Sassnitz: the old town

Sassnitz is a town in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in Germany, a seaside resort on Rügen that has been famous for centuries.

Get in

By train

• 1 Bahnhof Sassnitz (Railway Station). Trains from Bergen auf Rügen, Binz and Stralsund. A change may be necessary at Bergen or Leitzow if arriving on a long distance train. The train station and bus station are next to each other, and only a short walk to the town. The station only sees regional train service and no long distance trains  

By bus

There is a bus link to/from the ferry port (for Sweden). If using the regular Sassnitz - Binz bus service for the ferry, the nearest stop is in Dubnitz (after the turning to the port, at the top of the hill, if travelling from the Binz direction). It will seem quite a long way from this stop to the terminal if you are backpacking!

By ferry

See also: Baltic Sea Ferries

• 2 Port of Sassnitz (Mukran Port). The port was built during the GDR era by "Bausoldaten" (soldiers who refused to serve with a weapon and were used in civil engineering projects but often discriminated against by the GDR regime) to serve an important role as a cargo link to the USSR bypassing the often "unreliable" People's Republic of Poland, where insurrections and attempted revolutions made the hold of the Polish communists on power appear tenuous. While the importance of the freight ships has diminished somewhat, there are still numerous passenger ferries and freight trains are still loaded onto ferries bound for ports as far away as Klaipeda.  

Get around

Frequent buses to Binz and other Rügen towns. Beware that, on rural services, changing from one bus to another seems to be popular — the driver will announce "umsteigen (placename)".

See

Sassnitz: the harbor

• Old part of the town. behind the north-eastern end of the harbour. The town is on cliffs above the harbour, there are steps down near the shops, or it can be approached through the old town. Walk past the shops (the sea should be on your right) and fork right downhill. Ferries to Sweden used to leave from the harbour here, but now use the modern port near Dubnitz known as "Fährhafen Sassnitz". 
• U-boot museum (near the disused ferry terminal). Perhaps surprisingly, the U-boat (submarine) on display is a former British submarine, H.M.S. Otus of the "Oberon" class, which was towed to Sassnitz after having been saved from a scrapyard in Portsmouth (GB). 

Do

Sassnitz harbor: the conning tower of HMS Otus is on the left-hand side

• Hike into the Jasmund National Park

Buy

The cliffs at Kap Arkona

There is a supermarket along past the shops, turn to the left if you've come down through the pedestrian street from the train/bus stations.

Eat

• Zur Alten Bank - Gaststätte & Pension, Hafenstraße 19, ☏ +49 38392 373436. 
• La Bella Vita, Hafenstr. 5, ☏ +49 38392 675197. 

Sleep

• Kurhotel Sassnitz, Hauptstraße 1, ☏ +49 38392 530. 
• Strandhotel Sassnitz, Rosenstraße 12 (Strandpromenade), ☏ +49 38392 67710. 

Go next

• Jasmund National Park
• Binz
• Take a bus to Kap Arkona. A change of bus may be necessary in Altenkirken, although the driver may confuse passengers by simply changing the number of the bus they are on. There is an extensive craft centre near the bus terminus in Putgarten. It is about a 2 km walk to the Kap, where there is a lighthouse museum.

Routes through Sassnitz

Hamburg ← Bergen auf Rügen ←

W  E

→ Trelleborg → Malmö