I love to travel, but due to the Corona crisis it seems unwise to travel far or go abroad. As our summer plans were cancelled, and we still had days off to spend, we looked into options close to home. Spending some time in your home country is an experience most of us did not value before, and it definitely is a fantastic learning from the crisis: Germany has really nice places to offer! One of them is quite close to Hamburg and surely is worth a visit: Fehmarn!
Fehmarn as a sustainable travel destination
Fehmarn is an island in the Baltic Sea. It can be reached in just 2.5 hours from Hamburg by train or 2 hours by car. As we are still relatively new to Hamburg, we had never been to Fehmarn. But we love to spend time at the sea, and so we found the perfect place!
You can explore the island by car, but this is not really sustainable and also actually not so advisable: There were quite a few cars and people were struggling to find parking in the popular places. But you can get around perfectly by bike, which you can rent in the village “Burg” where also the train station is.
The island has quite some traffic on the route between the bridge to the mainland and the ferry station in Puttgarden, but apart from that you will find fields, farmers and small villages. Just the right place for a quiet vacation!
If you are looking for a sustainable place to stay, there are even options to stay on an organic farm.
Things to enjoy
Because of active farming on the island, it has several nice farm cafes and stores to offer. There you can buy or enjoy fresh produce. Despite the Corona rules in place, we were able to enjoy wonderful food, cakes and coffee while enjoying the summer sun in a strandkorb.
Apart from eating (which to be honest is one of my favorite ways to spend free time!), you can have fantastic walks along the beaches and enjoy the sea. You can go for a swim here, do outdoor sports or visit museums or an aquarium. Even for wellness lovers there are options on this small island!
The island is famous for water sports such as kite surfing. On several beaches you can watch kite surfers doing crazy moves, which is a lot of fun! You can also learn it in kite surfing schools, if you dare – I did not.
Puttgarden is an interesting stop to watch the ferries going to Denmark forth and back. There also is a huge swimming shop to buy cheap alcohol, I guess? You can sit by and watch people carrying tons of beer cans out or oversized chocolate packages. Seems to be some kind of duty-free shop.
What made the trip great for us
I personally mostly like to enjoy the sun and the ocean breeze on my skin while lying on the beach. We spend a wonderful time here and picked the perfect timing: It was just a few days before the heat wave started, so it was not too hot yet and also not so crowded. We experienced mostly empty beaches, had wonderful walks and enjoyed fantastic food. Even though we spend most of our vacation at home this year, this was surely a trip to remember!
How do you spend your vacation this year?
