Balingen walks

The Balingen Historical City Tour combines history and experience in a particularly vivid way. Discover the town’s eventful past at your own pace or on a guided tour, and immerse yourself in times long past at numerous stops along the way. Buildings, monuments, bridges and squares tell fascinating stories that bring Balingen to life. The tour with the night watchwoman is particularly atmospheric; she brings the town centre to life in an entertaining way with her charm, anecdotes and historical knowledge.

The ancestral seat of the Prussian royal family and the Princes of Hohenzollern, Hohenzollern Castle is one of the most visited castles in Europe. Perched on a high hill in Swabia, the building, adorned with numerous towers, has a picturesque, medieval appearance when viewed from a distance. The view from Hohenzollern Castle is well worth the detour, though you’ll need to be prepared for a brisk 20-minute walk to finally reach the castle.

Nothing beats a stroll along a cheerfully babbling stream on hot days. The Stream Discovery Trail near Iselshausen offers just that. Here, the Steinach becomes a real experience. You can hear the water rushing everywhere, seating stones invite you to linger, and anyone who wishes can cross the stream on large stepping stones or cool their feet in the water. Here, you can experience nature and water up close.

The ‘Ammerbucher Gigeleswegle’ premium walking trail lives up to what its Swabian name promises throughout its entire length: from many spots, you can enjoy excellent views of the countryside. The word ‘Gigele’ comes from the Swabian dialect and roughly means ‘to look’ or ‘to keep an eye out’. And the trail certainly offers some fantastic views. At times, the view opens up to intimate glimpses of picturesque vineyards, idyllic villages or quiet little valleys; at others, it stretches far and wide across the Gäu region and as far as the Swabian Alb.

This scenic circular walk leads from Holzbronn across open meadows and along shady woodland paths, past the Waldeck ruins and through parts of the fascinating Xanderklinge Gorge. “Moment, linger a while! You are so beautiful!” (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust I) This quote beautifully captures what awaits you at the ‘AugenBlick’ viewpoint in Holzbronn and at all the others: a breathtaking and utterly beautiful view. These special viewpoints, complete with a bench, a small table and a labelled panorama board, invite you to discover the landscape. The ‘AugenBlick’ viewpoints are designed in the style of the nature park’s logo – the distinctive ‘nature park eye’ – and also serve as the starting point for a circular walk, the ‘AugenBlick-Runde’. Let your gaze wander and discover the diverse natural and cultural landscape of the nature park!

Circular walk along sections of the Way of St James and through peaceful woodland. This walk to Bethlehem leads directly from Pfullendorf into a beautiful woodland area with good farm tracks and moderate gradients. Along the way, we frequently follow sections of the Way of St James, which leads from Wald via Pfullendorf on to Überlingen.