Discover Heinsberg
Accommodation in Heinsberg
Woodland and heathland, moors and lakes give the district of Heinsberg a distinctive natural character. Alongside these are art in a historic architectural ensemble, insights into former hard-coal mining and a cycling route that connects digital works with an artist’s home region. When planning your holiday, it is therefore worth first considering the experiences you want to shape your stay: nature trails, art and history each offer a different focus.
File:Heinsberg Hl. Gangolf Altarraum.jpg
Photo: Käthe u. Bernd Limburg, www.limburg-bernd.de via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE
Heathland, moors and circular trails
An impressive natural area is the 450-hectare Teverener Heide in the Heinsberger Land. It extends across the municipality of Gangelt and the towns of Geilenkirchen and Übach-Palenberg. Open heathland alternates here with boggy moors, quiet lakes, inland dunes and woodland. This variety of landscapes makes the area a destination for anyone who wants to experience more than just one natural setting on an outing.
Four circular hiking trails lead through the Teverener Heide: the Moor Circular Trail is 5.8 km long, the Heath Circular Trail 6 km, the Lakes Circular Trail 7.1 km and the Great Circular Trail 9.4 km. The designated car parks at Scherpenseel, Grotenrath and Hohenbusch are listed as starting points. The different route lengths provide a practical guide for planning your day: you can take the distance you want to cover into account without inferring walking time or difficulty from the number of kilometres. The Schwalm-Nette Nature Park in the district of Heinsberg also has certified premium hiking and walking trails.
Hiking and cycling with different focuses
The Meinweg area is a landscape of woodland, heathland and moors that connects the district of Heinsberg and the district of Viersen in North Rhine-Westphalia with the Dutch province of Limburg. In the national park region, circular hiking trails range from 5 to 13 km and have varying levels of difficulty. The themes include nature and cultural history as well as culinary aspects; examples are mill walks, the Smugglers’ Route and town walks. So if you would like to plan your outings around a particular theme, you will find not only nature-focused trails here but also tours with other points of interest.
For a longer bike ride, there is Tim Berresheim’s Picture Journey: the route is around 90 km long and follows established cycle paths through the Heinsberger Land. At 14 stops, the artist’s home region is connected with his digital works. The approximate total distance and number of stops give you a useful guide for planning this cycling route as a dedicated focus of your outing.
Wildlife watching is another option. Around Tüschenbroicher Mühle in the Wegberg district of Wegberg, visitors can spot kestrels, common buzzards, kingfishers, nightingales and golden orioles, among other birds. The variety of bird species listed gives visitors interested in wildlife an idea of what to look out for in this area.
Art and industrial history
At the BEGAS HAUS in the town of Heinsberg, visitors can discover four generations of the Begas dynasty of artists. The collection is presented in a historic architectural ensemble dating from the 16th to the 18th century. This offers a chance to explore the family of artists alongside the history of the buildings in which the collection is displayed.
Shaft 3 in Hückelhoven offers a different historical perspective. There, visitors can go underground to discover how hard coal was mined at the former “Sophia-Jacoba” colliery until 1997. Anyone particularly interested in the region’s history can add this insight into former mining work to their art and nature experiences.
Discover more places in the district
The experiences you most want to enjoy can also influence your choice of location for a holiday apartment. When searching, first consider whether you would rather base your stay around nature trails, a cycling tour, or art and industrial history. Other places on this page include Heinsberg, Holzweiler, Selfkant, Wassenberg, Tüddern, Erkelenz, Bocket and Waldfeucht.
For the broader travel overview: North Rhine-Westphalia.
