Wettenberg – Forest Trails, Lake and Outdoor Pool

Wettenberg’s natural and recreational destinations offer a range of experiences: marked forest trails, a restored lake landscape and an outdoor pool with several pools. When planning a holiday with children or in a group, it helps to decide what matters most: a walk, the lakeside landscape, or several pools and leisure areas? You can base your choice of activities during your stay on these different themes.

Forest trails with different features

The Wettenberg Forest Nature Trail is a 4 km marked route between Gleiberger Land Comprehensive School and the tennis court in Krofdorf. Numerous trees and shrubs along the route have name signs. By contrast, the Natura Trail in Krofdorfer Forest is a circular route; it starts and ends at the Wettenberg car park at the timber storage yard. This means two different trail features can guide your planning: the stated length of the forest nature trail and the circular route of the Natura Trail. The name signs also give you a specific natural detail to look out for along the forest nature trail.

Wißmar Lake and the outdoor pool

Wißmar Lake is a former gravel pit lake in a loop of the Lahn surrounded by forest and meadows. After gravel extraction ended, the site was restored and developed into a recreational area. The surrounding landscape is part of the appeal alongside the lake: forest and meadows shape the loop of the Lahn, while the site’s current design reflects its former use.

The “Gleiberger Land” outdoor pool in Wettenberg-Krofdorf-Gleiberg offers a different focus. It has a 33.5-metre-long swimming pool, two diving towers at heights of 1 and 3 metres, as well as a non-swimmer pool and a children’s pool with slides. There is also an 18,000 m² sunbathing lawn, a beach volleyball court, and facilities for table tennis and giant chess. For planning your day, you can weigh up the landscape around the former gravel pit lake against an outdoor pool with various pools and leisure areas.

Culture and nature in the wider destination of Gießen

The wider destination of Gießen offers cultural and natural attractions to add to your itinerary. The Learning and Remembrance Centre at the Gießen Emergency Reception Centre houses an exhibition that opened in June 2025 about flight, arrival and new beginnings. It connects personal stories with broader historical contexts. The Botanical Garden of Justus Liebig University Giessen is Germany’s oldest university botanical garden; its historic sections are still part of the grounds today. The exhibition and garden offer different experiences: one focuses on personal stories and historical contexts, the other on the evolved grounds of a university botanical garden.

Trails also offer different perspectives in the wider destination of Gießen. The 7.2 km art trail runs from Ludwigsplatz via the Philosophikum I and II campus areas with the Gießen Art Trail, past the edge of the Law and Science campus area to the Luther Oak and the Old Cemetery, and back to its starting point at the Dachcafé high-rise. The “Quellmoor bei Rödgen” walk leads into the Aschborn and Uderborn nature reserve between Gießen and Rödgen. For travel planning, Gießen railway station is also a central hub for the GießenerLand region, with long-distance rail connections.

Discover more destinations: Linden, Grünberg, Pohlheim, Lich, Rabenau, Heuchelheim, Biebertal, Hungen.

Go to the wider travel overview: Gießen.