Sometimes Berlin feels like an island, too rarely my way leads me out of the city and into the countryside, enjoying the many beauties northern Germany has to offer. The past weekend I finally managed once again to travel up North to the Baltic Sea, more precise onto the island Rügen, Germany’s biggest island and home to the world famous chalk cliffs.

My perfect Rügen day includes sleeping in, running up and down the beach before breakfast and then taking the path through the forests from Binz to Sellin to have the gorgeous fruit filled Wareniki at the Russian tea house Tschai Kowski, finally walking back to Binz and enjoying a delicious dinner at Strandhalle.

There’s so much more to do here, like of course seeing the chalk cliffs, or to visit the uncanny yet fascinating ruins of Prora, an unbelievably big, yet never finished tourist structure planned and started during Nazi-Germnay to house 20.000 beach holiday makers, or the perfect classicist city of Putbus, or a day-trip to the island of birds, Vilm, or to the traditional fisher village Vitt just near Cape Arkona and have the best Fischbrötchen of the island, or a round-trip to see all the buildings of Ulrich Müther, beautiful concrete shell structures in bright white to be found all over the island as bus stations, first aid posts, former restaurants, swimming pools and many more.

If you want to stay in Binz, I also (and seriously) recommend you to try the smoked fish at Fischräucherei Kuse, the dark bread Das Dunkle at Bäckerei Peters, to eat at Meerbar and drink at Monte Vino.

It’s quite easy to get here, Deutsche Bahn has several connections some even without transfer in four hours from Hauptbahnhof to Binz, with prices starting at 43 Euros (!) for 1 person round-trip in 2nd class. Best months to come here are March til early June and then from September to late October. In July and August the island is crowded with too many people, while May and June might already be warm enough to maybe have a swim. But you should be aware that temperatures here are (even) lower than in Berlin, although the sun can get quite strong in summer.

Start planning. Now.