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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

Reader question: How do the EU’s new EES passport checks affect the 90-day rule?

As European travellers prepare for the introduction of enhanced passport checks known as the Entry & Exit System (EES), many readers have asked us what this means for the '90-day rule' for non-EU citizens.

Published: 1 May 2024 07:18 CEST
Reader question: How do the EU's new EES passport checks affect the 90-day rule?

From the start date to the situation for dual nationals and non-EU residents living in the EU, it’s fair to say that readers of The Local have a lot of questions about the EU’s new biometric passport check system known as EES.

You can find our full Q&A on how the new system will work HERE, or leave us your questions HERE.

And one of the most commonly-asked questions was what the new system changes with regards to the 90-day rule – the rule that allows citizens of certain non-EU countries (including the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) to spend up to 90 days in every 180 in the EU without needing a visa.

And the short answer is – nothing. The key thing to remember about EES is that it doesn’t actually change any rules on immigration, visas etc.

Therefore the 90-day rule continues as it is – but what EES does change is the enforcement of the rule.

90 days 

The 90-day rule applies to citizens of a select group of non-EU countries;

Albania, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, El Salvador, Georgia, Grenada, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, Kiribati, Kosovo, Macau, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, New Zealand, Nicaragua, North Macedonia, Palau, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Serbia, Seychelles, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Taiwan, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Vatican City and Venezuela.

Citizens of these countries can spend up to 90 days in every 180 within the EU or Schengen zone without needing a visa or residency permit.

People who are citizens of neither the EU/Schengen zone nor the above listed countries need a visa even for short trips into the EU – eg an Indian or Chinese tourist coming for a two-week holiday would require a visa. 

In total, beneficiaries of the 90-day rule can spend up to six months in the EU, but not all in one go. They must limit their visits so that in any 180-day (six month) period they have spent less than 90 days (three months) in the Bloc.

READ ALSO How does the 90-day rule work?

The 90 days are calculated according to a rolling calendar so that at any point in the year you must be able to count backwards to the last 180 days, and show that you have spent less than 90 of them in the EU/Schengen zone.

You can find full details on how to count your days HERE.

If you wish to spend more than 90 days at a time you will have to leave the EU and apply for a visa for a longer stay. Applications must be done from your home country, or via the consulate of your home country if you are living abroad.

Under EES 90-day rule beneficiaries will still be able to travel visa free (although ETIAS will introduce extra changes, more on that below).

EES does not change either the rule or how the days are calculated, but what it does change is the enforcement.

Enforcement

One of the stated aims of the new system is to tighten up enforcement of ‘over-stayers’ – that is people who have either overstayed the time allowed on their visa or over-stayed their visa-free 90 day period.

At present border officials keep track of your time within the Bloc via manually stamping passports with the date of each entry and exit to the Bloc. These stamps can then be examined and the days counted up to ensure that you have not over-stayed.

The system works up to a point – stamps are frequently not checked, sometimes border guards incorrectly stamp a passport or forget to stamp it as you leave the EU, and the stamps themselves are not always easy to read.

What EES does is computerise this, so that each time your passport is scanned as you enter or leave the EU/Schengen zone, the number of days you have spent in the Bloc is automatically tallied – and over-stayers will be flagged.

For people who stick to the limits the system should – if it works correctly – actually be better, as it will replace the sometimes haphazard manual stamping system.

But it will make it virtually impossible to over-stay your 90-day limit without being detected.

The penalties for overstaying remain as they are now – a fine, a warning or a ban on re-entering the EU for a specified period. The penalties are at the discretion of each EU member state and will vary depending on your personal circumstances (eg how long you over-stayed for and whether you were working or claiming benefits during that time).

ETIAS 

It’s worth mentioning ETIAS at this point, even though it is a completely separate system to EES, because it will have a bigger impact on travel for many people.

ETIAS is a different EU rule change, due to be introduced some time after EES has gone live (probably in 2025, but the timetable for ETIAS is still somewhat unclear).

It will have a big impact on beneficiaries of the 90-day rule, effectively ending the days of paperwork-free travel for them.

Under ETIAS, beneficiaries of the 90-rule will need to apply online for a visa waiver before they travel. Technically this is a visa waiver rather than a visa, but it still spells the end of an era when 90-day beneficiaries can travel without doing any kind of immigration paperwork.

If you have travelled to the US in recent years you will find the ETIAS system very similar to the ESTA visa waiver – you apply online in advance, fill in a form and answer some questions and are sent your visa waiver within a couple of days.

ETIAS will cost €7 (with an exemption for under 18s and over 70s) and will last for three years.

Find full details HERE. 

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