Rügen - island on the Baltic coast

My husband wants to visit Ruegen with the family. Anyone out there have any info/advice to share about their experience/knowledge re: Ruegen? Looked on Travel Advisor, and they don't even have it listed. Thanks in advance. A

Rügen - travel for kids

I haven't actually been to Rügen, but I found this site's information extremely useful when I took my son to Paris and Amsterdam.

This is great, alala. If anyone has a hotel recommendation, I am all ears...

Apparently everything in Rügen is upscale. Pick a hotel, any hotel. The entired place is very much geared to tourists.

I've been to Binz several times and loved it. A beautiful place! There're lots of good hotels/B&B... I can recommend a very nice affordable 2-room apartment with a kitchen, balcony/terrace, parking space, close to the beach... Perfect for a family for a week or so. Would you be interested in something like that or are you specifically looking for a hotel?

Hi,
Rügen is, by the way, Germany´s biggest island. It´s in the Baltic Sea. We were there a couple of years ago. We stayed in Göhren, but were also in Binz, etc., We cycled around a bit. The peninsular "Mönchgut" (south of Göhren) was very nice. There´s a small brewery in a place called Alt Reddevitz, which is worth visiting. At one point there´s a small ferry across a narrow stretch of water, maybe 10 metres wide, It´s called Baaber Bollwerk and is between Sellin and Göhren. It´s very picturesque there. We also went across to Hiddensee (small island to the north of Rügen), the weather was terrible! Göhren is cheaper than Binz and has a certain seaside charm. The steam train "Rasender Roland" starts there. Putbus is also worth a visit, a boat trip to the Königstuhl Cliffs is also worthwhile. Unfortunately, we didn´t make it to Cap Arkona. Rügen is quite hilly, especially where we were.

Hope that helps a bit.

w

My advice: avoid the speed cameras

Nice island but probably a bit busy in season. Binz was my favourite place too and is probably the most popular of summer resorts. Plenty of nice beaches round the island, including one 8 km stretch on a sand spit with no settlements in the north west (forgotten the name). Loads of day trip destinations, it shouldn't be hard to sort them out once you get there.

I believe that there is also a (direct) night train from Munich to Binz although I don't know how frequently it runs and don't have time to check now.

Edit: Arkona would be one of those day trips I'd say are worth it. A small lighthouse museum, a cliff walk, a small fishing village contrived to look as though it's untouched by the 20th century. And plenty of touristy gimmicks.

Fischland/Darß/Zingst Fischland/Darß/Zingst is a very nice area, my Dad spends about half the year in Prerow.
He has a little house near this Apartmenthouse. It's all recently been renovated, really beautiful.

Stralsund, the town on the mainland near the bridge(s) to Rügen is a nice old Hanseatic port. Definitely worth a look.

yes, it is. Nice Churches. What about Usedom, further to the east. Also quite nice, the resorts (Ahlbeck, Heringsdorf, Bansin) are a bit similar to those on Rügen. Behind them the countryside becomes flat. Some areas are almost deserted - no jobs, people move away

Swinemünde, on the polish part of Usedom isn´t particularly interesting, but, so I´ve heard, the coast further east is quite unspoilt.

w

One local brewery to look out for is Lübzer, probably one of the best pils out there and absolutely stunning accompanying one of Rügen's finest sunsets.
The best thing in the area is the light, it is really milky, beautiful.
Cap Arkona is lovely but the tourist office there is tacky - the weather station info is worth a look. Some great walking around there too. Stralsund also worth a visit for the architecture alone.

Lübzer comes from the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte (good for cycling, but hilly) , near the Müritz lake. Stralsund also has a brewery, there´s also Rostocker Brewery. I believe it´s the Stralsunder Brewery that produces Stortebeker, named after the pirate who was active in the area. There´s also an open air theatre production of his story in Ralswiek on Rügen.

I was in that area a couple of years ago - with our club we camped
on the airfield of Lärz-Rechlin. Miles from anywhere!!!

A 2.5km-long runway with grass growing up between the plates
but that still didnt stop two Tornados landing (I filmed one) for
some show the weekend we departed. Lots of abandoned
Russian shelters to house the MIGs that used to be there.
There are photos of the MIGS crossing the main road at
tree-top height when landing (maybe there were even traffic lights).

The lakes & network of rivers/canals look interesting.

It is.

If anyone knows where to get the deposit back on their bottles around here, let me know.

Hi Jeeves,

you wouldn´t happen to a collector of anything beer related, like beermats for instance, would you?

w

Finally, after hearing so much, seeing beautiful landscape pictures via internet and bilderbücher, I visited Rügen for the first time last summer. Perhaps I built too much up in my mind, as I did not find it that charming. The bike riding was nice, old steam rail, some of the nature preserves, etc. However, it seemed overpriced, touristy and rather run-down accomodations for top rates. Then again the summer of 2007 wasnt the most condusive to "beach weather". I did like exploring the old Nazi ruins at Seebad Prora

I much prefer to camp on Usodom!

Me and my bicycle visited Rügen3 years ago. I stayed in Bergen auf Rügen and wish I had opted for Binz or Göhren. I rode extensively around the south part of the island which was amazing... I had good weather! There is a castle on Rügen and the beaches and nature reserves are extremely nice. I also visited the Nazi housing - and most of the bike trail to the south is the old road for the tanks and totally away from anything resembling civilization - very relaxing. I went to the north of the island where they have the chalk cliffs and was overly *un* impressed. They don't seem so geared for tourism up there, imo.

I didn't think it was any more overpriced than any other German seaside accommodation. When I was there I looked into apartments and there seems to be quite a range of prices which aren't necessarily comparable to the quality of the accommodation. Meaning, if you pay more, you aren't necessarily getting more. Unless someone specifically recommends something, it's luck of the draw. Regardless, I recommend it, it was a very nice getaway!

There were loads of families there so I suspect the little monsters won't be bored.