Family - Germany is Wunderbar

Germany Holidays: Germany’s oldest and smartest seaside hotel

The Grand Hotel Heiligendamm, first built in 1793, quickly became a spa retreat for the aristocracy of central Europe. But it has been a struggle to keep in going in modern times.

Germany Holidays: Chemnitz comes in from the cold

In the early 20th century it was the wealthiest city in all Germany, and during the Communist period it was one of the four big hitters of the GDR (German Democratic Republic). Today, the other three – Berlin, Dresden and Leipzig – have all moved on, but Chemnitz has lagged behind.

Germany Holidays: Prora, a giant resort with a dark past

Built by the Nazis as a giant holiday resort for the masses, Prora on Germany’s Baltic coast has recently been reborn as a complex of upmarket apartments and hotels

Germany Holidays: The real Santa’s workshop

Seiffen, a former mining village in the Ore Mountains south of Dresden, has around 130 workshops making traditional wooden figures and decorations for Christmas shops and markets

Germany Holidays: Mecklenburg’s live-aboard waterways

A little-known world of lakes and waterways lies pillowed in rolling agricultural land north of Berlin. A bit of adventure, a bit of history, and a lot of nature.

Germany Holidays: Leipzig emerges from Berlin’s shadow

Much loved by locals and visitors alike, Leipzig is one of Germany’s best kept urban secrets

Germany Holidays: Beautiful Baltic Beaches

Beaching it, up north. Germany’s Baltic Coast is full of character, white beaches and opportunities to relax and unwind.

Germany Holidays: Dresden’s paddlesteamers

A carefully preserved fleet of paddlesteamers work the Elbe from Dresden, on routes that provide the basis for several scenic day trips.

Germany Holidays: the Berlin S-Bahn

The elevated S-Bahn train route across central Berlin still has a frisson of history about it, a shadow of east/west hostility, of ghost stations and of spies coming in from the cold.

Germany Holidays: Get your kit off

Nakedness and Germany go together like…Curry and Wurst. But the FKK – Freikörperkultur – is beginning to lose its hold on a nation that is relaxed about public nudity.