Rhine District of Neuss: Cycling Routes, Gardens and Culture

In the Rhine District of Neuss, you can make cycling routes, parkland and cultural attractions the focus of different aspects of your trip. Riverside floodplains and nature reserves sit alongside garden art, museums and buildings with a long history. Activities vary, too: some take you out on a bike, others to an exhibition or into the countryside.

Cycling tours between rivers and landscapes

The district has around 1,200 kilometres of cycling infrastructure, with a junction network and clear signposting. Five regional themed cycling routes cross the district: the Rhine Cycle Route, Erft Cycle Route, Fietsallee am Nordkanal, Lower Rhine Route and Hanseatic Cycle Route. All are signposted except the Hanseatic Cycle Route. This lets you choose tours based on their individual routes and themes, rather than treating them all as alike.

The nature cycling routes through Neuss offer a useful comparison. The 48-kilometre southern route takes you to river and stream floodplains and skirts the Ölgangsinsel, Uedesheimer Rheinbogen and Mühlenbusch nature reserves. The approximately 40-kilometre northern route is called “Neuss’s Middle Terrace Landscape” and runs through a landscape with relatively few bodies of water. The distances and scenery give you different points of reference when planning your tour.

Along the Rhine Cycle Route in the Rhine District of Neuss are Neuss’s industrial port, the Zonser Grind nature reserve and Zons customs fortress in Dormagen. The Rhine dyke in Meerbusch offers panoramic views of the Lower Rhine landscape. Another way to experience the landscape by bike is the Two Rivers Tour: this circular route links the Rhine and the Erft.

Parkland and nature experiences

Dyck Castle is the centrepiece of a park and garden complex covering around 70 hectares. The Dyck Castle Foundation serves as a centre for garden art and landscape culture. This makes it particularly interesting if you would like to explore designed landscapes during your trip.

The landscape park of Museum Insel Hombroich also brings nature into dialogue with art: its rich flora and fauna are intended to make both immediately accessible to the senses. The museum also includes Far Eastern art and an archaeological collection. At Tannenbusch near Dormagen, a nature trail adds to the area’s nature attractions. Since 1988, eleven stations there have presented information on nature and environmental issues in a child-friendly way; there is also an approximately three-kilometre fitness trail with exercise and climbing equipment.

Museums, architecture and history

The Langen Foundation hosts changing exhibitions and regular displays from the Viktor and Marianne Langen collection. Works of classical modernism and traditional Japanese art are on show. At the Sinsteden Cultural Centre, art and agriculture come together: the Agricultural Museum uses a restored Frankish four-sided farmstead as an exhibition space and presents changing exhibitions on both subjects. Older and newer tools, machines and tractors illustrate the development of agricultural technology. The cultural centre also includes sculpture halls and an outdoor area of around four hectares.

In Dormagen, Knechtsteden Abbey includes a Romanesque double-choir basilica dating from the 12th century, one of the country’s most impressive religious buildings. For 2026, organ concerts featuring artists from across North Rhine-Westphalia are scheduled in the basilica at 4 p.m. on the first Sunday of each month; check the dates before your visit. In Liedberg, the mill tower adds to the story of another historic building: it was probably built in the 12th century as part of the fortifications of the second Liedberg Castle, later converted into a windmill and operated until 1836. A historic shaft has been preserved on the grounds of the Sandbauernhof in Liedberg; the town of Korschenbroich converted the farmstead into a cultural meeting place.

More activities

If you would like to balance exercise and culture differently, you can also go hiking through the Lower Rhine countryside in addition to taking cycling tours. JEVER Skihalle Neuss is a snow-reliable ski area in the Rhineland, with activities for skiers, snowboarders and freeskiers of varying experience levels. As facilities and activities may change, check the latest operating and activity details before visiting.

Discover more destinations: Neuss, Grevenbroich, Dormagen, Kaarst, Meerbusch, Korschenbroich, Jüchen, Rommerskirchen.

Return to the overarching travel guide: North Rhine-Westphalia.