Hiddensee

Hiddensee is about seventeen kilometres long and rarely more than two wide, with a hill of glacial moraine at the northern end and a long sand spit running south. Private cars are banned; movement is by bicycle, horse cart and foot. In the 1870s storms washed gold jewellery out of the dunes near Neuendorf, sixteen pieces of tenth-century Scandinavian work in filigree and granulation, one of the most important Viking gold finds in the Baltic; the originals are in Stralsund. Gerhart Hauptmann, the playwright, spent summers on the island for decades and is buried there. Sea buckthorn grows across the dunes.

What you actually see

• The car-free island - transport by bicycle, horse cart and foot only.
• The gold hoard story - Viking jewellery washed from the dunes in the 1870s.
• The Dornbusch lighthouse - a tower on the moraine hill at the north end.
• The Hauptmann house - the playwright's summer home and grave.

When to go

May to September; ferries run in season with a reduced winter service and are cancelled in storms. The island is quiet and largely closed out of season.

Honest expectations

No cars means everything is carried or cycled. The gold is displayed in Stralsund, not on the island. Ferries stop in bad weather.

Nearby

Rügen lies east; Stralsund is on the mainland.