Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is Germany's Baltic Sea state: about 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) of coastline with lagoons and inlets, the islands of Rügen, Usedom, Hiddensee and Poel, and inland more than 2,000 lakes, led by the Müritz. Between the chalk cliffs and the seaside piers are the Hanseatic towns of Wismar and Stralsund, a joint UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2002, and the state capital Schwerin, whose palace ensemble joined the World Heritage list in 2024.
This page has our top 10 from the Bay of Mecklenburg to Usedom, a one-day plan for Rügen, a weekend through the Hanseatic towns, tips on getting around by train and island railway, and every sight in the state from the tripto.de catalog. Hours and prices are on each place's page, so confirm them with the operator before you go. Exterior work on Granitz Hunting Lodge is expected to continue until mid-December 2026.
Our picks for a first visit — each with a short reason why.
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…
1. Chalk cliffs up to 118 meters (387 feet) high and a step-free skywalk at the Königsstuhl. Cars stop at the Hagen parking lot; continue by shuttle bus or on foot through the beech forest.
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…
2. Rügen's biggest resort, with about 5 kilometers (3 miles) of fine sand, a 1908 spa hall and Ulrich Müther's futuristic lifeguard tower. IC and ICE trains run all the way to Ostseebad Binz.
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.…
3. The ornate Gothic facade of City Hall, three giant brick churches and the 104-meter tower of St. Mary's with views to Rügen. A World Heritage Site since 2002 and free to explore.
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…
4. A harborside aquarium museum with a 2.6-million-liter tank, life-size whale models and Humboldt penguins on the roof. Book a time slot online for school vacations and rainy days.
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…
5. A fairy-tale castle on an island in Lake Schwerin that also houses the state parliament; World Heritage since 2024. Free under 18, closed Mondays.
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…
6. One of northern Germany's largest market squares with the 1602 Wasserkunst fountain house, plus fish sandwiches straight off the boats in the Old Harbor. An elevator in St. George's takes you up for the view.
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…
7. A beach up to 150 meters (490 feet) wide, a lighthouse, the Teepott building and cruise ships passing right by the west pier. The S-Bahn takes about 20 minutes from Rostock's main station.
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…
8. Landmark of Usedom's imperial spa towns: 508 meters long, partly covered, with a pyramid-roofed pavilion at the end. Free to walk, and best at sunrise.
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…
9. Germany's largest inland national park, with 107 lakes, more than 400 bogs and white-tailed eagles and ospreys. April through October, park buses run from Waren and carry bikes.
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…
10. In the power plant of the former rocket test site, the museum covers the V-1 and V-2, forced labor and the road to space flight. Rooftop deck at 30 meters; closed Mondays in winter.
Park early at the large Hagen lot and take shuttle bus 19, or walk about 3 kilometers (2 miles) to the national park center. Bus 23 runs from Sassnitz. Allow two to three hours for the exhibition and skywalk.
Stroll the promenade to the spa hall and out onto the pier, where boats to the chalk cliffs also leave in season.
Places: Binz
Ride the little Jagdschlossexpress or the Rasender Roland steam train into the forest and climb the 154 cast-iron steps to the lookout. Exterior work is expected to continue until mid-December 2026.
Places: Granitz Hunting Lodge
Take the Rasender Roland on to Sellin. At blue hour, the lit-up pier house is the most photogenic spot on the island.
Places: Sellin Pier
Throne room, ancestral portrait gallery and lakeside gardens; plan two to three hours. Open Tuesday through Sunday.
Places: Schwerin Castle
The regional train gets you to Wismar in about half an hour: market square, Wasserkunst, the church quarter and the Old Harbor.
Places: Wismar Old Town
Continue to Rostock and take the S-Bahn to the sea. Walk out to the west pier and grab a fish sandwich on the Alter Strom canal.
Places: Warnemünde
From the Alter Markt with City Hall and St. Nicholas through the Neuer Markt down to the harbor.
Places: Stralsund Old Town
From the Atlantic tank to the rooftop penguins; with kids, plan for more than two hours.
Places: Ozeaneum Stralsund
Cross the Rügen Bridge to the island's northern tip. Putgarten is closed to cars; from the parking lot it's about 2 kilometers on foot, by bike or on the Kap-Arkona-Bahn tram to the lighthouses, the Slavic hill fort and the fishing village of Vitt.
Places: Cape Arkona
By air: Rostock-Laage Airport is about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from Binz. From Berlin's BER airport, a few Intercity trains run directly to Rostock.
By train: Stralsund is about three hours from both Berlin and Hamburg, and Rostock is just under an hour from Stralsund. IC and ICE trains go all the way to Ostseebad Binz. For Usedom, change in Züssow to the Usedomer Bäderbahn for Heringsdorf or Peenemünde; on Rügen, the Rasender Roland narrow-gauge steam train links Putbus, Binz, Sellin and Göhren. The S-Bahn gets you from Rostock's main station to Warnemünde in about 20 minutes. The Deutschland-Ticket (€63 a month) covers all regional trains, but not ICE or IC.
By car: The A20 runs along the coast. The toll-free Rügen Bridge near Stralsund leads to Rügen, and bridges at Wolgast and Zecherin lead to Usedom. At the Königsstuhl and in Putgarten near Cape Arkona, the road ends at parking lots. In summer, parking in the resorts fills up fast, so the train is often the easier choice.
June through August is peak season on the Baltic: beaches are lifeguarded and the resorts are busy. Highlights are the Warnemünde Week regatta in July and Hanse Sail in August, each drawing about a million visitors, so book early and arrive by train. May, September and a golden October are quieter and often just as lovely.
In fall, cranes stop over around the Müritz, and the beech trees above the Jasmund chalk cliffs turn gold. Many seasonal services end in late October: the Federow national park information center and the park buses run April through October, the Cape Arkona lighthouse is open only April through October, and the Peenemünde museum is closed Mondays from November through March. In winter, the Königsstuhl national park center (except Christmas Eve) and the Ozeaneum open daily, and Stralsund holds a Christmas market on the Alter Markt.
Rügen has the Jasmund chalk cliffs, Cape Arkona and the resorts of Binz and Sellin, so more nature and more variety. Usedom offers the imperial spa towns, long piers, a promenade that continues to Świnoujście in Poland and the Peenemünde museum. Both are reachable by train.
No. Park at the large Hagen lot and take shuttle bus 19, or walk about 3 kilometers through the forest. Bus 23 runs from Sassnitz to the Königsstuhl, and the cliff-top trail from Sassnitz is about 8 kilometers (5 miles).
Long-distance trains serve Rostock, Stralsund and Ostseebad Binz. Warnemünde is on the S-Bahn, and Usedom is served by the Usedomer Bäderbahn from Züssow. The Deutschland-Ticket is valid on regional trains.
The Ozeaneum and the Maritime Museum in Stralsund, Schwerin Castle, the Peenemünde Historical Technical Museum and the exhibition at the Königsstuhl national park center. In Sellin, a diving gondola takes you below the water's surface.
Shallow beaches in Binz and Warnemünde, the Königsstuhl skywalk, the Ozeaneum penguins, the Rasender Roland steam train and the tower climb at Granitz Hunting Lodge. Kids and teens under 18 get in free at Schwerin Castle and Granitz.
One full day covers the highlights of Rügen. A weekend is enough for Schwerin, Wismar, Warnemünde and Stralsund. Add at least one more day each for Usedom or the Müritz lakes.
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…
Nature
Bad Doberan
Tall, bare trunks leaning away from the sea, topped by a canopy the wind seems to have trimmed with shears: the Gespensterwald ("ghost forest") in the Baltic resort of Nienhagen, between Rostock-Warnemünde and Heiligendamm, is one of the m…
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…
Landmarks
Greifswald
A tall pointed arch without a roof, old trees all around, the sky over the lagoon behind: many people know this view from the museum. The painter Caspar David Friedrich, born in Greifswald in 1774, painted the Eldena Abbey ruins again and…
Landmarks
Insel Hiddensee
The Dornbusch Lighthouse is the landmark of Hiddensee, a car-free Baltic Sea island just west of Rügen in northeastern Germany. White with a red lantern, it crowns the hilly north of the island above the village of Kloster. Climb its 102 s…
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…
Coast & islands
Kühlungsborn
Kühlungsborn is really two places. Until 1937 the resorts of Brunshaupten and Arendsee stood side by side and competed so fiercely that much was built twice, including two concert gardens and two piers. Only in 1938 were they merged into t…
Historic sites & memorials
Binz
Prora on the island of Rügen is the huge, never-completed Nazi seaside resort near Binz, and today one of the most visited sites of contemporary history on the Baltic coast. The complex originally stretched for around 4.5 km along the Balt…
Industrial heritage
Binz
The name is a joke: the Rasender Roland, "Racing Roland", takes over an hour for the 24-odd kilometres between Putbus and Göhren. That is exactly the point. Since 1895 the steam trains of this narrow-gauge railway have rolled through woods…
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…