Jan Neus
Winter in the Sauerland, © Jan Neus

Moments of Happiness

Winter in NRW

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Wirtschaft und Marketing Soest GmbH
Christmas Market Soest, © Wirtschaft und Marketing Soest GmbH

Christmas Markets in NRW

Looking for inspiration for a winter break?

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Tourismus NRW
Station on trail "Waldfeenpfad", Brilon, © Tourismus NRW

Family trips

Off to new adventures!

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Johannes Höhn
Mural, Home Street Home Co-design by Hoker, Oldhaus & Tubuku, © Johannes Höhn

Around the Corner

Listen to the city whispers and take a look around the corner.

Date?
Nina Hüpen-Bestendonk
Sarah Morris wall mosaic Düsseldorf, © Nina Hüpen-Bestendonk

Have a look!

Per­son­al re­ports of travels to the state’s most beau­ti­ful places

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Header Musikland GB

Listen, Baby!

A feast for the eyes and ears, a mat­ter of the heart

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  • Perspektivwechsel, © Tourismus NRW e.V.
  • Bäume, © Tourismus NRW e.V.
  • Urban microadventurers, © Tourismus NRW e.V.
  • Scribble Radtouren, © Tourismus NRW e.V.
  • Unentdeckte Orte, © Tourismus NRW e.V.
  • Maus, © Tourismus NRW e.V.
  • Picknickkorb, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Cul­tur­al High­lights

Cul­tur­al North Rhine-West­phalia brings you to majest­ic parks, gar­dens and great art. Dis­cov­er our world-class mu­seums and our in­dus­tri­al her­it­age.

Deutsches Bergbau-Museum_Helena Grebe
Deutsches Bergbau-Museum, Gemälde im Rundgang Kunst, © Deutsches Bergbau-Museum_Helena Grebe

Top-Ex­hib­i­tions 2022/2023

In North Rhine-West­phali­a's mu­seums lots of dif­fer­ent ex­hib­i­tions open their doors through­out the year.
Details

Tobias Kruse
Rheinauhafen Köln, © Tobias Kruse

Ar­chi­tec­ture

North Rhine-West­pah­lia is a real para­dise for fans of ar­chi­tec­ture and pho­to­graph­ers alike. Well-known ar­chi­tects such as Frank Gehry, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Lud­wig Mies van der Rohe or Balthas­ar Neu­mann have all left their traces here, and en­riched the cit­ies in the fed­er­al state with their some­times ex­tra­vag­ant, some­times min­im­al­ist­ic, some­times lav­ish build­ings. Come and ad­mire the Baroque mas­ter build­ings, clas­sic­al spa ar­chi­tec­ture and fu­tur­ist­ic con­tem­por­ary struc­tures!
Details

Johannes Höhn
Beuys mural on a house wall near the Museum Abteiberg in Mönchengladbach, © Johannes Höhn

Beuys & Bike

Joseph Beuys set the art world in mo­tion. On his 100th birth­day, a new cycle route is fol­low­ing in his foot­steps through the far west of Ger­many.
Details

Tourismus NRW e.V.
Altena castle, aerial view, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Palaces & Castles

Dis­cov­er the im­pos­ing palaces and castles in the Kul­tur­land, which tell ex­cit­ing stor­ies from a wide range of epochs.
Details

Tourismus NRW e.V.
Marta Herford in Herford, exterior view from above, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Mu­seums

Over 1.000 mu­seums in North Rhine-West­phalia await curi­ous vis­it­ors. Dis­cov­er the most pop­u­lar and im­press­ive es­tab­lish­ments with their unique, high-qual­ity ex­hib­i­tions.
Details

André Menne, Peter Wieler
The Augustusburg and Falkenlust palaces in Brühl are two of Germany’s most important examples of Baroque and Rococo architecture., © André Menne, Peter Wieler

UN­ESCO World Her­it­age

There are six UN­ESCO World Her­it­age Sites in North Rhine-West­phalia. The Lower Ger­man­ic Limes has also been al­lowed to bear the title since 2021.
Details

Tourismus NRW e.V.
Header Ruhrgebiet Duisburg Landschaftspark , © Tourismus NRW e.V.

In­dus­tri­al her­it­age of NRW

Back­drops for art, cul­ture and the cre­at­ive sec­tor The in­dus­tri­al her­it­age of North Rhine-West­phalia is huge: no oth­er fed­er­al state has such an abund­ance and vari­ety of in­dus­tri­al monu­ments. Themed routes lead across the coun­try to mines, gas­o­met­ers, cok­ing plants, blast fur­naces, pro­duc­tion fa­cil­it­ies and lifts.
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Out­door-Fun

Green, green­er, North Rhine-West­phalia: More than half of the land is made up of forests, rivers, mead­ows and fields. Come and dis­cov­er our nat­ur­al beauty that will truly sur­prise you!

Tourismus NRW e.V.
Sauerland Hemer Rock Sea, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Nature re­serves

In NRW, an­cient wood­land is mak­ing a comeback, rivers are again shap­ing their own nat­ur­al courses, and rare an­im­als like the European bison and the wild­cat are re­turn­ing to their former hab­it­ats. Vis­it­ors usu­ally do not need to travel too far to find them­selves in the middle of the wil­der­ness. North Rhine-West­phalia’s nature re­serves provide a re­lax­ing, verd­ant con­trast to the non-stop ac­tion of city life. A total of 12 nature parks and the state’s only na­tion­al park provide a vari­ety of land­scapes to en­joy nature at its un­spoilt best.
Details

Tourismus NRW e.V.
Ruhr area Duisburg landscape park panorama sun, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

In­dus­tri­al nature in NRW

New life on old dis­used sites Plants and an­im­als have re­conquered former col­li­ery sites and oth­er dis­used in­dus­tri­al areas in the Ruhr re­gion. Rare spe­cies, col­our­ful flowers and strange growth habits are wait­ing to be dis­covered - from the exot­ic to the long-es­tab­lished.
Details

Biologische Station Zwillbrock e. V.
Die Flamingos am Zwillbrocker Venn teilen sich ihren Lebensraum mit Kolonien von Lachmöwen, © Biologische Station Zwillbrock e. V.

Nature ex­per­i­ence tours

Flower­ing heath land­scapes, dense forests and wild flood­plains Pack your bags and ex­plore the an­im­als and land­scapes of NRW on four nature tours. Dis­cov­er flamin­gos and high­land cattle in the Mün­ster­land re­gion, look for beavers on the Lower Rhine, be amazed at the sight of wis­ents by moon­light in the Teuto­bur­ger Wald forest, or fol­low the tracks of wild­cats in the Eifel re­gion. Ready to go?
Details

Ralph Sondermann, Tourismus NRW e.V.
Rhine Cycle Route NRW , © Ralph Sondermann, Tourismus NRW e.V.

Ex­cur­sions on the Rhine

On foot, by bike, in a cable-car or by don­key-ride – choose your way to dis­cov­er the de­lights of the Rhine.
Details

Tourismus NRW e.V.
View over the Urft reservoir in autumn, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Won­ders of nature

The land­scape of NRW is burst­ing with col­our. Dot­ted among the ex­tens­ive swathes of green, vis­it­ors will spot splashes of vi­brant col­our in places like Zwill­brock­er Venn in Mün­ster­land, the home of Europe’s most north­erly pink flamingo breed­ing colony. A sea of yel­low awaits in the Eifel, mean­while, both in early spring when the wild daf­fodils start to ap­pear and a little later when the broom shrubs be­gin to flower. Mys­ter­i­ous caves in Sauer­land, le­gend-steeped rock form­a­tions in the Teuto­burg Forest, a wild herd of European bison in Sieger­land-Wit­tgen­stein and the dis­cov­ery site of Neander­th­al man provide fur­ther col­our­ful at­trac­tions.
Details

City ad­ven­tures

Im­merse in our urb­an jungle and start your city ad­ven­ture in nar­row, wind­ing streets. We in­vite you to dis­cov­er and linger.

Johannes Höhn
Mural, Home Street Home Co-design by Hoker, Oldhaus & Tubuku, © Johannes Höhn

aroundthe­corner

Six cit­ies in North Rhine-West­phalia, up close and per­son­al. Get to know who they really are, what makes them spe­cial and which of their less­er-known corners they no longer want to hide. Some­times, they are dreamy and emo­tion­al. Oth­er times, en­er­get­ic and col­our­ful. Each one, totally dif­fer­ent. But these NRW cit­ies have one thing in com­mon: They in­vite you to take a ma­gic­al stroll.
Date?

von Johannes Höhn
Essen Kettwig, © Johannes Höhn

His­tor­ic town and loc­al centres

In the his­tor­ic loc­al and town centres in NRW, vis­it­ors can im­merse them­selves in the past and ex­per­i­ence the par­tic­u­lar charm of these places in cosy cafés or on ro­mantic squares.
Details

von Johannes Höhn
Südstadt Cologne, © Johannes Höhn

Cit­ies

The ma­jor cit­ies of North Rhine-West­phalia have much to dis­cov­er: trendy neigh­bour­hoods, art gal­ler­ies and great shop­ping op­por­tun­it­ies.
Details

Tourismus NRW e.V.
Eating #urbanana_Street Food 2, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Go­ing urb­a­nana!

Dis­cov­er the urb­an jungle of West­ern Ger­many The ba­nana-shaped urb­an jungle that ex­tends from the Ruhr Area and Düs­sel­dorf to Co­logne is so strange and at the same time multi-fa­ceted that you should ur­gently con­sider pay­ing a vis­it to this west­ern re­gion of Ger­many
Details

Johannes Höhn
Digital Church Aachen interior view, © Johannes Höhn

Cowork­ing Spaces

New faces every morn­ing, new ideas every day, chats and scraps of con­ver­sa­tion. Brief con­tacts be­come friends, friends turn in­to busi­ness part­ners. This is what it’s like in a cowork­ing space.
Details

Tourismus NRW e.V.
Store Kleidsam indoor view Düsseldorf Unterbilk, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Shop­ping

North Rhine-West­phalia is a true shop­per’s para­dise, with everything from lux­ury shop­ping miles to busy ped­es­tri­an zones and mod­ern ar­cades, and from trendy dis­tricts with small boutiques to shop­ping centres with everything un­der one roof.
Details

Cyc­ling Ex­cite­ment

Re­lax along rivers and lakes or start ped­dling trails up and down: North Rhine-West­phalia is per­fectly suited for your bi­cycles.

Sascha Huettenhain, Kreis Siegen-Wittgenstein
Schloss Berleburg in bad Berleburg in Siegen-Wittgenstein, © Sascha Huettenhain, Kreis Siegen-Wittgenstein

Palaces and castles

No mat­ter if view­ing them only from a dis­tance, tak­ing the time for an ex­ten­ded stop to vis­it mu­seums and en­joy a lunch­time snack, or us­ing the castle park as the per­fect stop to re­lax for a little, these routes will take you to some of the most beau­ti­ful palaces and castles in your NRW.
Discover more cycling paths!

vennbahn.eu
Vennbahn Reichensteiner Viadukt, © vennbahn.eu

On the old rail­way lines

Let your­self be in­spired by our cycle paths on old rail­way lines in North Rhine-West­phalia.
Discover more cycling paths!

Paul Masukowitz
Jump on MTB trail in the Ruhr area, © Paul Masukowitz

Cyc­ling routes with ath­let­ic chal­lenges

Hier gaat het altijd ho­ger, ver­der en sneller: deze fiet­s­routes in NRW vragen om spor­tieve top­prestaties, op de gravel­bike, de race­fi­ets of de moun­tain­bike.
Discover more cycling paths!

Dominik Ketz, Tourismus NRW e.V.
Rhine Cycle Route, © Dominik Ketz, Tourismus NRW e.V.

River Cycle Paths

Routes full of high­lights, but mostly flat With the Ruhr, Rhine, Lippe, Lenne, or Sieg, rivers of all sizes shape the land­scape along their banks in NRW in dif­fer­ent ways. Those fol­low­ing them by bike from source to mouth will ex­per­i­ence nature, his­tory, and plenty of cyc­ling fun with little gradi­ent.
Discover more cycling paths!

@iamarux
Flamingos im Wasser , © @iamarux

In­sider tips for bike tours

Quite a few cycle paths in North Rhine-West­phalia provide sur­pris­ing ex­per­i­ences and new im­pres­sions with of­ten less well-known sights along the way.
Details

In­sider Tips

Look­ing for your next short trip, for spe­cial ac­com­mod­a­tions or for the best photo spot in North Rhine-West­phalia? Then you've come to the right place.

glückundseligkeit.de
Das Restaurant "Glück und Seligkeit" in Bielefeld ist in einer früheren Kirche untergebracht., © glückundseligkeit.de

Un­usu­al gast­ro­nomy in NRW

We’ve com­piled a list of the most un­usu­al gast­ro­nom­ic ex­per­i­ences in Your NRW - in spec­tac­u­lar loc­a­tions and with very spe­cial gast­ro­nom­ic con­cepts and culin­ary of­fers.
Details

Jochen Schlutius, Ruhr Tourismus
Zeche Zollverein bei Nacht., © Jochen Schlutius, Ruhr Tourismus

Spe­cial photo spots

NRW is def­in­itely worth a vis­it, if you’re look­ing for amaz­ing and in­s­tagram­mable photo spots. We col­lec­ted a few of them, that are of­fer­ing more than just a nice view!
Details

V-Hotel
Baumhaus V-Hotel, Bonn, © V-Hotel

Un­usu­al ac­com­mod­a­tion

Wheth­er it’s a stay in a tree­house on the Sorpe­see lake, camp­ing in the middle of nature or sleep­ing in a trail­er dir­ectly on the Ruhr river that you’re look­ing for - our list con­tains 37 un­usu­al ac­com­mod­a­tion op­tions in Your NRW.
Details

Ralph Sondermann, Tourismus NRW e.V.
Imke Feist Stadtfrüchtchen Bonn, © Ralph Sondermann, Tourismus NRW e.V.

Stor­ies from NRW

Get to know the spe­cial stor­ies of ex­cep­tion­al people from North Rhine-West­phalia. Be­cause they are what makes #Dein­NRW so unique.
More Stories from NRW

Tourismus NRW e.V.
Live Music Hall Köln , © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Mu­sic Lov­ers

With the Sound of #urb­a­nana, we pave the way to a pop his­tor­ic­al tour through the Ruhr Area, Düs­sel­dorf and Co­logne.
Details

Johannes Höhn
The Zollverein Colliery Shaft, © Johannes Höhn

Cus­toms & Tra­di­tions in NRW

In­dus­tri­al Cul­ture & His­tor­ic­al Crafts Shut-down mines and ma­chine halls, mills and grind­ing work­shops, steam-powered trains, and a sus­pen­sion rail­way that is unique in the world are some his­tor­ic­al des­tin­a­tions that in­vite to an up-close ex­per­i­ence to con­vey an au­then­t­ic im­pres­sion of the every­day work­ing lives of people in the 19th and 20th cen­tur­ies.
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Fam­ily Time

From amuse­ment parks to dark caves, and from hands-on mu­seums to child-friendly walk­ing trails –we’ve got you covered for your next fam­ily get­away!

ZOOM Erlebniswelt
Zoom Erlebniswelt, Californian sea lion, © ZOOM Erlebniswelt

Zoos and zo­olo­gic­al parks

Wheth­er clas­sic zoos with an­im­als from around the world, wild­life parks with nat­ive spe­cies, or aqua parks that take vis­it­ors on jour­neys in­to the world of aquat­ic an­im­als: every single zoo in North Rhine-West­phalia houses some very spe­cial high­lights.
Details

Stadt Bochum, Planetarium
Planetarium Bochum, 50 Years of the Moon Landing 2019, © Stadt Bochum, Planetarium

Mu­seums for chil­dren

Even bad weath­er will not stop ex­plorers of any age group in NRW. When the swim­ming lake or ski­ing slope are not par­tic­u­larly in­vit­ing, the pyr­am­ids or the plan­et­ari­um beck­on all the harder.
Details

Johannes Höhn
The Zollverein Colliery Shaft, © Johannes Höhn

Col­lier­ies, mines, and iron­works

Min­ing has a long tra­di­tion in North Rhine-West­phalia. Fam­il­ies can ex­per­i­ence the sweaty un­der­ground work up close and see what used to be brought to light in an ex­cur­sion in­to col­lier­ies, mines, and iron­works.
Details

BWS, Patrick Gawandtka
The PanoramaRadweg niederbergbahn, © BWS, Patrick Gawandtka

Cyc­ling with chil­dren

Away from busy roads, fam­ily cyc­ling tours lead through a vari­ety of land­scapes. Not only is there plenty to see along the way, but ex­cit­ing ad­ven­tures and ad­di­tion­al op­por­tun­it­ies to let off steam are wait­ing for you as well.
Details

Tourismus NRW e.V.
Dülmen wild horses herd, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Wild an­im­als

Ex­per­i­en­cing wild an­im­als in their nat­ur­al hab­it­ats is one of the most beau­ti­ful things. NRW of­fers some places where you can meet wild horses, arc­tic wild geese, or im­press­ive bison if you are just a little lucky. Let us tell you where to find these wild an­im­als.
Details

Tourismus NRW e.V.
Eifel National Park, child looking through binoculars with ranger , © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Hik­ing with chil­dren

Wheth­er on nature ad­ven­ture trails, a guided tour with en­joy­able puzzles, or an­im­al com­pan­ions right by their side: NRW has great ad­ven­tures to of­fer to young hikers. The chil­dren’s hik­ing trails are no less en­joy­able for adults, how­ever, of­fer­ing great ex­per­i­ences for the en­tire fam­ily.
Details

Phantasialand
Roller coaster in the themed world "Rookburgh" in Phantasialand , © Phantasialand

Amuse­ment parks

NRW’s amuse­ment parks of­fer plenty of show, ac­tion, and thrill with roller coast­ers, wa­ter slides, or chairo­planes. The young­est fam­ily mem­bers can en­joy some less rap­id rides, too.
Details

Tourismus NRW e.V.
Ranger with child sitting , © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Learn­ing from nature

Nat­ur­ally Clev­er From king­fish­ers to fire sala­man­ders, from wild straw­ber­ries to cuckoo­flowers and from reser­voirs to stalac­tite caves – North Rhine-West­phalia is abound­ing with nature in all its vari­ety. Ad­mir­ing the beau­ti­ful views is re­ward­ing in it­self, but it is even bet­ter to get a more up-close and per­son­al ex­per­i­ence of nature. This is pos­sible on a ranger tour or in a “wil­der­ness work­shop”, where you can learn more about loc­al flora and fauna and be­ne­fit from the in-depth know­ledge of ex­perts. You are truly spoilt for choice when it comes to dis­cov­er­ing the won­ders of nature in your North Rhine-West­phalia!
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Hik­ing de­lights

On more than 50.000 kilo­metres of hik­ing trails you get to know North Rhine-West­phalia from its most pro­found side. Be sure to pack your back­pack, pro­vi­sions and hik­ing boots.

Natur Dreilägerbachtalsperre

Cer­ti­fied hikes

Premi­um hik­ing trails and qual­ity hik­ing trails With a hik­ing trail net­work cov­er­ing over 50,000 kilo­metres, it’s not easy to choose. Help comes in the form of cer­ti­fied qual­ity hik­ing trails, which are tested ac­cord­ing to dif­fer­ent cri­ter­ia and awar­ded with a seal.
Details

Dominik Ketz, Tourismus NRW e.V.
Hiking Urfttalsperre, © Dominik Ketz, Tourismus NRW e.V.

In­sider tips - Hik­ing

Hik­ing can be so won­der­ful! Dis­cov­er new places away from the well-trod­den paths with our in­sider hik­ing tips. There are many hid­den gems that are still re­l­at­ively un­known among the many hik­ing routes in North Rhine-West­phalia. We’d like to in­tro­duce them to you!
Details

Tourismus NRW e.V.
Ein Sonnenaufgang mit Nebel über dem Rothaarsteig in Siegen-Wittgenstein, © © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Top Trails of Ger­many

Three of Ger­many’s 13 most beau­ti­ful and ex­cit­ing long-dis­tance hik­ing trails, the ‘Top Trails of Ger­many’, run through NRW. This ini­ti­at­ive brings to­geth­er Ger­many’s most beau­ti­ful and ex­cit­ing long-dis­tance trails. All four trails in North Rhine-West­phalia of­fer par­tic­u­larly nat­ur­al, at­tract­ive and var­ied hik­ing routes.
Details

Tourismus NRW e.V.
Hiking in the Bergisches Land, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Hik­ing trails in NRW

NRW is a para­dise for walk­ers Hik­ing of­fers a slower but no less re­ward­ing way to dis­cov­er the de­lights of North Rhine-West­phalia. A well-de­veloped net­work of trails criss-crosses the state from east to west and north to south, tak­ing in a wide vari­ety of nat­ur­al land­scapes and dis­tinct­ive re­gions.
Details

Keen to dis­cov­er NRW?

Then have a browse here!

The Tower, a walk-in sculpture by Erwin Heerich in the Museum Insel Hombroich, © Tomas Riehle/Arturimages
Tomas Riehle/Arturimages
from 85.00 €

A day at Mu­seum in­sel Hom­broi­ch & a night at the rock­et sta­tion

Stif­tung In­sel Hom­broi­ch

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The Abteiberg Museum in Mönchengladbach has over 200 works of art by Joseph Beuys in its collection, © Johannes Höhn
Johannes Höhn
from 419.00 €

To the life stages of Joseph Beuys

Nieder­rhein Tour­is­mus GmbH

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One of the pavilions for temporary exhibitions by international artists, © Süleyman Kayaalp / Cragg Foundation
Süleyman Kayaalp / Cragg Foundation
from 195.00 €

Com­bin­ing art with nature: Skulp­turen­park Wald­frieden in Wup­per­tal

Skulp­turen­park Wald­frieden

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Müngstener Bridge
from 319.00 €

“Der Ber­gis­che” hik­ing between Solin­gen Grä­frath and Al­ten­berg

Die Ber­gis­chen Drei - Ber­gisches Land Tour­is­mus Mar­ket­ing e.V.

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Joseph Beuys found inspiration for his work around the Schwanenburg in Kleve, © Johannes Höhn
Johannes Höhn
from 709.00 €

Foot­steps of Joseph Beuys on the Lower Rhine

Nieder­rhein Tour­is­mus GmbH

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