Discover Wasungen

Wasungen combines botanical diversity, hiking trails and an annual carnival tradition. If you are looking for a hotel in Wasungen, you can choose when to travel and what to focus on during your stay depending on whether you are most interested in the garden, the trails around town or the carnival parade. The area’s distinctive features offer a practical guide.

Forest Botanical Garden and Hiking Trails

The Wasungen Forest Botanical Garden is home to 162 genera of woody plants, representing 1,700 different species and varieties, across approximately 5 ha. These figures give the garden a clear botanical focus: the diversity of woody plants takes centre stage. Expert-led tours are available for a fee by prior arrangement. If you plan to join one, make sure to book in advance and allow for the cost.

Several hiking trails offer different points of interest. Circular Hiking Trail 1 loops around the Forest Botanical Garden. Circular Hiking Trail 2 loops around the Rupperg to the Kleine Zehn Buchen, while Circular Hiking Route 3 goes around the Mordtal valley to the Oberwallbachsmühle. A section of the Heinrich Cotta Hiking Trail connects the Forest Botanical Garden with Heinrich Cotta’s birthplace in Kleine Zillbach. This lets you choose a route based on its named destinations, rather than treating all the trails as the same kind of loop.

The 96 km HWO2 long-distance hiking trail connects Wasungen with Schlitz. This offers a different way to plan a route than the circular trails described above: the HWO2 links two towns. Cyclists also have a clear point of reference in Wasungen: the Werra Valley Cycle Path runs through town along the left bank of the Werra. This makes it easy to distinguish hiking from cycling when choosing the focus of your trip.

Town Centre and Carnival Tradition

Wasungen’s historic town centre is protected as an ensemble and designated as a listed area. The historic townscape adds a distinct cultural focus to the natural attractions and trails. Those particularly interested in Wasungen Carnival can also choose between experiencing the annual parade and learning about the tradition through its documentation.

Wasungen Carnival reaches its climax with a historic parade held every year on the Saturday before Ash Wednesday. As the date varies with the carnival calendar, check the specific date for your travel year if you are planning your stay around it. The collection at the Thuringian Carnival Museum in Wasungen’s former convent documents the diversity of carnival traditions in Thuringia through written and material evidence. The parade and the collection therefore offer different perspectives on the subject: the recurring festival tradition and its documented diversity.

More Topics in the Wider Schmalkalden-Meiningen Destination

The wider Schmalkalden-Meiningen destination offers additional, distinct attractions in Schmalkalden. At Viba Nougat World, visitors can experience nougat being made in a glass-walled workshop. Practical confectionery courses also offer the opportunity to mould chocolate, decorate nougat and create pralines. If a course is important to your plans, check the current date and booking conditions in advance.

The “Neue Hütte” blast furnace museum in Schmalkalden offers a different historical focus. The blast furnace dates from 1835; local iron ore was smelted there using charcoal to produce pig iron until 1924. The exhibitions explore nearly 1,300 years of iron and steel goods production in the Schmalkalden region, including the well-known “Schmalkalder Artikel.” A 45-minute guided tour covers the history and function of the blast furnace works. The wider destination therefore offers crafts and industrial history as distinct topics alongside nougat making.

Discover more destinations: Trusetal-Laudenbach, Oepfershausen, Altersbach, Benshausen, Roßdorf, Meiningen, Breitungen/Werra, Henneberg

Back to the destination overview: Schmalkalden-Meiningen.