Discover Halle (Westphalia)

Halle (Westphalia) can be explored from several perspectives: a nature reserve, hiking and cycling trails, and a museum featuring works from the childhood and youth of significant artists offer different ways to plan your day. If you are planning a stay, you can combine these interests with your journey and decide in advance which destinations you would like to focus on during your time there.

Woodland landscape and trails in Halle (Westphalia)

Tatenhausener Forst nature reserve covers 114 hectares and is located in the Halle districts of Hörste and Bokel. It is a tangible point of reference for the landscape around Halle. Nature and history also sit side by side on the “Haller Spuren” circular hiking trail: a section around 1.5 kilometres long follows the “Geschichtspfad Waldbegräbnisse” (Forest Burial Grounds History Trail). The “Kaffeemühle” viewpoint lies near the end of the circular trail.

The “Haller Spuren” trail is well signposted in both directions. Its marker is a green sign with white footprints and the words “Haller Spuren”. This provides clear guidance for planning your walk: you can recognise the signs in either direction and identify the section along the history trail as part of the circular route.

For cyclists, the “Radweg für Genießer” (Cycling Route for Connoisseurs) offers a different perspective on the landscape. Its stage starting in Halle town centre crosses the Teuto ridge, passes through Patthorster and Tatenhausener forests, and runs through the wet meadows in Hörste. Halle also has more than 200 kilometres of cycling and hiking trails to explore. This gives you both a named landscape route and a wider network of trails to consider when planning your own outings.

Art and culture

The Museum of Childhood and Youth Works by Important Artists in Halle (Westphalia) displays works from the childhood and youth of, among others, Conrad Felixmüller, Paul and Felix Klee, August Macke, Friedrich Karl Gotsch, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Pablo Picasso. For a stay with a cultural focus, the collection is a clearly defined destination, offering a different emphasis from walks through forests and wet meadows. Which of these interests shapes your plans may also influence how you divide your time there.

Travelling by regional train

Regional train RB 75, known as the “Haller Willem”, connects Halle (Westphalia) with Bielefeld every half hour on weekdays and with Osnabrück every hour. Travellers can board and alight at four stops in Halle: Halle (Westf.) station, Hesseln and Künsebeck, as well as the Gerry Weber Stadion stop. Both the day of the week and the right stop are important for planning. Check the timetable before setting off so that your journey is suited to your planned travel date.

For a stay focused on hiking or cycling, the trails described offer different landscape experiences; culture enthusiasts have the museum as another specific destination. Compare your travel plans with the information for each hotel offer and check the timetable for your arrival date.

A separate look at the wider travel destination of Gütersloh

The wider travel destination of Gütersloh also has its own landscape features. Large parts of Gütersloh district have been designated as a landscape protection area since 23 March 1975. Nature reserves are the strictest protection category there: their primary purpose is to protect nature, and only secondarily to provide people with a place for recreation. This classification makes clear that conservation and recreation are not equal purposes in the regional landscape.

Regional examples include Barrelpäule, one of the oldest nature reserves in Gütersloh district, which has been protected under the Reich Nature Conservation Act since 1937. Boomberge offers a different landscape feature: with its nutrient-poor sandy soils, it is the most significant inland dune area in Gütersloh district. These two areas can thus be distinguished by their different characteristics when exploring nature in the region.

Gütersloh City Museum also offers its own cultural theme. Housed in the former warehouse of the Angenete & Wulfhorst grain business, it presents the history of the textile and metal industries on the ground floor and the history of medicine on the upper floor. Together with the art museum in Halle, these offer different cultural highlights within the wider travel destination; each exhibition and location remains associated with its own town.

Discover more destinations

Discover more destinations: Steinhagen, Harsewinkel, Langenberg, Werther, Borgholzhausen, Marienfeld, Versmold, Gütersloh.

Back to the main travel overview: Gütersloh.