Our resort

Long before well-to-do guests in Travemünde started splashing around in the Baltic Sea, Travemünde itself was a small fishing village in the shadow of a castle on the banks of the Trave. It has been part of Lübeck since 1329 as the “Queen of the Hanseatic League” bought the small settlement for the precise sum of 1,060 Lübeck Marks to secure a passage to the Baltic Sea. Many floods and fires over the course of the centuries took their toll on Travemünde, but some of the old fishermen’s cottages and small, half-timbered houses withstood the ravages of time and were lovingly restored. Today, for example, you can embark on a short journey through time in the Old Town around St. Lorenz church and retrace Travemünde’s history.

Travemünde’s maritime heart beats in the fishermen's harbour. There are still some fishermen here who put out to sea at night in their cutters to catch fish for a living. If you like getting up early, you can find them on the quay in the morning when they return and sell their fresh catch directly from on board their vessel. There are also quaint fish stalls here selling herring, crab or salmon rolls as a snack between meals. The home-made fish cakes are also tasty.

For centuries, the old lighthouse in Travemünde showed arriving ships the way to safety in the harbour. The lighting technology would still work today but the old lighthouse was shut down in the 1970s. Today, it houses a maritime museum on eight floors. From the circular lookout at the very top, you have a grand view of ships large and small in the Trave estuary, the majestic Passat and the Beach Bay site on the opposite side of the Trave. The steps won’t be any trouble for you, will they!

The Nordermole jetty is the most exciting promenade in Travemünde. You can walk to the very end and from there watch as the ships pass by under your nose. You feel as though you could reach out and touch them. Here you are up close with the sea, wind and waves and you can feel the salt and spray on your skin. This breakwater was originally constructed to allow ships laden with valuable cargo unfettered access to the harbour. At night, a fire beacon was lit at the end of the breakwater to mark the entrance to the harbour for sailors to make sure they did not run aground and were not robbed by pirates on the beach. Over the course of time, the jetty was repeatedly extended and today it must be the longest walkway running directly into the open sea.

Welcome aboard! There was a time when the legendary four-masted barque Passat sailed the seven seas, but today you can visit it as Travemünde’s floating emblem. This proud museum ship lies majestically in Priwall harbour, greeting ships entering the Trave estuary. Sometimes her “sister” ship Padua, now sailing under a Russian flag under the name of Kruzenshtern, and other large sailing vessels drop in to the harbour for a flying visit. The Peking has recently returned to Hamburg and will definitely be a new attraction of the port of Hamburg. A further sister ship, the “Pamir”, sank in a hurricane in 1957. The Pamir chapel in St. Jacob’s church in Lübeck displays the Pamir's lifeboat No. 2 which sprang a leak.

If you just want to switch off and find peace and quiet, there’s a miracle prescription for you in Travemünde: Watching ships! Small fishing boats, large sailing yachts, huge ferries and elegant cruise ships – the gaily coloured parade of ships passing you in the Trave estuary is endless. You can let your mind wander where it will without a care in the world. There is always something to look at and discover: sometimes the home port of a steamer can be identified and at others, you can wave at the passengers sitting on deck. You will have the best seat from one of the promenades, Priwall harbour and the fishermen's harbour – simply sit back, relax and imagine yourself on a ship in the open sea.

Travemünde is one of the oldest seaside resorts on the Baltic Sea coast and it has an illustrious past. It all began in 1802 when the resort was founded by smart businessmen in Travemünde. As a result, a lot of things changed almost overnight in this old fishing village. Suddenly, well-heeled guests from all over Europe were coming to Travemünde to bathe in the sea and experience a relaxing resort by the sea. The new, elegant bathing culture spilled over from England in those days to reach German shorelines, and suddenly the great and the good wanted nothing more than pristine nature in the summer (but not too much of it) and the Baltic Sea (but only in a bathing machine). In the first year following its foundation, the private resort counted over 3,000 bathers. Travemünde grew rapidly and the scent of the big wide world was noticeable everywhere in the new resort. The breathtaking success story of Travemünde thus ran its course.