Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
National parks
Sassnitz
Jasmund National Park near Sassnitz on the island of Rügen is Germany's smallest national park and home to its most famous coastal scenery: brilliant white chalk cliffs up to 118 meters high, topped by ancient beech forests that are part o…
Palaces
Schwerin
Schwerin Castle is the fairy-tale palace of northern Germany. Rising from an island in Lake Schwerin, with golden domes, dozens of turrets, and terraced gardens reaching down to the water, it was the residence of the Grand Dukes of Mecklen…
Museums
Stralsund
The Ozeaneum in Stralsund is one of northern Germany's most popular museums: a large aquarium and marine museum on the Baltic coast, with life-size whale models and Humboldt penguins on the roof. Its striking white, sail-like building stan…
Old towns & squares
Rostock
Rostock's old town is the historic core of the largest city in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, a Hanseatic port on the Warnow River just inland from the Baltic Sea. Brick Gothic churches, colorful gabled houses, medieval city gates and a li…
Old towns & squares
Stralsund
The Old Town of Stralsund is one of the top things to do on Germany's Baltic coast: a medieval Hanseatic port set on an island between the sea and three town ponds, crowned by a spectacular brick Gothic town hall and three giant churches.…
Old towns & squares
Wismar
The Old Town of Wismar is one of the best things to do on Germany's Baltic coast: a remarkably intact Hanseatic port with a vast market square, towering red-brick Gothic churches and an old harbor where fishing boats still tie up. Together…
Churches & monasteries
Bad Doberan
Doberan Minster (Doberaner Münster) in Bad Doberan is one of the finest brick Gothic churches in northern Germany and one of the most important surviving monuments of the Cistercians in Mecklenburg. The vast former abbey church, with its s…
Coast & islands
Insel Hiddensee
Hiddensee is a car-free island in the Baltic Sea off the west coast of Rügen and one of the most charming day-trip destinations in northern Germany. About 17 kilometers long, it offers wide sandy beaches, heathland, a hilltop lighthouse an…
Museums
Peenemünde
The Peenemünde Historical Technical Museum on the island of Usedom tells one of the most consequential and troubling stories of the 20th century. Here, at Germany's secret weapons research site, engineers developed the world's first cruise…
Nature parks
Ivenack
The Ivenack Oaks near Stavenhagen in Mecklenburg are among the mightiest oak trees in Europe and stand in Germany's first National Natural Monument. In the Ivenack deer park, an open wood-pasture landscape in the rolling Mecklenburg Switze…
Palaces
Binz
Granitz Hunting Lodge (Jagdschloss Granitz) near Binz on the island of Rügen looks like a fairy-tale castle hidden in a beech forest: four crenellated corner towers, a slender central tower and pale pink walls. Built for the princes of Put…
Coast & islands
Putgarten
Cape Arkona (Kap Arkona) near the village of Putgarten is the dramatic northern tip of Rügen, Germany's largest island, on the Baltic coast of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Chalk and clay cliffs rise up to 43 meters above the sea, crowned…
Museums
Stralsund
The Meeresmuseum (Sea Museum) in Stralsund is the original home of the German Oceanographic Museum foundation and a favorite stop on Germany's Baltic coast. It sits in the heart of Stralsund's UNESCO-listed old town inside a former medieva…
National parks
Kargow
Müritz National Park in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is Germany's largest national park on land and one of the best places in the country to see wild nature without mountains or crowds. Spread out east of Lake Müritz, it is a mosaic of mo…
National parks
Zingst
Western Pomerania Lagoon Area National Park, on Germany's Baltic Sea coast around Zingst, the Darss peninsula, Hiddensee island and western Rügen, is the largest national park in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. It is famous for wind-sculpte…
Coast & islands
Binz
Binz is the largest and best-known seaside resort on Rügen, Germany's biggest island, on the Baltic coast of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. It's famous for a fine, white sand beach about 5 kilometers long, a promenade lined with ornate whi…
Palaces
Klütz
Schloss Bothmer in Klütz is one of the largest Baroque palace complexes in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, set just four kilometers from the Baltic Sea coast. Its red-brick wings, moats and pavilions look more like an English country house…
Palaces
Güstrow
Güstrow Palace (Schloss Güstrow) is one of the most important Renaissance palaces in northern Germany. With its richly decorated facades, towers and courtyards, it sits in the center of Güstrow in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and was a re…
Coast & islands
Heringsdorf
The Heringsdorf Pier on the island of Usedom is one of the longest piers in Germany, stretching 508 meters into the Baltic Sea. It is the landmark of the "Imperial Spas," the elegant 19th-century seaside resorts of Ahlbeck, Heringsdorf and…
Coast & islands
Sellin
Sellin Pier (Seebrücke Sellin) in the seaside resort of Sellin on Rügen is one of the most photographed sights on Germany's Baltic coast. A white, turreted pier house in classic resort architecture sits on stilts above the sea, connected t…
Coast & islands
Rostock
Warnemünde is the seaside resort of the Hanseatic city of Rostock and one of the most popular beach towns on Germany's Baltic coast. It combines one of the widest sandy beaches in the country with a historic lighthouse, a striking 1960s se…