So this is the time of year when we take a moment to do a bit of navel-gazing, and in our case that means taking a look at our page views for the year just finished to see if they can tell us anything about our reader’s interests and travel habits.

The overall winner, way out on top, is our coverage of Germany’s theme parks, and particularly Europa Park, Rust, which recently celebrated its best-ever year. Lucky them, getting a lot of free traffic via us!

That is followed by our page on the beautiful beaches of the Baltic, which is perhaps a bit of a surprise, given that the former East doesn’t generally rank highly on most travel itineraries. But then our page on the East in general follows quickly on, suggesting that last year’s travellers may have been inspired by the 25th anniversary of the Fall of the Wall to have a peek at what once lay behind.

On a similar theme, but more historic, our page on What Happened to the Prussians ranks very highly, and attracts the most reader comments of all our pages, as people try to find out more about their ancestors.

Next on the list comes another less obvious choice: our page on Hut Hiking in the Alps. We presume that this page gets a lot of hits because it isn’t easy to get relevant information on this phenomenon, which isn’t widely known outside continental Europe.

Then come more obviously touristic subjects: the Black Forest and Harz Mountains, and Mad King Ludwig’s fabulous castles. Cultural and gastronomic traditions such as Shrebergarten alotments, beer, applewine, stollen, and nudity on the beaches are all popular.

A lot of people come onto the site looking for German-specialist tour operators, of which we provide a listing in our Getting There section (frankly, there aren’t many). A perennial favourite is our Weird & Wunderbar section, in which we store bits of video and images which have something unusual to say about Germany and the Germans.

Amongst the hotel options we recommend, the most popular is the delightful sleeping beauty’s castle Dornröschenschloss Sababurg, although we doubt many people actually stay there, given the limited availability of rooms. Also very popular is the Ayurveda Parkschlösschen on the banks of the Mosel.

There’s plenty of other stuff on the site which doesn’t get a lot of traffic, but it is all worth hunting out, depending on where you want to go, and when. We like to think of them as GermanyisWunderbar’s hidden gems!

We get a lot of hits on this website about hut-hiking. For those that are not familiar with the idea, it is a form of high-level hiking in the Alps, with accommodation in so-called ‘huts’, often considerable establishments with accommodation for 100-plus hikers, mostly around 2,000 metres above sea-level, and inaccessible by wheeled traffic. They open when the snows have melted, usually around June time, and close again about now – at the beginning of October.

Their function is primarily to save serious hikers the need to carry heavy camping equipment up hill and down dale, or to go plunging down into the valleys at the end of every day to find hot food and somewhere warm and dry to stay. But they are also great communal gathering places of like-minded people, very convivial, partly thanks to all the beer being consumed, for despite being away from a road end, huts stay well supplied (sometimes even by helicopter) and there are no shortages. Some of the ‘huts’ even have wifi.

Anyway, why this blog, when we already have a perfectly good post on the subject? Well, I’ve just been hut-hiking in Austria’s Lech mountains, and I was surprised to find that it is almost entirely a German affair. Germany of course has its own huts in the German Alps, but the German Alpine Association (DAV) dominates the Austrian Alps, too.

In total there are around a thousand huts in the Austrian mountains, and a majority are run by individual regional branches of the DAV. I stayed, for example, in Hanauer Hütte and in Anhalter Hütte, the first run by the Hanau branch of the DAV, and the second by the Ober Neckar branch, which is in the Black Forest. And these places were like outposts of their region, with photos of back home on the walls, and with a significant percentage of walkers from their own home town come to savour their own bit of paradise. It was like regional embassies in the mountains.

While I commend the organisation for the effort it must take to run what is in fact Austria’s biggest holiday accommodation sector – more bed-nights than hotels or campgrounds – I am not so keen on the Germanification. It’s a bit like the instinct to unroll one’s beach towel on the best of the sun-loungers by the pool, to stake a claim to ownership when ownership doesn’t really exist.

But then I can’t really bring myself to criticise. Alpine huts are undeniably a Very Good Thing, and there are plenty of British bars in Benidorm. It doesn’t really matter who runs the huts, as long as somebody does. And Germany’s DAV probably does it better than anyone else.

The Bavarian Alps are paradise for the avid hiker.  There are several stunning, long distance trails like the Maximiliansweg, where you hike from Lake Constance to Berchtesgaden, or the popular Heilbronner Höhenweg in the Allgäu Alps. The best part of such high-level hiking is that you don’t have to interrupt your journey every evening to descend into the valleys, thanks to a network of mountain huts with accommodation run by alpine clubs and private companies.

The German Alpine Club or DAV (Deutscher Alpenverein) has over 300 such huts throughout Germany, many of them spread throughout the Bavarian Alps. Members of the Alpine Club get many benefits, including discounts on accommodations and cheaper meals and booking preference, but their huts are open to non-members as well.

The DAV huts are subdivided into three categories, starting with the most remote. Category One huts are generally at least an hour’s hike away from any mechanical transport, such as a chairlift. Members may book beds in these huts ahead of time, but non-members may not. (DAV states on its website that it is general practice for all its huts to keep 25 percent vacancy until the evening so that they can provide accommodation to hikers in case of emergency). If you are staying at a Category One hut, they will only have a small food and drink selection, so you should plan on bringing extra refreshments.

Category Two huts are generally less rustic and have more meal options. They are also closer to mechanised transport. Members still have booking priority over non-members, but non-members may book ahead of time.

Category Three huts are the most accessible by road or mechanised transport, have limited overnight accommodation and generally cater to day visitors.

The Alpine Club’s sleeping arrangements vary from dormitory style, to bunk beds (four to a room); some even have private family rooms and double rooms. In the private rooms, there’s usually bedding provided, although it’s best to check. But in the dormitory-style rooms (Matratzenlager) which only have mattresses on the floor, and sometimes accommodate up to 40 people, you need to bring your own sleeping bag. Prices range from €10 to €25+, with cheaper fees for children and students.

When planning your hiking itinerary, it’s important to call and find out if the hut will be open and has availability. Huts nowadays have phones and most of them even their own website (just Google the hut’s name) and hut guardians usually speak some English. There’s no central agency, so you have to call the hut directly, as only they have the latest availability records.

A few huts are open year round, whilst most others are only open from late spring to early autumn. Some are closed one day a week.

The German Alpine Club has information on membership, and a database of alpine huts.

Magdalena Seifert is a seasoned traveller, enthusiastic walker, nature lover and a qualified Mountain Leader, originally from Bavaria. Her website offers a directory of hiking-friendly accommodation throughout Germany in general, and also about the German Alpine region, particularly for the English-speaking market.