A greener Germany: The best sustainable travel initiatives across the country

Farmer Borchers showed little surprise when I asked to sleep in his barn.

“Two things,” he said, as he closed the doors of the cowshed: “No smoking in bed. And mind the bird.” He pointed upwards. High in the barn window, a song-thrush was sitting in its nest. I assured him that his bird was safe with me.

Once he left, I unrolled my sleeping bag and started to undress. Then, just as I was hunkering down, a patrol of cats marched through. I could see this would be no ordinary night’s sleep.

For cyclists, hikers and eco-minded travellers alike, Germany’s heuhotels, or hay hotels, have become a popular form of accommodation (bauernhofurlaub.de; heu-hotel.de). In my cycle ride across Lower Saxony, I stayed in three such places, although only Borchers’ barn actually had hay in it; the rest consisted of straw beds, so as to be allergy free.

All three nights were brilliantly warm and, most importantly, sustainable. However, I did have one moment of anxiety on night number two, when a sudden noise that sounded like a biscuit trapped in a tumble dryer turned out to be the automatic cattle feeder swinging into action.

It should come as no surprise to any Germany watcher that the nation’s green credentials go right down to the (dried) grassroots. This is, after all, the nation whose Green Party has played a key part in the recent governing coalition. Although pushing through a law demanding complete conversion for all households to heat pumps has proved to be a step too far as the election looms in February.

This is the nation where bottle deposits are still a big thing, and where households who have lots of general rubbish end up paying for it by the kilo, while everything recyclable is free. It is also a country that has turned away completely from nuclear power, setting very ambitious goals for its future energy supply, with a target of 80% of all electricity to come from renewable sources by 2030, and 100% by 2035.

It’s no surprise, then, that sustainable tourism is a big trend here. And you don’t have to sleep in haybarns to get a taste for it.

Top sustainable travel initiatives

The biggest news in recent years has been the introduction of the Deutschland Ticket (int.bahn.de), which gives unlimited access to both rail (except intercity express trains) and bus transport across the country for just €58 (£48) a month.

Unlike the UK, where many branch lines have been cut, the German rail network has branches everywhere. There are also plenty of good regional deals to be found, such as the Bavaria Ticket that allows 24-hour unlimited travel for up to five people (from €32/£26.50; int.bahn.de).

Some 24 areas also give away cards or ticket booklets that include free public transport for overnight guests, as part of DB’s Destination Nature programme (fahrtziel-natur.de). For example, in the Harz Mountains, visitors will pay a spa or guest fee to their host on arrival; in return, they receive a booklet that serves as a Harz holiday ticket (HATIX), allowing free bus and tram travel in the area.

Green accommodation

A large number of hotels are changing to meet various eco-certification standards. At the top level are Germany’s Bio Hotels (biohotels.info). The requirements for this certification are strict: for example, all food served has to be organic, the electricity supply has to be 100% green, the bathroom cosmetics need to be natural and heating should come from heat pumps or similar.

There are several other eco-authenticators to look out for when booking. The Biosphere, Certified Green Hotel, DEHOGA Environmental Check, GreenSign and Green Key labels are all signals that your accommodation is working to become more sustainable.

Germany has led the way in big-budget flagship projects that recycle former industrial sites for new purposes, rather than knocking them down. The most quoted example is the Zeche Zollverein coal mine and coking plant in Essen, which is now a UNESCO-recognised museum and leisure complex.

Also in the Ruhr area are former slag heaps that have been turned into recreational and art sites, such as the Tetrahedron (Tetraeder) at Bottrop and the rollercoaster-walkway known as the Tiger and Turtle at Duisburg. These and several other artificial hills are connected via a 200km network of paths known as Halden-Hügel-Hopping (slag-heap hill hopping).

Cycling holidays

The nation that invented the motorway is also extremely considerate of the cyclist. Many a major road is shadowed by a dedicated cycleway, while local bus services in popular holiday areas come with cycle racks on the back. There are also several long-distance cycle routes of note, including those along the banks of the Rhine, the Elbe and the Danube rivers.

Other popular cycleways include the route around Lake Constance and the path that runs along the Baltic Coast. And for those of a historical bent, there’s a cycle path that follows the old border between East and West, known as the Iron Curtain Trail. For more ideas, visit cycling-holiday.com/germany.

Boat and bike cruising

There’s a strong overlap between cycling and river cruising, particularly on the Mosel and the Rhine. The beauty of this kind of travel is that your hotel – the boat – moves with you, dropping you off in the best spots. Organisers can suggest a cycling itinerary, picking you up downriver later in the day. Or just stay on board for a leisurely cruise instead.

For this category of travel, it is best to stick to smaller, more boutique boats (often converted barges), where the experience will be more personal. There are some good suggestions at boatbiketours.com.

In the foothills of the Black Forest, not far from the border with France, Freiburg is leading the way in Germany when it comes to cutting emissions. For transport, that means reducing local reliance on cars by ensuring that 70% of the population lives within 500m of a tram stop, as well as creating a cycle network that now spans some 400km.

But it’s Freiburg’s adoption of renewables that has caught the eye in particular. The city’s Vauban district has become a model of sustainability, with much of its power now solar-generated. The town hall even generates more energy than it requires (from solar, ground source and air source pumps), feeding the excess power back into the grid.

All this flagship activity has created an economy of its own, with cutting-edge eco-consultancies settling their HQs here, employing 12,000 people in the sector.

Of course, solar can’t be relied on at all times, so there are other initiatives too. The biggest is bioenergy generated from wood, forestry byproducts and household waste. Then there’s a small amount of hydroelectric and wind-power generation, plus energy that comes from anaerobic digesters on farms across the region, turning waste and other organic materials into biofuel.

Last year’s opening of the Reverb by Hard Rock hotel atop a giant Second World War bunker in Hamburg set the tone for the city’s green revolution. The bunker, which is home to a concert hall, a climbing centre, a nightclub and more, has always been considered too large to remove. However, a five-floor addition to its roof has added a whole new sustainable dimension to the building.

The extension incorporates some 4,700 trees and shrubs, 13,000 other plants and a small apple orchard, as well as a roof garden reached via a ‘mountain path’ – a 560m-long metal girdle that winds around the exterior. The bunker’s rooftop is now the highest freely accessible public space in Hamburg (hamburgbunker.com).

This development fits perfectly with the city’s avowed goal to install a total of 100 hectares of green roof space in the metropolitan area by early 2025. Plans include the greening of at least 70% of all new buildings and any suitably flat or gently pitched roofs that are undergoing renovation.

Schmilka: eco-village extraordinaire

At first sight, there’s nothing too extraordinary about Schmilka. This handsome hamlet of half-timbered houses is wedged into a cleft in the hills on the east bank of the Elbe, a few kilometres downriver from the Czechia border. But its fame goes far beyond its looks.
Schmilka’s guiding light has been Sven-Erik Hitzer, a rock-climbing enthusiast who bought a house here in the 1990s as a holiday home. Since then, he has acquired several more houses and given Schmilka a new lease of life as a sustainable retreat.

Visitors are even discouraged from arriving by car. Paddlesteamers (and trains) from Dresden head upriver to Bad Schandau, the main resort town for Saxon Switzerland National Park, from where Schmilka is just a ten-minute bus ride away. The village is also easily reached via the Painters’ Way footpath that threads the hill country of Saxon Switzerland.

The first sign of anything ‘different’ as you arrive are the al-fresco hot tubs in the village centre. But that’s just a taster. Today, the food in its restaurants, the bread from its bakery and the beer from its brewery are all prepared with sustainability in mind.

The brewery follows 200-year-old principles, and the flour for the bakery is still ground on millstones powered by water. Even the furniture in the accommodation is mostly hand-made, while the hot tubs are heated by burning logs sourced from the nearby hills.
In the village, there’s a spa with various naturopathic and ayurvedic offerings, as well as several places to stay. The 17th-century Hotel zur Mühle lies at the heart of Schmilka, but it only has eight rooms, so it pays to book well ahead.