- Beach holidays in the resorts of Germany
- TOP 3 best beach resorts
- Treatment in Germany
- TOP 3 best winter resorts
Germany has been a tourist destination in the European arena for more than one century. Aristocrats came to "the waters" of its thermal spas back in the Renaissance, and in the 19th century Baden-Baden and Wiesbaden gained worldwide fame. Still, the best spas in Germany are not only health centers in the vicinity of thermal springs. During the height of summer in Germany, you can soak up the beaches of the North and Baltic Seas, and at Christmas, you can have a great time on the Alpine ski slopes of Bavaria.
Beach holidays in the resorts of Germany
German seaside resorts were very popular in the 19th century, when noble families from Europe preferred cool summers on the beaches of the Baltic and North Sea to other southern exoticism. The beaches of Germany are still loved by fans of moderate summer pleasures: the water temperature in the seas does not rise above + 23 ° C, and there is no strong heat on the coast, as in the tropics or in the Mediterranean:
- Bismarck himself liked to rest on the island of Rügen, and Albert Einstein preferred this resort to all others for many years. On the island, the coastline of which stretches for more than half a thousand kilometers, several beach resorts are organized, each of which is an example of German accuracy and cleanliness. The most popular among the Germans themselves is Binz, built on the site of a former fishing village and receiving tourists for the first time before the First World War. The hotel fund on the island is quite diverse, and guests will find villas, hotels and houses stylized as fishermen's dwellings right next to the sea. Holidays on the island of Rügen are suitable for those who are looking for solitude, merging with nature and silence, which is so lacking for a modern inhabitant of the metropolis.
- Another popular resort in Germany on the Baltic coast is the island of Usedom. Its infrastructure is also ideal for a relaxing holiday on the beach, but Usedom, unlike Rügen, is more popular with active tourists. In the resorts of Usedom, you can play sports: play golf, play tennis, surf the waves, or rent a bike to explore the surrounding area. Fishing is another popular pastime for visitors to the island. On Usedom, numerous companies are waiting for you, organizing sea cruises, during which you can fish and enjoy the dishes prepared from it on board the yacht.
- Excellent reviews are left by guests of the resort of Hörnum, located on the island of Sylt in the North Sea off the coast of Germany. The sandy beach stretching along the village is famous for its white dunes and the legend of witches who regularly dance their dances on the tops of these dunes. Wealthy citizens prefer rest at the resort. The hotel here has a five-star status, which is maintained by the adjacent golf club and a marina for expensive yachts. The resort has a restaurant serving the famous Sylt oysters and a spa offering a wellness and rejuvenation program.
- It is most pleasant to relax with children on the Fischland-Dars-Zingst peninsula, where the resort of Prerow is located. It is famous for its gentle entrance to the Baltic Sea and a wide sandy beach - one of the most beautiful in Germany. For more than a century, families with children have come to the resort of Prerov, and its resort traditions are well known to tourists who prefer to spend their holidays in not too hot latitudes. The resort has several hotels of different price categories, restaurants and cafes prepare children's meals, and playgrounds for toddlers and rental of equipment for water sports are organized on the beach.
A significant plus of a beach holiday in Germany is the numerous wellness programs offered by local spas and medical centers. The Germans and guests of the country often combine beach vacations with cosmetic procedures, the variety of which has long conquered the constant fans of German resorts.
TOP 3 best beach resorts
Germany can hardly be called a beach power, but it also has its own rating of the best places for summer vacations. Adepts of dim beauty choose their favorite resorts on the coast of the North and Baltic Seas in Germany:
- Not far from Hamburg is the city of Timmendorfer Strand, which the inhabitants of the metropolis themselves already consider as their resort suburb. The Baltic coast in these places is unusually beautiful, and the seven kilometers of Timmendorfer beaches are ideal for a variety of holidays - family, active and romantic. On the shores of the resort there are areas for bathing the smallest tourists, and for the rest of those who prefer not to shackle themselves on vacation with unnecessary clothes. Part of the beach of one of the best resorts in Germany is completely devoted to athletes and those who cannot imagine a vacation without fitness classes. Volleyball courts, tennis courts, and fitness centers have been built here. A part of the beach in this area is at the complete disposal of young vacationers, and the Timmendorf Beach Kids' Play Club is never empty. For curious tourists, the resort has several museums, one of which tells about the history and culture of the Vikings. A day with the whole family will be delightful at the Badeparadies Weissenhauser Strand water park or at the Ostseetherme Scharbeutz water center. Naturalists and children love walks in the Bird Park and performances of marine life in the show, which is regularly organized for guests at the Sea World entertainment center.
- Sankt Peter-Ording on the North Sea is a very unusual resort. The shore on which it is located is very flat and flat, and therefore the tidal zone reaches several tens of meters. Due to such a feature of the terrain, a port was never built in the town and was not even really engaged in fishing, which means that the ecological situation in Sankt Peter-Ording remained ideal. The village became a resort at the end of the 19th century, when several hotels were built on the shores of the North Sea. The real boom in hotel construction took place in the middle of the last century. Then a hydrogen sulfide thermal spring was discovered in the vicinity of the resort. Since then, people have come to St. Peter-Ording not only to sunbathe, but also to receive medical treatment. The resort's beach is 12 km long and its trademark is wooden decks leading to the sea and stilt houses at the end of each path. At high tide, they find themselves standing in the water. The resort has a rather shallow sea, which warms up quickly, and therefore it is quite popular with parents with children.
- Germany's favorite beach resort for gourmets is the island of Sylt, famous for its gigantic oysters. Farms for breeding them use a special microclimate here, which does not allow sea water to warm up above + 20 ° C. For bathers, this temperature is a little extreme, but for oysters it is so ideal that shells grow at a double rate off the coast of Sylt. There are several different resorts on the island, the rest of which is radically different. For example, celebrities gather in Kampen. The hotels here are the most fashionable, and the service is of an unusually high level. As, however, and the prices for all services offered. Cheaper and quieter - in Wennigsted, where they prefer to stay for a family vacation. Young people hang out in Westerland and everyone who thinks his best years are still ahead. The resort is full of nightclubs, restaurants, gambling establishments and discos. In short, by choosing Sylt for your holiday, you can be sure that you will find the right resort or hotel for any of your moods.
German resorts are unlikely to suit a person who understands the hot sun, warm sea and exotic in the form of bracelets made of shells and kebabs from sea reptiles under the concept of "beach vacation", offered by vendors-hawkers right on the shore. Holidays at the best beach resorts in Germany are rather a special cult that is familiar only to a select few. On German beaches, those who understand a lot about pleasures gather and appreciate soft landscapes, perfect service, quality food and a special atmosphere created a couple of centuries ago by the best representatives of the European aristocracy.
Treatment in Germany
It was customary to come to Germany "for water" several centuries ago, and today its thermal and balneological resorts are well known to Europeans, who look after their health and prefer to spend time not only pleasantly, but also useful.
The healing waters of the springs of Baden-Baden were known as early as the 3rd century, when the Romans built their baths here. In the century before last, the European aristocracy poured here, and the resort even bore the title of the summer capital of the Old World. The thermal baths in Baden-Baden offer treatments in the Roman-Irish baths, which modern balneology considers to be the ideal place for healing with thermal waters. Treatment at the resort is especially indicated for patients with diseases of the joints, heart and blood vessels, endocrine system and respiratory tract. Two dozen springs supply water to medical institutions in Baden-Baden, and programs based on its healing properties become a saving panacea for many ailments and pathologies. At the resort, it is pleasant to combine treatment with educational relaxation. The city and its surroundings are literally filled with sights, the list of which includes the Faberge Museum, the Roman Baths, the Lichtenthal Alley with dozens of mansions of the richest families in the world and the oldest casino in Europe, where Dostoevsky once lost his life.
The monarchs preferred to be treated in Bad Kissingen. German and Austrian kings and the Russian Emperor Alexander II wandered along the paths of the local park in different years. The springs of Bad Kissingen were discovered almost twelve centuries ago, and since then the resort has been famous for a variety of programs that help improve the condition of patients with gastrointestinal tract diseases, urinary system and dermatological problems. There are five springs in the resort, and each water has its own special composition. Thanks to this, guests with a variety of diseases come to Bad Kissingen, especially since the doctors' arsenal also includes mud therapy, wraps with healing sapropel, massages, inhalations and sessions in a salt tunnel - a unique place where it becomes easier for asthmatics to breathe. Vacationers at the resort also enjoy the cultural program, which invariably includes excursions to city museums, a promenade through the historical center with architectural sights of past centuries, and horse or bicycle rides in the surrounding area.
The historic bath of the resort of Wiesbaden recently turned a hundred years old, but the old woman not only does not lose her shape, but also acquires new fans every year. The town is known for a huge number of mineral springs, each of which gives out healing water to the surface, saturated with dozens of microelements and nutrients. In the medical institutions of the resort, diseases of the joints and bones, gastrointestinal pathologies and ailments of the peripheral nervous system are cured. Wellness programs allow you to get rid of obesity, cellulite and simply excess weight. If you like to combine treatment with educational activities, Wiesbaden is perfect for you: travel agencies of one of the best medical resorts in Germany offer guests excursions and walks to local attractions, among which are architectural monuments of the 17th-20th centuries.
The restorative and therapeutic programs developed at the German spas are based on natural healing factors combined with modern scientific achievements. Clinics and spas in Germany have in their arsenal a huge variety of treatments, each of which is highly proven effective.
TOP 3 best winter resorts
Alpine skiing and other winter sports are another type of recreation in the resorts of Germany. Most of the trails are located on the Alpine slopes of Bavaria, where Christmas holidays can be spent less expensively than in neighboring Austria, Switzerland or France:
- Garmisch-Partenkirchen is always at the top of the list of the best resorts in Germany. It was proclaimed the capital of German winter recreation back in the 30s of the last century, and since then Garmisch-Partenkirchen has been invariably popular with fans of pleasant and high-quality skiing. The slopes of the resort lie on the slopes and in the vicinity of the Zugspitze mountain - the highest peak in the country. In total, Garmisch-Partenkirchen has more than 60 km of slopes of various difficulty levels - from "green" to quite extreme. The high season, due to the proximity of the glacier, lasts more than six months at the resort, and ten lifts bring athletes to the starting points. The highest point where skiing starts is at the 3 km mark. For beginners, on the slopes of the Zugspitze, not only easy slopes are laid, but also schools with professional teachers work. If alpine skiing isn't your thing, Garmisch-Partenkirchen has over a hundred kilometers of cross-country skiing trails and just as many for winter hiking.
- Berchtesgaden will appeal to both beginners and those who are already quite confident in alpine skiing. The highest point, from where you can descend in the resort, lies at around 1800 meters, and its length is about three kilometers. Snowboarders often come to Berchtesgaden, because the resort's snow park is well known to fans of this winter sport. In addition, in the vicinity of the town there are many mountain lakes, on which natural ice rinks are arranged in winter, and sledges can also be rolled down from the low slopes of the mountains surrounding Berchtesgaden.
- The longest ski run in Germany is located in Oberstdorf. Its length is more than seven kilometers, and the athletes who chose the track descend from a height of 2000 meters. The resort has a suitable slope for both insecure "penguins" and pros. After skiing, guests of Oberstdorf enjoy relaxing in the spa centers with thermal pools and tasting German cuisine accompanied by the famous Bavarian beer. Snowboarders Oberstdorf are also highly respected: its fan park is considered one of the best in the Bavarian Alps.
The season on the slopes of the German part of the Alps lasts from the first days of December to mid-March, but you can ski next to the glaciers even in April. The resorts are equipped with modern lifts, the hotel fund is quite diverse, and the rest of the tourist infrastructure allows you to spend your winter holidays rich, interesting and very comfortable.
