Discover Südlohn: Sports Campus, Nature Trail and Schlinge

Südlohn offers several ways to shape a stay: the Sports Campus focuses on recreation and recreational sports, the Heimathütte is the starting point for a trail featuring historical and nature-related themes, and the Schlinge helps orient visitors between two districts. If you are looking for a hotel in Südlohn, these different highlights can help with your travel planning.

Sports, nature and local character

The Südlohn Sports Campus offers recreational activities for all generations. These include a boules court, mountain bike trails, beach volleyball and a pump track, as well as other recreational sports facilities. The activities cater to different interests: visitors interested in cycling can find two specific options in the mountain bike trails and pump track; boules and beach volleyball add other forms of recreation.

The History and Nature Trail, which runs by the Heimathütte in Südlohn, offers a different focus. The trail provides information about the municipality and local flora and fauna. Local history and nature are therefore further themes for a stay, alongside the recreational facilities at the Sports Campus.

The Schlinge also helps visitors understand the geography of Südlohn and Oeding. It rises in the Gescher-Estern farming community and connects the two districts along its 13.2-kilometre route to the national border. This provides a concrete geographical reference point along a watercourse, alongside the History and Nature Trail’s focus on the municipality, plants and animals.

Further information about the wider destination of Borken

The wider destination of Borken includes the district of Borken, which is in North Rhine-Westphalia and the Münster administrative district, north of the Ruhr area. It is also the westernmost district of the Münsterland. It shares a 108-kilometre border with the Dutch regions of Achterhoek and Twente, a location that makes cross-border excursions possible.

For cyclists, the district of Borken has a network of more than 5,000 kilometres of well-maintained cycle paths away from busy roads. Signposted routes invite visitors to explore. Themed routes in the district of Borken and Münsterland include the 100 Castles Route, the Hohe Mark Cycle Route and the Flamingo Route. The junction network allows for flexible trip planning across regional and district borders. These options offer different ways to find your way: the cycle path network, signposted routes, themed routes and the junction network.

The wider destination of Borken also has historical and cultural attractions. Gemen Water Castle was built more than 900 years ago and stands on two islands in the former marshland of the Bocholter Aa. Since 1946, the Diocese of Münster has operated it as a youth education centre under the name “Jugendburg Gemen.” Freiheit Gemen is a distinctive historic urban ensemble and has been documented as a separate legal district since the Middle Ages, giving it a special legal status.

At kult Westmünsterland in Vreden, visitors can explore an exhibition on the history and culture of the Westmünsterland and the neighbouring Dutch region of Achterhoek. The permanent exhibition looks at borders from different perspectives: trade and transport, smuggling and the law, faith and religion, globalisation and regional identity, and the past and present. It complements the historical themes with questions about everyday life, culture and change in the border regions.

For a different kind of excursion, a five-kilometre path runs around Pröbstingsee in Borken. Visitors can hire pedal boats at the boathouse there. The information describes two different activities in the same place: a walk around the lake and an activity on the water. By comparison, the stated length of the Schlinge refers to its route to the national border and its connection between Südlohn and Oeding.

Discover more destinations: Schöppingen, Legden, Reken, Vreden, Gescher, Heiden, Rhede, Velen.

Go to the wider travel overview: Borken.