Rügen. The German Island with scandinavian character!
How many of you have heard about Rügen? Do you know where it is? Or maybe you are planning to go there? Wunderbar, that you got here! I’ve just prepared great content about this amazing place. All this to encourage you to visit Rügen and share with you some valuable advices. Due to the large amount of information, I divided this post into 5 parts. I hope it will be useful for your travel! Enjoy.
Rügen – How did we find out this place?
I had a looser day during my internship. I was browsing travel pages till I found Rügen. I was so in love! It was only February, but I’ve already known that the most exciting tour on my Erasmus scholarship will be to Rügen!
Mecklenburg-West Pomerania – wait, wait, wait… but where is it exactly?
To be honest, I’ve never been to this place even on map till I found Rügen. Perhaps, those who live in North-West Poland know this land better (because they are neighbours). However it’s not very popular place for foreign tourists. Mecklenburg is also one of the poorest and the highest unemployment Land. I know, it doesn’t sound good, however this also doesn’t mean that we should skip this region. It’s also a beautiful land, with an amazing coastline, resorts, and beautiful cities. Rügen is also the largest German island, has the smallest national park, and is linked to the continent via longest bridge in Germany. Rügen is a real treasure of Mecklenburg. Discover Rügen with us, and then check it out by yourself!
How to get to Rügen?
From Germany
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By bus / car /train
For me, it was really easy to get to this place, because I was travelling from Leipzig (as I mentioned above, it was my erasmus trip). I had a Flixbus, that goes directly to Rügen. Travel duration is around 7,5h and it costs around 40-50€ round way. It doesn’t matter when you will buy this ticket. Usually prices for this route are not flexible (even if you wann buy them in advance). This bus passes also Berlin. However, through the longest bridge in Europe, you will easily access this Island! That is why you can always check the Regio Train schedule because it might be much easier/or even cheaper than by bus or car. For example you can also take a train from Berlin to Sassnitz with one change in Stralsund and 4,5h later you are on your spot. One ticket costs 44€, but for 2 passengers only 52€ (26€ per person). Everything depends on number of travelers, but I must say if you are 3-5 it should be always cheaper by train.
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Where to get off?
Our goal was Sassnitz. Unfortunately, Flixbus didn’t pass this city. It goes to the most popular kurort on Rügen – Sellin & Binz. This means that if you wanna go to the North part of the Island or to Sassnitz, you have to get off in Bergen and take a public transport. However, if you are going for example to the Göhren, you can go with Flixbus till Sellin and than take a public transport. From Bergen to Sassnitz you have two travel possibilietis: train or bus. Bus is a lil bit cheaper and of course not that fast. We took a bus. Prepare lots of money if you are going to travel by bus on Rügen – it’s really expensive!
You can purchase Flixbus ticket here: https://www.flixbus.pl/
Below, I am attaching very useful map!
From Poland
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Transport costs
Darek was traveling from Poland, so if someone is also traveling from this country I hope it will find useful!
He started early morning from Warsaw. He took a bla bla car to Szczecin. Around 1PM he had a train from Szczecin to Germany with two changes. With a great solution offered by Deutsche Bahn, he had only one ticket. Deutsche Bahn offers „Land Tickets” so you can go from town to town in one day, mainly from monday to friday 09:00-00:00 and during weekend 00:00-00:00. Ticket costs 23€ for one person, however, for 2 person is only 27€! This means that one person pays only 13,5€! Be careful, because maximum number for one ticket is 5 person. And this is the best deal for you, because whole ticket costs 39€ (for one person is less than 8€)!!
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Types of tickets
On one ticket you can enter also into neighboring lands (eg. The Saxon ticket is validate in Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia). Other tickets are validate also in neighboring countries (like our Mecklenburg-Vorpommern-Ticket in Szczecin).
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Where to buy tickets?
Tickets can be purchased online, in the machine on the Station (can be a bit complicated for beginners), or in special points where they charge you an additional fee 2 €. Darek bought online, which wasn’t good move, because you may find companions on the station who are going to the same place! You can save a lot.
Train tickets: https://www.bahn.de/p/view/index.shtml
… and here you can read a lil bit more about tickets: https://www.bahn.de/p/view/angebot/regio/regionale-tickets/meckpomm/mecklenburg-vorpommern-ticket.shtml (Unfortunately, I didn’t find english version, but feel free to ask me for translation or any additional questions).
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The route of the train
Let’s quickly come back to the train Szczecin – Sassnitz. Travel duration is not that long – only 4h. Train goes every 2h, from 07:00 AM to 07:00 PM. There are 2 changes. First one after 40 min in Pasewalk and you have 40 min to the next train. Second one is in Stralsund, and here you have to wait only 18 min. This is the last stop before Island. Than you must decide where to get off!
Before departure
We always read blogs, guides or ask friends for tips. With Rügen we had a problem, because we couldn’t find useful informations. That is why we were going to the tourist information every day! We downloaded some available apps, but they weren’t very useful. I hope that our experience, advices and tips contained on this blog will guided you during your trip to this Island.
Let’s talk about weather.
We went at the turn of June and July. Overall a very pleasant temperature, not exceeding 25 degrees in the day. Mostly cloudy, but the sun also managed to warm. However, on the first day was raining horribly until noon. T-shirts and shorts were very welcomed. Baltic was cold. Not too many people for sea bathing, especially when the air temperature did not guarantee proper warm up after this activity.
Time for sightseeing!
What else could we see?
Although we were not, but we have heard / read that it is worth seeing:
Putbus – it suppose to be a royal residence. The most representative part is oval square and English garden.
Palace Jagdschloss Granitz – is located on a hill Tempelberg.
Hidden Island – amazing beaches and lighthouses. Unfortunately, access is quite expensive, even if you plan to get there by yourself and not with organized tours. Although, it is worth. If we had an extra day it would definitely visit this place.
Göhren – recommended to us by tourist information in Sassnitz, because of the beautiful scenery and charming bike paths. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to go there.
They say that you can explore Rügen for 2 weeks. I would say that one and a half of the week is the max! That is why I would love to come back after those 3 days to explore a lil bit more!
P.S. Did you know that Rügen took 24th place in the top 100 attractions in Germany? https://www.germany.travel/pl-mobile/miasta-kultura/top-100/germany-travel-attractions.html
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