more top votes (38 percent) than its counterpart in the west – even though the North Sea (19.8 percent) is home to the tourist magnet Sylt, a wind-swept island belonging to Germany’s northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein.

In third place, with 12.9 percent, is the Allgäu, a Bavarian region at the foot of the Alps also known for its rolling green hills and castles. The Bodensee, a 63-kilometre lake that’s also a part of bordering Austria and Switzerland, made it to fourth place with 7.4 percent.

READ ALSO: Weekend Wanderlust: Reaching new heights in the Allgäu

Allgäu

The Allgäu town of Stötten pictured in April. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Karl-Josef Hildenbrand

The last place in the top five went to the tree-laden Bavarian Forest mountain range, with 4.7 percent of the vote. It is followed by the Black Forest (4.1 percent) in southwest Germany, the Mecklenburg Lake District (3.8 percent) and the hiker’s paradise of Saxon Switzerland (2.4 percent), known for its sweeping views and large stone formations.

While Germany’s majestic low mountain ranges didn’t call out to travelers and much as the coasts, they are still popular destinations. The Eifel, which intertwines with the wine producing region of Rhineland-Palatinate, came ahead of the Harz with 2.2 percent of the votes. 

With two percent of votes, the Harz in Saxony-Anhalt are known as the highest mountain range in northern Germany.

Other popular places for a getaway in nature were the scenic Sauerland mountains (1.5 percent) straddling the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse and the Spreewald region in Brandenburg (1.2 percent), known for its rivers conducive to canoeing and pickles which are famous throughout Germany.

READ ALSO: Travel: Six reasons why the Spreewald near Berlin is worth visiting

In addition to beach holidaymakers, almost every third survey taker was drawn to destinations well above sea level: the mountain regions of Allgäu, Bavarian Forest, Black Forest, Saxon Switzerland, Eifel, Harz and Sauerland together accounted for around 30 percent of the votes.

Vocabulary

staycation – im eigenen Land Urlaub machen/Heimurlaub 

Low mountain range – (das) Mittelgebirge

holidaymaker – (der) Urlauber/(die) Urlauberin

tourism magnet – (das) Tourismusmagnet

canopied beach chair – (der) Strandkorb

We’re aiming to help our readers improve their German by translating vocabulary from some of our news stories. Did you find this article useful? Let us know.

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TRAVEL NEWS

Germany begins expanded border checks to limit migrant arrivals

Germany from Monday is expanding border controls to the frontiers with all nine of its neighbours to stop irregular migrants in a move that has sparked protests from other EU members.

Published: 16 September 2024 09:07 CEST
Germany begins expanded border checks to limit migrant arrivals

The government announced the sweeping measure following a string of deadly extremist attacks that have stoked public fears and boosted support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser on Sunday said that the step aimed to limit irregular migration and “put a stop to criminals and identify and stop Islamists at an early stage”.

The border controls will be in place for an initial six months and are expected to include temporary structures at land crossings and spot checks by federal police.

Poland and Austria have voiced concern and the European Commission has warned that members of the 27-nation bloc must only impose such steps in exceptional circumstances.

Germany lies at the heart of Europe and borders nine countries that are part of the visa-free Schengen zone, designed to allow the free movement of people and goods.

Border controls with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland were already in place before the crackdown was announced.

These will now be expanded to Germany’s borders with France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark.

Faeser said the government hoped to minimise the impact on people living and working in border regions, promising “coordination with our neighbouring countries”. She also pointed out that there should be “targeted controls, not blanket controls”.

The interior ministry however noted that travellers should carry identification when crossing the border.

READ ALSO: How Germany’s increased border checks will affect travel from neighbouring countries

‘Islamist attacks’

In recent weeks, a string of extremist attacks have shocked Germany, fuelling rising public anger.

Last month, a man on a knife rampage killed three people and wounded eight more at a festival in the western city of Solingen.

The Syrian suspect, who has alleged links to the Islamic State group, had been intended for deportation but managed to evade authorities.

The enforcement failure set off a bitter debate which marked the run-up to two regional polls in the formerly communist east, where the anti-immigration AfD scored unprecedented results.

With national elections looming next year, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government has been under intense political pressure to toughen its stance on migrants and asylum seekers.

READ ALSO: Debt, migration and the far-right – the big challenges facing Germany this autumn 

Scholz was in Uzbekistan on Sunday to sign a migration deal for workers to come to Germany, while simplifying deportation procedures in the opposite direction so that “those that must go back do go back”, the chancellor said.

Closer to home, the German government has presented plans to speed up deportations to European partners.

Under EU rules, asylum requests are meant to be handled by the country of arrival. The system has placed a huge strain on countries on the European periphery, where leaders have demanded more burden-sharing.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that Germany tightening its borders means that it would “essentially pass the buck to countries located on the outer borders of Europe”.

Austria’s Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said his country “will not accept people who are rejected from Germany”, while Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk condemned Germany’s move as “unacceptable”.

‘Welcome to the club’

Warsaw has also struggled with migration and accused Moscow of smuggling people from Africa and the Middle East into Europe by sending them through Belarus to the Polish border.

Berlin on Friday said that Tusk and Scholz had discussed the issue and agreed to strengthen EU external borders, “especially in view of the cynical instrumentalisation of migrants by Belarus”.

Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, meanwhile, mocked the German chancellor on social media site X, writing: “Bundeskanzler Scholz, welcome to the club! #StopMigration.”

Germany took in more than a million asylum seekers in 2015-16, many of them Syrians, and has hosted over a million Ukrainians since the start of the Russian invasion in 2022.

The extra burden on municipal authorities and integration services in Germany needed to be “taken into account” when talking about new border controls, Berlin’s interior ministry said.

In the Netherlands, Prime Minister Dick Schoof on Friday unveiled the country’s strictest migration policy yet, saying it will request an opt-out from EU common policy on asylum next week.

A four-party coalition dominated by far-right firebrand Geert Wilders’s Freedom Party wants to declare an “asylum crisis” to curb the influx of migrants through a tough set of rules including border controls.

By Raphaelle LOGEROT with Celine LE PRIOUX in Berlin

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