Kühlungsborn Baltic Seaside Resort

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 the town of Ostseebad Kühlungsborn. Today it is the largest seaside resort in Mecklenburg, with about six kilometres of sandy beach and a promenade of more than 3 km, one of the longest in Germany. A strip of forest between beach and town shelters it from wind and blowing sand.

History: from farming villages to seaside resort

Brunshaupten was first recorded in 1219. Tourism began in 1857, when a tenant farmer built a guesthouse and advertised for bathers; when a storm flood swamped the fields and stables in 1872, the cattle were briefly moved into the comfortable guesthouse. From 1904 the road linking the two villages, today's Ostseeallee, was opened for building, and villas in the typical seaside style went up. The Molli railway arrived in 1910, and by 1913 there were 28,000 visitors to 2,600 residents. The invented name combines "Kühlung", the wooded ridge to the south, with "Born", an old word for spring. In GDR times the town lay on the closely guarded sea border. A new 240-metre pier was built in Kühlungsborn-Ost in 1991, and ships have called there again since 1999.

What to see

• Promenade: From Baltic-Platz in the west to the marina in the east, fully paved since 2007.
• Pier: The social hub of Kühlungsborn-Ost.
• Ostseeallee: Villas from around 1900, the Kunsthalle art gallery and the concert garden.
• Baltic border tower: One of only two surviving of 27 GDR watchtowers on the Baltic coast, near the pier; you can climb it.
• Marina: Opened in 2004, with berths for more than 400 boats.
• Town forest: About 1,500 hectares of woodland ring the town.

The Molli railway

This narrow-gauge steam railway has run since 1886 on a rare 900 mm gauge. It operates 365 days a year between Kühlungsborn, the white resort of Heiligendamm and Bad Doberan, where it steams right down the main shopping street.

Getting there

Kühlungsborn lies about 25 km west of Rostock. By train, travel to Bad Doberan and change to the Molli. DLRG lifeguards watch the beach in high season.

Tripto tip

Walk west towards Baltic-Platz for a quieter beach, and on a clear day head to the Buk lighthouse in nearby Bastorf for views along the coast. Allow a day for the town and a second if you want to ride the Molli to Bad Doberan.