Binz Rügen Travel Guide
A detailed destination guide for your next Germany vacation
Binz Rügen (Rügen vacation rentals | Rügen travel guide) Overview
Rügen or Rugia is Germany's largest island. It is located in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Rügen makes up the principal part of the Rügen District, which also includes the neighboring islands Hiddensee and Ummanz, as well as several small islands. Rügen is located in one of the most popular holiday and recreation areas within Germany, comprising such seaside resorts as Binz and Sellin (Sellin vacation rentals | Sellin travel guide) and has more tourists per resident than any other location in Germany.
Rügen is located in northeastern Germany in the Baltic Sea and its shape is distinguished by many smaller peninsulas. The Rügendamm bridge, which connects the island by road and rail with the city of Stralsund (Stralsund vacation rentals | Stralsund travel guide) on the mainland, crosses over the Strelasund. There are also ferry connections from Stralsund, Greifswald (Greifswald vacation rentals | Greifswald travel guide) and Wolgast.
Where to stay in Binz Rügen?
Featured vacation rental in Binz Rügen:
 [ Vacation Apartment in Binz Rügen - 581 sqft, nice, clean ] |
In addition, check out our selection of hand-selected and quality Binz Rügen vacation rentals and holiday apartments.
Things to See in Binz Rügen
Rügen is one of the most requested holiday destinations in Germany. The island has many popular seaside resorts along the eastern coast, such as Binz, as well as quieter locations in the west. Several of the holiday resorts are accessible via a historic narrow gauge railway employing steam locomotives, called Rügensche Kleinbahn. Tourists come both to enjoy the beaches and to explore the island's diverse landscape. The most popular locations are Binz, Sellin (Sellin vacation rentals | Sellin travel guide), Sassnitz (Sassnitz vacation rentals | Sassnitz travel guide) and Bergen (Bergen vacation rentals | Bergen travel guide) auf Rügen (Rügen vacation rentals | Rügen travel guide) as well as Cape Arkona (Cape Arkona vacation rentals | Cape Arkona travel guide).
The island also offers a huge variety of different beach and shore areas. Rügen is often visited by Wind- and Kitesurfers and offers more than fifteen different locations for surfing. The most popular locations are Dranske, Rosengarten (Rosengarten vacation rentals | Rosengarten travel guide), Wiek, Suhrendorf and Neu Mukran.
Jasmund National park cliffs
[ source: wikipedia ]
Maps and Driving Directions to Binz Rügen
Hauptstraße
[ source: Wikipedia]
Popular Points of Interest in and near Binz Rügen
Hunting Lodge (Jagdschloss Granitz)
[ source: Binz Tourist Office ]
The hunting lodge is located atop the 106-m Tempelberg in the extensive Granitz beech forest, very close to the resort of Binz. From 1837 - 1851, during the flowering of Classicism, Wilhelm Malte I, the prince of Putbus, had the lodge built under the direction of the famous Berlin architect Johann Gottfried Steinmeyer.
The hunting lodge served the nobles of nearby Putbus primarily as a guest house. Beginning in 1900 the family allowed visitors paying a fee to tour the castle. Since its restoration the lodge has become one of the most visited day-trip destinations on the island. The tower 144 metres above the sea affords a panoramic view of the uniquely beautiful Rügen landscape.
Hours: May - September: daily 9 am - 6 pm. October - April: Tuesday - Sunday 10 am - 4 pm.
Beach promenade in Binz with Bathing Resort Architecture
[ source: Binz Tourist Office ]
More and more, people associate the name Binz
with the best in resort architecture preservation. No German resort on the Baltic has a similar perfectly preserved center in this style, which, to be precise, is not a strictly single architectural style at all.
Emerging in a period in which people were influenced by a desire to go back to nature, this architecture embodies the lifestyle of the fin de siècle like little else. People from every part Germany obtained plots of land and charged their local architects with the building of hotels and boarding houses. The beach promenade, the spa, the pier and the bathhouse appeared -and a seaside resort was born. Today with every step visitors discover renovated villas from that era with their playful Art Nouveau elements, gingerbread trim and wood or metal balconies.
Prora, the "Colossus of Rügen"
[ source: Wikipedia ]
Prora, a few kilometres from Binz. is known especially for its colossal Nazi-planned touristic structures. The massive building complex was built between 1936 and 1939 as a Kraft durch Freude (KdF) project. The eight buildings are identical, and while they were planned as a holiday locale, they were never used for this purpose. The complex has a formal heritage listing as a particularly striking example of Third Reich architecture.
As of the beginning of the Second World War only the building's exterior was finished, and the vacation spot was converted into a military barracks, which was taken over after the war by the East German People's Army (NVA) and after 1990 by the unified German armed forces. Now interesting cultural attractions have been established there, such as museums and galleries, which offer information about Prora's evolution.
Related Sites
We collected some useful links related to Binz Rügen. If you know a few more sites not listed here, or also know some insider tips or point of interests for this destination? Please share and submit your Germany travel tip. If approved it will be shown on this page!
- Homepage of Binz Rügen: Binz Rügen (official home page)
- Wikipedia: Binz Rügen
More about the History of Binz Rügen
In the beginning of the first millennium, the island and the surrounding continental areas were settled by the Germanic Rugians, who might have come from Scandinavia or evolved from autochtone tribes and gave their name to the island. In the 7th century, West Slavic R(uj)ani settled Rügen (Rügen vacation rentals | Rügen travel guide), assimilating the Germanic population which had not migrated southward in the Migration period, thereby adopting their name (Rugians --> Rujanes). Many traces of their life can be found today. Rügen became a Slavic principality, stretching from the Recknitz to the Ryck River, with the political center in the ancient town of Charenza, and a religious center in the fortified temple of Svantevit at Cape Arkona (Cape Arkona vacation rentals | Cape Arkona travel guide), the northernmost point of Rügen. In 1168 the area was conquered by Denmark and became the Danish Principality of Rugia. The principality underwent Christianisation and German settlement in the course of the Ostsiedlung. The former monarchs became Danish princes of Rügen. In 1325, Rügen was inherited by the Duchy of Pomerania.
In 1936 the first bridge connecting Rügen (Rügendamm, recently with a second bridge, Rügenbrücke) with the mainland was constructed, replacing the former ferry shuttles. The Nazis added a large resort: Prora (Prora vacation rentals | Prora travel guide), planned by the Strength Through Joy organisation, which aimed to occupy people's free time. However, Prora was never completed. Rügen was a major summer holiday destination in the German Democratic Republic. Rügen remained a holiday island after German reunification; it has now surpassed Sylt (Sylt vacation rentals | Sylt travel guide) as the most popular German island again.
[ source: wikipedia ]
What makes this Live Like a German Binz Rügen Travel Guide special...
This Binz Rügen travel guide provides you with an overview of Binz Rügen, Binz Rügen pictures, and a local travel guide that suggests many special trips, unique activities, and vacation ideas, that you can't find in a typical Germany travel guide.
Some of this information is compiled from popular and well-known sources (e.g., such as Wikipedia, Wikitravel, and great pictures from Flickr). However, what makes this Germany travel guide special is that most of the travel suggestions and insider tips are provided by local residents, property owners, and our readers, who share and submit their travel tips with us. All submissions are then editorially reviewed to ensure high quality. All this information is logically organized within this destination guide to make it easy for you to find things quickly.
In addition, the Binz Rügen destination guide features restaurant recommendations, restaurant reviews, where to go for grocery shopping, sports activities, getting around, cultural events and highlights, entertainment, and health related information - so you are informed for your travel to Germany, and you can learn about all the cool things you can do during your Germany vacation!
