Get out your bucket list and start taking notes: This is our ultimate short advice for places suitable for short trips that you just must have visited. Whether they are magical festivals, architecturally unique places of art, or an overnight stay in the trees – these places are always worth a visit, and they are unique in NRW.
Dancing between blast furnaces
Tip 1
Steel structures, stacks, and light installations – the Traumzeit Festival in Duisburg’s landscape park, a former smelting works, offers a unique location with an enchanted mood for all fans of music and festivals. On top of this, there will be three days of music played by bands from the areas of indie-rock, post-punk, singer/songwriter, folk, hip hop, and electro.
www.traumzeit-festival.de
Floating tent by the lake
Tip 2
A night floating in nature: spend your night dreaming while floating as if in a hammock between the trees right by the banks of a lake in the Dingender Heide. Climb the tree trunk stairs or a rope ladder up to your tent and enjoy a richly filled breakfast basket with sparkling wine as a welcoming treat and a sweet good-night wish – it’s the ideal weekend trip into nature.
www.dingdender-heide.de
Roller-coaster at sunrise
Tip 3
While the Tiger & Turtle walk-on roller coaster is a true eye-catcher anyway, you should make sure to put a visit to it at sunrise or sunset onto your bucket list. The golden hour will turn the steel frame in Duisburg into a unique photo spot.
www.duisburg.de/tourismus
The last wild horses
Tip 4
Germany’s last herd of wild horses is at home in the Merfelder Bruch in Münsterland, where they are living year-round. Even though it can be tricky to catch a glimpse of the herd of 400 horses, the trip to the nature preserve is always worth your time.
Unique architecture
Tip 5
The “Marta Herford” museum of contemporary art is one of the most unusual museum buildings the world has to offer. American star architect Frank Gehry designed the building with its tilting and flowing walls, dark-red brick, and light stainless-steel roof. The roof is reflecting the adjacent river Aa, which visitors can spot from the idyllic garden, too.
www.marta-herford.en
A legendary castle
Tip 6
Schloss Drachenburg is majestically towering on the Drachenfels mountain in the middle of the Siebengebirge range, affording visitors a breath-taking view of the river Rhine. Legend says that Siegfried, the hero from the Medieval heroic epos “The Song of the Nibelungs”, killed the dragon Fafnir here to bathe in its blood thereafter, rendering him invulnerable. If you prefer to avoid the strenuous climb, you can take the Drachenfelsbahn up to the summit instead.
Walking through the Felsenmeer Hemer
Tip 7
A sea of rocks formed under the influence of water, wind, and people, crossed by a winding path, a wave-shaped bridge, and a vantage platform: The Hemer Felsenmeer is a national geotope that contains one of the oldest iron ore mining areas in Westphalia. It’s a very special location.
www.sauerland.com/en