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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Cit­ies

The ma­jor cit­ies of North Rhine-West­phalia have much to dis­cov­er: trendy neigh­bour­hoods, art gal­ler­ies and great shop­ping op­por­tun­it­ies.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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On the old rail­way lines

Let your­self be in­spired by our cycle paths on old rail­way lines in North Rhine-West­phalia.
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Up- and down-hill

Some cyc­lists find the flat coun­tryside bor­ing and would rather fore­go it for ac­tion and great ath­let­ic per­form­ance. This is no prob­lem at all on the fol­low­ing hilly routes. The best part of it is that any­one who climbs up high is typ­ic­ally go­ing to be re­war­ded with a breath­tak­ing view of the val­ley.
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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.
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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.
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Un­usu­al Gast­ro­nomy

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.
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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!
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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.
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Beer Var­it­ies

Pilsen­er, Alt­bi­er, Kölsch and oth­er re­gion­al spe­ci­al­ity beers The beers of NRW are as di­verse as the re­gion it­self. Tra­di­tion­al re­cipes and in­ter­est­ing new cre­ations guar­an­tee the per­fect glass for every taste. Wheth­er they are fruity, lively, dry, sweet or full-fla­voured – every beer brewed in North Rhine-West­phalia is a true ori­gin­al!
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Stor­ies from NRW

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