Hiking/Walking through Germany

Are you planning to hike "across" Germany in 6 weeks or just "in" Germany.? I know that there are hiking tours in the Harz, where you follow a set route. The company arranges each night's hotel and moves your luggage; you just hike from town to town. I believe there is something similar in the Black Forest, but, of course, these two venues are not connected. There is also a bike trail along the Danube, down to Passau, possibly starting near Donaueschingen.

Thanks for the info! I'm looking to hike in Germany. Don't care if the hikes are linked between regions as I can take the train to another beginning location if I get that particular hike done.

The Harz is a national park in northern Germany, spanning the states of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. It's an island of pine covered mountains in the otherwise flat plains of northern Germany. The Brocken, highest mountain in northern Germany at about 3800' is in the park. The top is above the timberline for that latitude and therefore treeless. In ancient times, the locals thought it must be enchanted and inhabited by witches. Goethe's Walpurgisnacht took place on the Brocken. It's just over the border into old east Germany. During the cold war the Stasi built a radio listening tower there to try to intercept communications to Berlin. There is a hiking trail called the Harzer-Hexen-Stieg (Harz Witches Walk) of just under 100 km across the park. Here is the URL for the brochure (in German) - www.harzinfo.de/Download/Doppelbroschuere_HHS_lq2008.pdf. Somewhere I might still have the literature they sent me about the organized hike. I'll look for it. You can find a lot of information just by Googling "Harz wandern". You can find other hiking trails in Germany at www.top-trails-of-germany.de.

On http://www.wanderbares-deutschland.de/ (in German only) you find a clickable map with quite a lot of hiking trails in Germany.

Another popular route is to hike the "Limes", which were the boundary lines or fortified frontier for the Roman Empire in Germany. It is around 550 km, and much of it runs along the Taunus mountains. The whole thing is a UNESCO site. The Limes consisted of guard posts, walls, forts, etc. and today many of the ruins can still be seen along here. Most of this route will be near the Rhine of course, beginning near Bonn and running down to Regensburg. Personally, I would love to walk this. http://www.limesstrasse.de/index.php?id=284&L=1

Here, www.wandern-im-harz.de, is a "tour company". They show a map of hiking trails in the Harz, with a multitude of stages (Etappen) between designated towns. You can arrange for 4-7 stages with overnight accommodation plus transfer of luggage or just luggage transfer between partner hotels in intermediate towns. The tours are shown here, www.wandern-im-harz.de/wandertouren/id_1. You can arrange a Rundfahrt, a loop with a series of day trips ending back at the start hotel, a one way trip of several days with a return the day after the final hiking day to the start hotel, or they will take you out to one of the legs each day and bring you back to your headquarter hotel each evening (no luggage transport). A daily packed lunch can be included.

There are paved bike trails that connect all of the towns in the area where I live. I've seen these in other parts of Germany, although I couldn't say how extensive they are. They are perfectly adapted for either cycling or hiking. Here's a website, but it's only for the state of Hessen: http://www.radroutenplaner.hessen.de/rphEN/rph_index_01.asp?Inhalt=rph_home_01.html Try looking up "Radweg" or "Fahrradweg" on Google.

Thanks everyone for the great info and websites. I'll take a look!

2 links to PDF-files (in Dutch) of a bicycle tour in the very western part of Germany, along the borders with the Netherlands and Belgium: http://www.anwb.nl/binaries/pdf/vrije-tijd/op-pad/nederland-fietsen/op5-2010-grens-1.pdf http://www.anwb.nl/binaries/pdf/vrije-tijd/op-pad/nederland-fietsen/op6-2010-grens.pdf They are the first 2 of 4 articles in a Dutch cycling and hiking magazine. While cycling in that part of Germany, it's also worth considering a membership of 'Vrienden op de Fiets' They gather private families who like to host cyclists for a small price. http://www.vriendenopdefiets.nl > English Version http://maps.google.be/maps/ms?hl=nl&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=117869826318271955714.0004866ad9fd3f58ea922&t=h&z=5