Fehmarn

Fehmarn is an island in the southern Baltic Sea, belonging to Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

Understand

Fehmarn is a flat island, sharing its name with Fehmarn Belt, which separates Germany from Denmark.

Get in

By boat

Fehmarn has a harbour, Puttgarden with very frequent ferries from Rødby in Denmark, operated by Scandlines. Sailings take 45 minutes and there are departures every half hour both day and night.

By car

The island is connected to mainland Germany by a road bridge.

By train

The island lies along the shortest route from Hamburg to Copenhagen and trains are put on the ferry here. The Danish and German sides have agreed to build a bridge-tunnel across the Belt, but Germany is currently dragging its feet in upgrading the links from the mainland to Fehmarn on their side for the expected traffic. The current line is single track and not electrified for most stretches.

• 🌍 Puttgarden station. Served by long distance trains which are loaded onto/off the ferry to/from Denmark here.  

Get around

See

• Windmühle in Lemkenhafen. Windmill built in 1787 is now a museum. 
• U-Boot (Hafen von Burgstaaken). 
• Wasservogelschutzgebiet Wallnau (Wallnau Waterbird Reserve). 
• Jimmy Hendrix monument, Campingplatz Flügge. This was the site of his last concert. Incidentally Ton Steine Scherben, the Band of Rio Reiser gave their first concert on the same site and weekend. 
• Fährhafen Puttgarden. 
• Hafen Orth. 

There are 5 lighthouses on Fehmarn.

• 🌍 Leuchtturm Flügge.  
• 🌍 Leuchtturm Staberhuk.  
• 🌍 Leuchtturm Westermarkelsdorf.  
• 🌍 Leuchtturm Marienleuchte. 
• 🌍 Leuchtturm Strukkamphuk.  
• 🌍 Museum Katharienenhof. 
• Peter-Wiepert-Museum. 
• Meereszentrum, Burg. (updated Feb 2016)
• 🌍 Glambæk castle ruin. Destroyed in the Thirty Years War (updated Jul 2018)

Do

• Birding

Buy

Fehmarn has several so called border shops that are dedicated selling consumer goods to tourists from Denmark and Sweden. The border shops are probably the best place in Germany to find candy, soda, cider, beer, liquor and other things produced in Denmark and Sweden at lower prices than in their home market. This is due to the lower excise taxes in Germany, even though the gap is closing in. The deposit-refund systems in the three EU-countries are not compatible, so a proforma export declaration must be submitted and photo-ID must be presented when buying beverages that normally have a deposit paid in Germany. These deposit-refund exempt beverages are only permitted for export to Denmark and Sweden and will not be sold to Germans.

Eat

Drink

Sleep

• Hotel Dania, Fährhafenstraße 1, 23769 Puttgarden, ☎ [phone], e-mail: [e-mail]. Hotel Dania is the only multi-storey building in Puttgarden and can be seen for miles. It is like a time capsule, where much of the interior is kept like it was during the 1960s. The room where Jimi Hendrix slept hasn't changed much since then. Make sure you get a room to the seaside with an excellent view. In the season Puttgarden may smell of fertiliser, since there are only fields surrounding this small town. 
• IFA-Hotel, Burgtiefe. 
• Pension Lindenhof, Sulsdorf. 
• Fehmarn Inn. 

Stay safe

Go next

Routes through Fehmarn

Copenhagen ← Rødby ←

N  S

→ Lübeck → Hamburg