Scenic walking areas in Germany

Coming from Yorkshire I really enjoy walking/hiking and am wondering if anybody has any tips for decent walking areas in Germany (preferably within striking distance of Frankfurt). Okay, so I've got the Hochtaunus right on my doorstep but to be honest, all it seems to be is woodland. Trees, bloody trees everywhere. What I really like is moorland walking, with sweeping green plains and fantastic views.

'Moorland' seems to translate into German as 'Heideland', which made me think of the Lüneburger Heide. Has anybody any knowledge of this area? Maybe Bayern would be more likely to offer the kind of landscape I'm looking for...?

Any suggestions would be most welcome.

Hi Reggie ,

I lived in Oberursel for 13 years , I know what you mean ...

OK , I know it's a bit far away but i just spent a 4 day winter weekend in Berchtesgaden near the Austrian border ... beautiful scenery , really cheap prices compared to Frankfurt and Salzburg is only a bus ride away .

worth seeing ...

Sounds good. And I could take my skis with me just in case there's more white than green.

Thanks for the tip, Charlton.

Hi Reg,

My favourite walking tip would be the Allgäu. We went down to Oberstaufen last year and did some fantastic walking. The views however are a bit different to those back in the Yorkshire Dales !

Hi Caroline. I'd heard that the Allgäu is very scenic. It seems that the best areas for hill-walking are in the south. At Xmas I went for a walk over the top of Ilkley Moor with my mum and we stopped off for lunch just before we dropped down towards Ilkley and the view from the top looking over the Wharfe valley towards Simon's Seat was just superb.

Let me know the next time you and yer fella are in the Frankfurt area and we can meet up for that Xmas drink.

Thinking about Ilkley moor makes me feel all home sick ! Anyway, we are back in Yorkshire again at the end of March so maybe we will also get that chance to have a walk over there (not to mention a few drinks in the Cow & Calf !).

We have been fairly useless at sorting out this Xmas drink, haven`t we ? I don`t think we will make it up to Frankfurt this weekend but I will have a word with Frank & drop you a text message re. getting something sorted out!

10-4 good buddy!

Try this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheinsteig
It is woodland most of the time but it is on the (steep) banks of the rhine and you will certainly get your views. Plus you have about 1 castle per mile on some stretches.

If you want to be out in the open, try going north. Ostfriesland for example (5 hours driving from Frankfurt). The islands are beautiful and there are very few trees up there. You can even walk to most of the islands at low tide if you don't mind getting dirty. Except for dunes it is completely flat, though.

Lueneburger Heide seems to be good too. Haven't been there myself though.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%BCneburger_Heide

If it wasn't settled more than 90% of Germany would be forest. So it's hard to find spots without forest that are not settled or cultivated. You have to look for the exceptions ...

I lived in Wiesbaden and Bad Homburg for six years and my absolute favorite walk was in the Rhine river valley. We would go near Rudesheim and hike above the grape fields. I forget what the name of the big stature way above the Rhein is called but that was our starting point. You can hike for hours up there looking down over the Rhine River valley. Will post more on this later as I have in my car a great book entitled Wander (walking) Atlas Germany that has the most scenic walks all over germany. On the weekend we'd pick a hike from the book and they were all incredible. Here's another reference.

http://www.germany-tourism.de/ENG/nature_a...hiking_6846.htm

The Spessart-Main-Odenwald is right outside of Frankfurt and this is a great area to hike in. You can buy the Wanderkarte which is basically a map of all the hiking trails in this region. I get my wanderkartes at main train stations or large book stores.

http://www.wanderbares-deutschland.de/