Sylt Island, Germany

It is the German "Martha's Vinyard". It's a beautiful, small island in the North Sea with plenty of dunes and only small houses (although some of them, especially in Westerland and Kampen are 5* hotels). It's THE No.1 vacation resort of German celebrities and the Upper Class/High Society. Prices in Westerland and Kampen are extremly high but surprisingly in all the other villages are fair, given that it's a vacation island. The location of the island is actually off the coast of Denmark so that the Northern most spot of Sylt also is the Northern most spot of Germany. The island is connected with mainland Germany via a railroad dam and cars must ride to the island on those trains. The dam is called "Hindenburg-Dam" and this also tells you about when it was built. Because it sits right where the Gulf Stream hits Continental Europe it's usually quite mild but windy on the island. At the beaches people rent roofed wicker beach chairs for the day. It is quite a unique island and (fortunately) not (yet) very well-known among tourists from other countries - a hidden gem.

Andreas, Thank you very much for your reply.

Uhm... what's a "fire island"? Sylt has been settled by man ever since the stone age. You can still find pre-historic relicts on the island. Also it was settled by the Anglo-Saxons before they sailed over to that larger island that then became Anglo-Land (England). Still today the Frisian dialect spoken on that island and in the area are somewhat in between German and English...

OK, in the meatime I was sent a private message explaining to me what a "fire island" is. No, Sylt is not a "fire island". It's a family vacation spot and, as I said, it's frequented a lot by German celebrities, members of German royal families, the high socitey etc. <br><br>The European "fire islands" are mainly Ibiza, Kos and the Southern half of Gran Canaria.

Depending on the town it's not just for the rich but also for those people who have to save for vacations. Am I correct on this? Do you know what towns cater to the common folk?

Toni, the island isn't that big. And pretty much every places rents our bicycles on which you can access every point on the island in about 60-90 minutes. Kampen and Westerland are the more expensive spots but even there you can find affordable B&Bs. Westerland is the main town on the island and that's also where the airport is. On hotel reservation platforms like trivago.com, hrs.com and hotel.de you usually have to enter Westerland and allow a radius of 5km to get the entire island covered.

my German friend(lives in central Germany ) just returned and commented- Pricey- . Sylt has a history of Nudity so dont be surpriesed if you look over a dune and see.......