Discover Salzwedel

Salzwedel combines medieval history with cycling and hiking routes through varied landscapes. The town centre is characterised by half-timbered houses, cobbled lanes and brick churches. The Hanse-Wendland cycle route also passes through Salzwedel, while the surrounding area offers further nature and cultural attractions in the Altmarkkreis Salzwedel district. When planning your trip, you can decide whether to focus on walks around the town, cycling or exploring the wider region.

Discover the town’s history on foot

A compact town map covers 33 sights and pleasant walking routes through the town centre. You can also explore the 1,850-metre-long town wall on foot. Along the wall, you’ll discover parts of the medieval castle complex as well as gates and towers. Together with the architecture of the town centre, this makes for a distinctive focus on days when you want to get to know Salzwedel on foot.

The “Fairytale Park and Fragrance Garden” offers a different experience. It features themed gardens such as the Elven Realm, fairytale scenes and figures, as well as spaces for events. The gardens and historic streets offer contrasting highlights without taking the focus away from the town’s history.

Cycling and enjoying the landscape

The Hanse-Wendland cycle route passes through Salzwedel, linking cycling with forests, green floodplain meadows, tree-lined avenues and villages. Along the way, there are opportunities to spot storks, wild geese and other animals. For public transport to the cycle route, you can consider Salzwedel station as well as the stations in Schnega, Wieren, Stederdorf, Uelzen and Bad Bodenteich. Before setting out, check connections, route status, signage and infrastructure.

The 80-kilometre Grenzerfahrung hiking route also runs through the surrounding area. It passes through around 20 different natural landscapes, including sand dunes, wide meadows, lakes and damp alder forests, and connects them with former border memorial sites and abandoned villages. Salzwedel is one of the towns you can visit along the route. This gives you a choice of two different ways to explore actively: a cycle route through changing landscapes and a hiking route that combines nature experiences with traces of the former border. Check current route conditions and services before setting out.

More routes in the Altmarkkreis Salzwedel

The Altmark Circuit is almost 500 kilometres long and passes through forests and meadows in the Altmarkkreis Salzwedel district, by numerous brick and fieldstone churches. For much of its length, it runs close to the “Green Belt Germany”, bringing together nature, history and culture. Ten stages and a variety of surfaces offer further guidance: these include asphalt, concrete track slabs, surfaced field and forest tracks, sandy agricultural tracks and quiet roads.

The Drömling UNESCO Biosphere Reserve is another of the natural attractions in the Altmarkkreis Salzwedel district. It includes areas within the unified municipalities of the town of Klötze and the Hanseatic City of Gardelegen. Drömling has well-developed cycling and hiking trails, observation towers, information centres and guided nature-watching tours. As facilities and tour offerings may change, check in advance which options are suitable for your visit.

Culture and special experiences in the region

History can be explored in different ways in the Altmarkkreis Salzwedel district. At the Langobardenwerkstatt Zethlingen, visitors can experience everyday life among the Lombards and take part in hands-on activities such as baking, making ceramics and using a bow and arrow. In Arendsee, the monastery church is considered the oldest completely vaulted brick building in northeastern Germany. Of the more than 200 megalithic tombs that once stood in the Altmark, 40 remain in the Altmarkkreis Salzwedel district and eight in the Stendal district. The “Western Altmark Megalithic Route” is also part of the European “Megalithic Routes” cultural route.

Arendsee and its surroundings offer a different range of activities for further regional contrasts: swimming, sailing, surfing, fishing and boat trips are among the tourist activities available on the lake. Conditions for individual activities may change, so check in advance when planning your trip. In Gardelegen, the Feldscheune Isenschnibbe Memorial Site has a documentation and visitor centre with a permanent exhibition that opened in 2020. The range of options in the Altmarkkreis thus extends from nature-watching and outdoor activities to cultural and memorial sites.

Discover more destinations

Discover more destinations: Steinitz, Rohrberg, Apenburg-Winterfeld, Dähre, Gardelegen, Wallstawe, Diesdorf, Klötze.

Back to the main travel overview: Altmarkkreis Salzwedel.