Discover Saxony-Anhalt: Nature, Culture and Cycling Routes
Accommodation in Saxony-Anhalt
Protected floodplains, extensive hiking trails, cycling routes and Bauhaus history give Saxony-Anhalt many different sides. Families can choose between nature experiences, cultural discoveries and days by the water. When looking for a holiday apartment, it is therefore worth deciding first what you want to focus on: should your trip be mainly to the Harz, the Elbe, the Bauhaus sites or the Saale-Unstrut wine region?
Das Ilsetal bei Ilsenburg zeigt die waldreiche, felsige Landschaft des Harzes.
Photo: Dietmar Rabich via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Discover nature: the Harz, floodplains and karst landscape
The Harz National Park covers more than 240 square kilometres of protected natural landscape. Rare species for which it provides a refuge include the black stork, wildcat, lynx and Eurasian pygmy owl. More than 560 kilometres of hiking trails are available in the national park, and guided tours with rangers are also offered. This gives you several ways to shape your stay around hikes or a guided tour.
The UNESCO Middle Elbe Biosphere Reserve offers a different kind of landscape. It protects one of Central Europe’s last near-natural floodplain landscapes and stretches for 300 kilometres along the Elbe. Floodplain trails, cycling tours and canoe trips are ways to explore the landscape. In the South Harz Karst Landscape Biosphere Reserve, gypsum karst defines the surroundings; this is one of Europe’s most significant gypsum karst landscapes. The Karst Hiking Trail runs for more than 230 kilometres through this karst landscape.
The Drömling also offers a distinctive natural setting: ditches, wet meadows and wooded islands criss-cross this water-rich cultural landscape. Cranes, storks, white-tailed eagles and more than 400 threatened species use the area as a stopover and breeding ground. Observation towers, nature farms and guided tours make the Drömling accessible year-round. If observing nature is your main interest, it offers a distinct reason to travel, alongside the hiking trails in the Harz or the South Harz karst landscape.
Cycling routes and landscapes as a focus for your trip
Saxony-Anhalt offers several cycling routes with different itineraries for a cycling holiday. The Elbe Cycle Route follows the Elbe for just under 350 kilometres through Saxony-Anhalt, from Havelberg in the north to Lutherstadt Wittenberg in the south. The Saxony-Anhalt section of the Saale Cycle Route runs for around 180 kilometres between Saaleck and Barby. The Sky Disc Cycle Route connects Halle (Saale) and the Nebra Ark over 71 kilometres. The distances and routes can help you choose a ride based on the places that interest you.
If you prefer hiking, the Saale-Unstrut-Triasland Geo-Nature Park has trails through open dry forests, over sunny slopes and past orchards. The nature park brings together vineyards, limestone cliffs and historic cultural landscapes. Saale-Unstrut is Germany’s northernmost wine-growing region. This combination makes the region a different choice from a holiday focused on hiking trails in the Harz or cycling routes along the rivers.
Bauhaus, the Sky Disc and other discoveries
In Dessau, Bauhaus is the focus of a cultural holiday: Bauhaus Dessau is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Bauhaus building, the Masters’ Houses and the Törten housing estate invite visitors to take guided tours, join workshops and discuss design and society. At the Bauhaus Museum Dessau, the collection “Bauhaus Workshop. The Collection” tells the story of the Bauhaus school in Dessau through more than 1,000 exhibits.
Another destination for culture enthusiasts is the Nebra Ark Visitor Centre, at the discovery site of the Nebra Sky Disc. The planetarium shows “A Journey into the Universe of the Bronze Age,” a show produced especially for the visitor centre, twice an hour. Saxony-Anhalt has six UNESCO World Heritage Sites in total. If you want to make culture the focus of your trip, you can explore Bauhaus history and the Nebra Ark as two distinct themes.
For a holiday by the water, Lake Goitzsche offers opportunities for swimming, sailing and cycling. The family-friendly, well-signposted Heide-Biber Tour leads to beaver dams, birdsong and quiet forest paths. Another hiking option is the certified “Wandernester”: circular routes through varied landscapes featuring species-rich forests, moors, open fields and green floodplains. This lets you choose activities that interest your travel group rather than assuming there is just one kind of holiday.
Choose a holiday apartment to suit your interests
The destinations and landscapes are spread across different parts of Saxony-Anhalt, so a stay across the state cannot be reduced to just one excursion focus. When choosing your holiday apartment, consider which experiences you want to prioritise: hiking trails and ranger tours in the Harz, cycling routes, floodplain landscapes, Bauhaus culture or activities at Lake Goitzsche. For your journey, it is also useful to know that Saxony-Anhalt is connected to Deutsche Bahn’s ICE network, with Halle (Saale) and Magdeburg serving as railway hubs.
More than 290 facilities in Saxony-Anhalt have been assessed under the nationwide “Travel for All” certification system. If this certification system is important to your travel planning, you can use it as a guide when choosing individual facilities. For regional orientation, you can also find: Altmarkkreis Salzwedel, Börde, Harz, Mansfeld-Südharz, Saalekreis, Salzlandkreis, Anhalt-Bitterfeld, Burgenlandkreis, Jerichower Land, Stendal, Wittenberg, Halle, Dessau-Roßlau and Magdeburg.
For an overview of travel across Germany: Germany.
