Wadden Islands

Introduction

On the beach

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The Wadden Islands are a string of Islands that lie before the coast of the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark that were named a Unesco World Heritage Site in 2009.

In the Netherlands and a part of Germany these islands are sepearated with the mainland, by the Waddenzee, a very shallow sea, which allows you to walk to the Islands during low tide. This is called Wadling.

Geography

The Wadden Islands (from west to east, and south to north) can be found in:

The Netherlands

• Texel
• Vlieland
• Terschelling
• Ameland
• Shiermonnikoog
• Rottemerplaat
• Rottemeroog

Germany

• Borkum
• Lütje Hörn
• Kachelotplate
• Memmert
• Juist
• Norderney
• Baltrum
• Langeoog
• Spiekeroog
• Minsener-Oldoog
• Wangerooge
• Alte Mellum
• Großer Knechtsand
• Kleiner Knechtsand
• Neuwerk
• Nigehörn
• Scharhörn
• Trischen
• Süderoogsand
• Norderoogsand
• Japsand
• Pellworm
• The Halligen Islands (Hooge, Langeness, Habel, Süderoog, Südfall, Norderoog, Oland, Gröde, Nordstrandischmoor, Hamburger Hallig)
• Amrum
• Föhr
• Sylt (connected to the mainland by a bridge)

Denmark

• Rømø
• Mandø
• Fanø
• Langli

Helgoland

Helgoland is not one of the Wadden islands. Helgoland is a rocky island, where as the Wadden islands are made of sand. But there are ties between Helgoland and the other islands.

Towns

Some of these islands are inhabited, some are not much more than a bank of sand, that doesn't get flooded during the high tide.

There are no large cities on these islands, but there are some small towns. Den Burg is the largest town of the Dutch island of Texel. Westerland is the largest town on the German island of Sylt. Other bigger towns can be found on Borkum, Norderrey, Juist and Föhr.

Sights and Activities

Waddling

Waddling is the act of walking on the bottom of the sea at low tide and can best be done in the Dutch and German parts of the Wadden Islands. Read more about waddling here.

Events and Festivals

Oerol on Terschelling is a cultural event that takes place in the summer. Because of the populartity of this event, hotels and campings are fully booked way before the festival.

Weather

The Wadden Islands have a temperate seaclimate with relatively cool summers and mild winters. Temperatures are usually around 20 °C from June to August and around 5 °C from December to February. Precipitation is evenly distributed througout the year, though autumn (October/November) is slightly wetter and heavy downpoors can occur during summer. Snow is relatively rare compared to mainland Netherlands, Germany and Denmark.

Getting There

By Plane

Westerland (Sylt) has an airport that has connections to some larger airports in Germany, including Berlin, Düsseldorf, Munich, Stuttgart, Hamburg and Cologne. On some other islands there are small airport that you can fly to in a small plane, but there are no big commercial airports

By Train

The only island that can be reached by train is Sylt.

By Car

On some islands you can bring you own car, by boat, on others that is not possible.

By Boat

To visit the Dutch Wadden Islands, you need to take a ferry. These leave from Den Helder (to Texel), Harlingen (to Vlieland, Terschelling and Schiermonnikoog), and Holwerd (to Ameland). In summer, there is an additional ferry between Texel and Vlieland.
For more information on getting to Texel, check the Teso website. Rederij Doekse provides ferries between Terschelling and both Vlieland and Harlingen, while Wagenborg has boats to the Wadden Islands of Amerland and Schiermonnikoog.

There are also daily services between Eemshaven in the north of the province of Groningen and the German Wadden Island of Borkum with Borkumlijn (in dutch).

External Links

• Netherlands Wadden Islands Official Website