North Hesse
North Hesse is a region in the Hesse state of Germany. The destination is located in the Uplands of Central Germany.
Cities
- Bad Hersfeld - Bad Hersfelder Festspiele (also known as the Salzburg of the North)
- Eschwege - Werratal
- Frankenberg (Eder) - Edertal
- Kassel - whose waterworks are a UNESCO World Heritage Site
- Korbach - Hanseatic town
- Witzenhausen - with cherry gardens spreading across the rolling hills, from where you can enjoys brilliant views of its old town
- Fulda
- Alsfeld
- Bad Orb
- Gelnhausen
- Giessen
- Herborn
- Limburg an der Lahn
- Marburg
- Wetzlar
Other destinations
- Reinhardswald - known for its myths and legends
- Habichtswald - with Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe
- Kellerwald - with Kellerwald-Edersee National Park
- Knüll
- Waldecker Land - with Upland (ski resort)
- Waldhessen
Understand
North Hesse is notably hillier and less densely populated than the Southern parts of the state. Apart from major population centers and transportation hubs like Kassel this area is mostly rural, at least by German standards. Its small towns and even its cities used to have a lot of half timbered houses. As they are prone to burning down, many of them were destroyed in wars but especially in the smaller towns many still remain.
Get in
By train
Kassel is well connected to the major North-South Axis of Germany's high speed rail system, the Hannover-Würzbrug mainline with hourly ICEs between Munich and Hamburg along this line. Keep in mind that there are two stations in Kassel and that ICEs for the most part don't stop at Kassel Hauptbahnhof but instead at Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe.
By car
Kassel is well connected to the German Autobahn network. Keep in mind that much of the holiday North-South traffic passes through these Autobahns in summer and be prepared for congested roads. As both (Northern) Italy and the German North Sea Coast are popular tourism destinations for Germans during the summertime, expect congestion in both directions, especially along bottlenecks and Autobahnkreuze (~Autobahn-junctions).
By plane
While there is a small airport in Kassel, you are more likely to fly into Frankfurt Airport (FRA IATA) or in some cases Hannover (HAJ IATA) in neighboring Niedersachsen.
Get around
The northern part of the region is covered by Norhessischer Verkehrsverbund, whose common ticket scheme covers local and regional bus lines, regional trains and the extensive tram network of Kassel. Their website unfortunately has no English version.
See
- Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe (mountain park) in Kassel - since June 2013 world heritage
- Reinhardswald low mountain range 20 kilometre in north of Kassel, with Sleeping Beauty's Castle Sababurg
- Edsee - Lake Edersee, which is located in an nice landscape, is one of the biggest reserviours of Germany (length 27 km). Here you find at castle Waldeck an attractive panorama view onto the basin. A frequent place is the Edersee dam.
Itineraries
Do
The hilly, forested terrain makes the region ideal for hiking, and the lakes are popular for watersports, especially sailing in smaller boats.
Eat
- Ahle Wurst - a hard pork sausage
Drink
Go next
- Rhine-Main region centered around Frankfurt can provide a stark contrast with to its metropolitan and cosmopolitan feel.
- The federal state of Thuringia remains one of the least visited by foreign visitors, but holds a wealth of unspoiled forests and historically important cities such as Weimar, where Goethe and Schiller lived or Eisenach with the Wartburg
- Sauerland-Siegerland to the east is one of the least populated regions in Germany and home to the European bison