Reinbek: Castle, Museums and Trails

If you are looking for a hotel in Reinbek, you can plan your stay around the activities you have in mind: castle architecture and exhibitions, walks through parks and forests, or a longer bike ride. Reinbek combines cultural attractions with connections to Hamburg and the accessible edge of the Sachsenwald forest.

Getting to Reinbek and getting around

Reinbek is connected to Hamburg by the Hamburg–Berlin railway and frequent S-Bahn services. Five HVV bus routes supplement local transport. The S-Bahn service to Reinbek runs on lines S2/S7 in the direction of Aumühle. By road, you can travel via the B5 and the A24 and A1 motorways. Check timetables and traffic routes before setting off.

The edge of the Sachsenwald forest reaches Reinbek’s town centre and is within walking distance of the S-Bahn station. The Sachsenwald forest and the Stormarn countryside provide a broader setting for hikes and bike trips from Reinbek. Schloss Reinbek is the town’s main cultural landmark.

Stormarn as a regional setting

The wider travel destination of Stormarn lies in the Hamburg Metropolitan Region between Hamburg and Lübeck and is characterised by expansive forests and moorlands. Hiking options include short and long circular trails, as well as the Stormarnweg and the Way of St. James. More than 20 cycling circuits are also part of the region’s offerings. These trails broaden the view of Reinbek to include a larger landscape region; they are part of what Stormarn has to offer.

Cycling tour and traces of the past

Stormarn Tour 22 is a 31-kilometre cycling tour that starts at Reinbek S-Bahn station. The route is not signposted on site, so plan your navigation in advance. The tour offers views of the landscape in the Bille valley and around Klingeberg. On the way back, it follows the Bille and offers a chance to swim at Tonteich pond in Wohltorf, outside Reinbek.

You can also follow a specific theme on foot: the walk at the Oher burial ground passes almost 20 well-preserved Bronze Age burial mounds and a Neolithic long barrow. In addition, 47 prehistoric burial mounds in Reinbek are protected as monuments. The two figures highlight different aspects: the walk makes a burial ground and its finds a specific destination, while the number describes the protected heritage in Reinbek.

Castle, museum and church

Schloss Reinbek is a Dutch Renaissance building constructed between 1572 and 1576. Cultural events, exhibitions, fairs and other public programmes take place in its restored rooms with painted wooden ceilings. Here, historic architecture meets a varied cultural programme.

Opposite the castle, Museum Rade displays more than 1,000 exhibits in a Victorian-era villa. The museum houses the collection of writer and ethnologist Rolf Italiaander, featuring paintings, statues and ceramics from his travels. Its main themes are German and international naïve art, as well as African folk art. This gives the museum a different focus from Schloss Reinbek: here, the collection and its artistic themes are at the centre, while the castle is known for its Renaissance architecture and cultural programme.

The Maria-Magdalenen-Kirche is a neo-Gothic building constructed in 1901 and given its name in 1969.

Castle park and walks

Schloss Reinbek’s park is a setting for walks, with broad tree canopies, vistas and reflections in the Mühlenteich pond. Its valuable collection of mature trees includes winter limes, summer limes, Hungarian silver limes, pedunculate oaks, sessile oaks and red oaks. The variety of tree species and the park views make a walk here a nature experience in its own right, alongside the museums and historic buildings.

Discover more destinations: Glinde, Reinfeld, Hoisdorf, Hammoor, Badendorf, Bargteheide, Hamberge, Lasbek.

For the wider travel overview: Stormarn.