Bad Essen: Salt Park and Dinosaur Tracks
Accommodation in Bad Essen
Bad Essen offers a wide variety of discoveries: The dinosaur tracks in Bad Essen-Barkhausen can be visited year-round and are freely accessible. In the Salt Park, circular paths lead to sensory stations and the graduation tower, while other routes wind through meadows and parkland to castles. The marina adds the Mittelland Canal as another destination for an outing. You can plan your trip around whether you prefer hiking, experiencing culture or spending time by the water.
Routes of very different lengths
Three Bad Essen terrain therapy circular routes start at the entrance to the Salt Park, opposite the open-air saltwater pool. They are between three and five kilometres long. The Castles Circular Route offers a longer loop: You can start at Harpenfeld village square, with its village pond and blacksmith’s shop. The route covers just over nine kilometres through meadows and parkland, past Ippenburg Castle and over to Rose Island, all the way to Hünnefeld Castle. The English landscape park and the Alte Rentei café are among the tour’s stops there.
The TERRA.track Megalosaurus offers another focus: This 19-kilometre route takes you to Barkhausen, with views of the dinosaur tracks, and back to Bad Essen. It involves 300 metres of elevation gain. Compared with the terrain therapy circular routes and the Castles Circular Route, this is a considerably longer tour with a specified elevation gain. Bad Essen has four other TERRA.tracks, including Goethegang, Wildstein, HĂĽnnefelder Tannen and Schwarzer Brink.
For a shorter loop through the town, the digital town walk is about 1.5 kilometres long. It starts and ends at the SoleArena. Stops include the Himmelsterrasse, the Old Watermill, the Schafstall, the Landhotel Buchenhof, the Old Pharmacy, Karlsplatz, St. Nikolai Church, the Historic Church Square, the HĂĽnnefeld Mortuary and the KaffeemĂĽhle. This gives you a choice of routes for your trip planning, from a short town walk to circular routes with explicitly stated distances.
Salt Park: Graduation Tower and Sensory Stations
The graduation tower at the SoleArena in the Salt Park is freely accessible and operates year-round. One of the three health trails also runs through the Salt Park, following the PATH OF THE SENSES. At its interactive stations, you can listen, see, balance, smell, touch and taste. The path combines exercise with stations that engage a range of senses.
Breathing, movement and relaxation exercises take place at the SoleArena on Tuesdays from 1:30 to 1:50 p.m., under expert guidance. If you plan to attend this session, check before your visit to confirm that it is currently taking place.
Art and Puppet Theatre
The “Schafstall” of the Bad Essen Art and Museum Association is a venue for art exhibitions. The programme ranges from painting and applied arts to modern design, and changes regularly. Puppet theatre is performed at the “Theater im Waggon” near the art school. If a particular performance is important to your travel plans, check the current schedule in advance.
Walk and Boat at the Marina
At Bad Essen Marina, you can stroll along the harbour promenade or rent a small boat on the Mittelland Canal. No licence is required. The 15-horsepower motorboats Pauline and Greta are available for trips. Check boat availability before your trip if you plan to go out on the water.
The routes vary in length and starting point: In addition to the short loop from the SoleArena, there are routes from the Salt Park and Harpenfeld village square, as well as the longer TERRA.track Megalosaurus.
Discover more destinations: Bippen, Badbergen, Nortrup, Bramsche, BersenbrĂĽck, Bad Laer, Merzen, Hasbergen.
Back to the main travel overview: OsnabrĂĽck.
