The lovely island of Rugen in the Baltic Sea is also Germany's largest. Long a popular vacation spot, it can seem a bit overcrowded in summer and is best visited in May, June and September. The main beach resort towns are located on the southeastern coast:
Binz,
Sellin and
Gohren. You'll have to book in advance if you want to stay there in July or August. The island has plenty of other attractions, too. Kap Arkona, on the island's northeastern tip, has a picturesque lighthouse. The Stubbenkammer is a group of white chalk cliffs.
Bergen, a nice town in the interior, and
Putbus, with its neoclassical circus (somewhat similar to the architectural highlight in Bath, England), are also worth visiting. The island has some beautiful and varying landscapes, especially its tree-lined roads, rolling hills and beech forests. Touring by car is a nice way to see the island, but traffic can sometimes be heavy. Cobblestoned roads, as well as the car traffic, make bicycle tours less enjoyable.
From Rugen you can cross over to the smaller, more tranquil island of Hiddensee. It was a famous haunt for German writers and actors of the 1930s and offers beautiful hiking opportunities and lovely windswept beaches. When the sea buckthorn is in bloom, the whole islands seems to be clad in yellow.
Rugen is connected to the Baltic Sea port and old Hanseatic city Stralsund by a bridge on the mainland. Stralsund is home to the Gothic St. Mary's Church, which yields a good view of the town from the church tower. There are historic and oceanographic museums, and boats cruise to Hiddensee and Rugen islands.
East of Rugen is Usedom, an island off of northeastern Germany, near the border with Poland. Its sandy beaches are popular with vacationers. The main resort towns are Heringsdorf, Bansin and Ahlbeck. Book early if you plan to go in July or August.
Still on the Baltic Sea but southwest of Stralsund is Rostock, which has a nice 13th-century church, a good historical museum (Kropelintor) and a navigation museum. Nearby is a large beach resort, Warnemunde, which retains its Baltic fishing-village flavor and is a better place to stay. It's worth a stop if you're in the area, but don't go out of your way to include it in your itinerary.
Halfway between Rostock and Lubeck on the Baltic coast is the pretty 13th-century trading town of Wismar, once ruled by Sweden. It's featured in Murnau's famous movie Nosferatu: eine Symphonie des Grauens, shot in the 1920s. Many beautiful old houses remain, and the Renaissance-era Schabbellhaus is home to the town's historical museum. It is also worth stopping to see the beautiful early-17th-century waterworks and the church Nikolaikirche. There are boats to the island resort of Poel. Inland a little is Schwerin, an attractive small city. It has an especially nice Gothic cathedral and an eclectic palace on an island. The city is full of old half-timbered houses, and just outside the historic Schliefmuhle quarter is a zoo. You can easily see the town on foot in a day. Schwerin is a good base from which to explore the surrounding Mecklenburg Lake District. Rugen is 150 mi/245 km north of Berlin.
