Aalen: Half-timbered houses, the Alb escarpment and mining
Accommodation in Aalen
Aalen combines a lively townscape with vivid accounts of its history of technology and mining, as well as trails through open and wooded landscapes. In the Old Town, traditional half-timbered houses and modern buildings stand alongside winding lanes and welcoming squares. The landscape also ranges from fields and meadows to the wooded Alb escarpment. You can shape your days around different interests: exploring the town’s history, making your own discoveries or spending time outdoors.
Das Limesmuseum Aalen wird als archäologisches Museum mit angeschlossenem Freigelände beschrieben.
Photo: Holger Uwe Schmitt via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The Old Town and interactive discoveries
A walk through Aalen’s Old Town takes you through a varied streetscape: half-timbered houses and modern buildings stand beside winding lanes and welcoming squares. This makes a stroll especially appealing to visitors who want to do more than tick off individual sights and would also like to soak up the character of the place. The Old Town is therefore a destination in its own right during a stay in town, alongside the nature and mining attractions.
At the explorhino Science Center, you’ll find a 1,200-square-metre exhibition with more than 120 interactive experiment stations. You can explore, touch and investigate the stations at your own pace. The emphasis is on trying things out for yourself, rather than simply looking at exhibits. If you’re planning a visit, check the Science Center’s current operating information in advance.
Trails through Aalen’s countryside
The Aalen Panoramic Trail is about 30 kilometres long and follows signposted paths through the countryside. You can hike it in individual sections as a family outing or enjoy a longer walk. Along the way, the landscape shifts from fields and meadows to the wooded Alb escarpment. Its length and the option to choose individual sections offer a different way to spend the day than staying in the Old Town or visiting the Science Center.
Hiking car parks along the Panoramic Trail, as well as the railway stations in Wasseralfingen and Unterkochen, make it easier to get started. Check local access information before your walk. If you don’t want to cover the entire route at once, you can use the individual sections to plan your walk.
Mining as an experience and a subject
At the Tiefer Stollen visitor mine, visitors ride a mine train into the depths of the mountain. During guided visits, a tour through the extensive tunnels and shafts, together with a multimedia show about ore mining and iron processing, brings the development of mining in the region to life. Check the latest operating and tour information before your visit.
The mining trail on the Braunenberg also combines exercise with the history of iron ore mining in the region. Its three themed circuits can be combined. You can explore them as separate themes or combine them, rather than learning about mining only as a backdrop to a visit to the visitor mine.
A dedicated focus on the Limes in the Ostalb district
In the wider destination of the Ostalb district, the Upper German-Raetian Limes runs through the municipality of Rainau: it stretches for about six kilometres through the districts of Buch, Schwabsberg and Dalkingen. The Limes has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2005. The Limes Park Rainau preserves some of the most beautiful sections and most significant individual monuments in a remarkable concentration. A reconstructed watchtower offers panoramic views across the Ostalb; the Limes Gate at Dalkingen is considered a unique structure along the entire stretch of the Limes between the Rhine and the Danube.
The signposted Limes circular hiking trail near Rainau is about 11 kilometres long, with a walking time of approximately 2.5 hours. It runs from the Limes wall and Limes tower between Buch and Schwabsberg through the Mahdholz forest, following the Limes to the southern edge of Schwabsberg. This gives you two distinct hiking options: the approximately 30-kilometre Panoramic Trail in Aalen and the shorter loop near Rainau in the Ostalb district, for which an approximate walking time is provided.
Choose the focus of your trip when searching
When looking for a holiday apartment in Aalen, you can start by thinking about which experiences you’d like to shape your trip. The Old Town and explorhino offer townscapes and hands-on discovery; the Panoramic Trail and mining trail provide other ways to spend time outdoors. If you’re planning to hike the Panoramic Trail, individual sections can also help shape the rhythm of your day.
Discover more destinations
Discover more destinations: Bartholomä, Gschwend, Tannhausen, Stödtlen, Schwäbisch Gmünd, Ruppertshofen, Spraitbach, Täferrot.
To the overview of the wider destination: Ostalb district.
