Kleve – Swan Castle, Art and Cycling Routes

Kleve combines the striking Swan Castle with art museums, historic gardens and outdoor activities. Cycling routes, walking landscapes and the wildlife park also offer their own highlights. When looking for accommodation in Kleve, you might first consider whether art and architectural history or outdoor activities will be the main focus of your stay.

Swan Castle and its views

The tower of Swan Castle offers panoramic views across the Rhine Plain as far as the Netherlands. Swan Castle is also home to a Geological Museum. The Swan Tower can be visited at weekends. To see the inner courtyard with its Swan Fountain and Mirror Tower, you can join a guided tour. The views, museum and guided tour each give the castle a different appeal.

Art from the Middle Ages to the present day

The Museum Kurhaus Kleve displays works from the Middle Ages to the present day, with a focus on contemporary art from the 1950s onwards. The museum also houses the estate of Ewald Mataré and restored studio rooms used by Joseph Beuys in the former Friedrich-Wilhelm-Bad. A different, more specialised view of art awaits you at the B.C. Koekkoek-Haus, a specialist museum of Dutch Romantic landscape painting. Together, they offer a wide-ranging collection alongside a museum with a clearly defined focus on painting.

Gardens, landscapes and the wildlife park

Kleve’s historic gardens are part of a cultural landscape with roots in the 17th century. In the Tiergartenwald forest, the Kupferner Knopf viewpoint offers views across the Rhine Plain when visibility is good. Walks around Kleve lead through forests and polder landscapes, along the Kermisdahl and through gardens in bloom. You can also go pedal boating on the Kermisdahl. More than 300 animals and two petting zoos are among the features of the Kleve wildlife park. In Kleve, peaceful scenery and a range of ways to enjoy the outdoors complement the museums and castle.

Explore by bike

The Kleve wildlife park is right on the Europa-RadBahn and can be reached by bike from Kranenburg and Nijmegen. The Oranier cycling route covers approximately 455 kilometres between Lingen, Apeldoorn, Kleve and Moers. The Grenzland-Draisine offers a different way to experience the region, travelling along disused railway lines between Kleve, Kranenburg and Groesbeek. The routes differ in how they are laid out: one is a cycling route, while the other follows former railway lines. If you would like to include cycling in your stay, you can take these options into account when planning your itinerary.

Getting around and travelling to Kleve

Green signposts with symbols and distance information direct pedestrians to sights, parks and cultural highlights in Kleve. Regional trains connect Düsseldorf and Krefeld with Kleve. Regional and local bus routes connect the railway station with the districts, as well as with Emmerich, Goch, Kalkar and Nijmegen. Check the current timetable before travelling so that your plans fit the available connections.

Cycling in the wider Kleve destination

Kleve district also offers its own regional perspective on cycling. Its cycling network extends over more than 1,500 kilometres and includes numerous themed routes. The signposted Niers cycle path is 128 kilometres long: it runs from the source of the Niers in Mönchengladbach through the districts of Viersen and Kleve to the municipality of Gennep in the Netherlands. A pocket guide shows all the junctions in Kleve district when unfolded and includes information about how the district-wide junction system works. This information relates to the wider Kleve destination and complements the overview of the town.

Discover more destinations: Appeldorn, Wachtendonk, Rheurdt, Goch, Issum, Weeze, Geldern, Kevelaer.

See the wider travel overview: Kleve.