Burgen: Bridges, Wine and Hiking Trails

Burgen is locally known as the “Village of Bridges”: the Frohnbach flows through the town and is crossed by 19 bridges and footbridges. There is no through traffic, and visitors can also enjoy wine tastings and buy directly from local winemakers. This means Burgen brings together two travel interests: hiking trails in Burgen and the Frohnbach Valley, and wine experiences in town.

Hiking between stream and forest

The hiking trails in Burgen and the Frohnbach Valley range from easy to challenging. Local routes explore the cultural and forest history of the Burgen Forest. The landscape features cool stream valleys as well as slopes with centuries-old beech and oak trees. The range of difficulty levels gives you a practical guide when choosing a tour; the streams and forest history also offer distinct themes. When planning, you can weigh up which level of challenge and which landscapes interest you most.

The Moselsteig profile

Burgen is connected to the Moselsteig via Stage 10 between Kesten and Bernkastel-Kues. The 15-kilometre route runs along slate cliffs and through the Brauneberger Juffer vineyard area; it heads towards viewpoints overlooking the Moselle Valley. This means that, alongside the forest and stream valleys of the Burgen Forest, slate, vineyards and valley views are also options for hiking themes. If hiking is the main focus of your trip, you can compare Burgen with the Moselsteig profile described here without treating the two routes as the same.

Choose accommodation based on your travel focus

When looking for accommodation, you can first decide what you want your trip to focus on: Burgen, with its bridges, hiking trails and wine experiences, or a broader look at the wider Bernkastel-Wittlich destination. This lets you tailor your search to the places and activities you want to include in your travel plans, rather than starting from just one travel interest.

Bernkastel-Wittlich as a wider travel setting

The wider Bernkastel-Wittlich destination brings together the volcanic Eifel, the romantic Moselle Valley and the Hunsrück, with its abundant forests and meadows. There, the 816-metre-high Erbeskopf is a great place for hiking and offers a wide range of winter sports. At Erbeskopf, the National Park Gateway provides information about nature and the environment; its interactive multimedia exhibition focuses on forests and bogs. These themes offer a different range of options within the wider destination than the bridges, trails and wine experiences in Burgen.

The wider destination also offers a cultural spectrum ranging from pilgrimage to the history of technology. The pilgrimage church of Maria Heimsuchung in Klausen was consecrated in 1502; Klausen continues to welcome pilgrims every year. In Kues, the Cusanus Birthplace is used as a museum and event venue and features a permanent exhibition about Nicholas of Cusa. The Zylinderhaus presents 90 years of German automotive history through more than 100 cars, motorcycles and vans.

The vinotheque in the historic vaulted cellars of St. Nicholas Hospital offers another perspective on wine: visitors can sample wines from the Moselle, Saar and Ruwer. The selection includes 100 wines, from quality wines to ice wine. For a cycling trip, the Maare-Mosel Cycle Route follows a disused railway line for 58.5 kilometres from Daun to Bernkastel-Kues. A bike bus takes cyclists from Bernkastel-Kues back to the starting point; the return trip can be booked in advance.

Discover more destinations

Discover more destinations: Kleinich, Erden, Lösnich, Noviand, Brauneberg, Piesport, Graach An Der Mosel, Wehlen.

Back to the wider travel overview: Bernkastel-Kues.