The Darss and Zingst Peninsula

The Fischland-Darss-Zingst peninsula is a strip of sand between the open Baltic and a chain of shallow brackish lagoons called bodden. Most of it lies inside a national park that has stopped managing the shore, and the result is the Weststrand: a beach with no groynes and no raking, where pines lean inland from the wind and dead trunks lie bleached on the sand. No road reaches it, so you walk or cycle in from Ahrenshoop or Prerow through pine and beech. Behind the peninsula the bodden water is a metre or two deep over long distances, which is why birds use it in such numbers, and why the crane roost in October runs to tens of thousands.

What you actually see

• The Weststrand - wind-bent pines and bleached trunks on an unmanaged beach.
• Darsser Ort - the lighthouse and shifting sand at the peninsula's blunt tip.
• The bodden lagoons - shallow brackish water behind the dunes, thick with birds.
• The autumn cranes - tens of thousands roosting in the shallows through October.

When to go

June to August for swimming and the long light, though Prerow and Zingst are full then. October is the crane month, with the birds flying out at first light and back at dusk; the hides and boat trips need booking well ahead. Spring is quiet, cold and good for the beach forest before the leaves come.

Honest expectations

The Baltic here is cold into July and the weather runs grey for days. Mosquitoes are bad in the alder swamps in still conditions. Reaching the Weststrand means several kilometres of walking or cycling each way, with no facilities at the far end. Crane viewing is a dawn activity in the cold, and roosts are watched from a distance, so bring optics.

Nearby

Ahrenshoop's artist colony, the harbour town of Barth, and Rugen a short drive east.