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Round trip through the Ruhr Area

Industrial Culture Route

Bike tour
8 Days / 7 Nights
individual tour
Velociped-Original-Tour
easy to moderate
from
899.00 €
Book now Book
from
899.00 €

You cycle directly to the industrial and cultural highlights of the Ruhr area on former railway lines and beautiful canal shore paths, on the newly created Emscher cycle path and the green Ruhr valley cycle path. The round tour leads to former steelworks, collieries and coking plants, spectacularly designed heaps or beautiful villas of entrepeneurs and combines the topics of industrial culture, enjoyment of nature, fun and leisure in an almost unique way. The daily tours take you underground and to lofty heights, through the Duisburg-Nord landscape park and through the UNESCO World Heritage Site Zeche Zollverein, you stand by the blast furnace and discover the Duisburg harbor. You will get to know the many sights in a varied way, experience a very special journey to fascinating, extraordinary places in the "Radrevier-Ruhr" and at the same time be amazed at how fresh and green the Ruhr area is today.

This individual bike tour is unique because it includes 5 exciting, varied and informative guided tours (in German) on the diverse topic of industrial culture, mostly exclusively for our guests. (The trip can also be booked without the guided tours, then we grant a discount of € 50 per person).

This trip is perfect for:

  • Culture enthusiasts: Discover the special features of industrial culture on this tour.
  • Nature lovers: The Ruhr region offers a unique landscape due to coal mining and the subsequent renaturation.
  • City lovers: On the tour through the Ruhr region, there are many new things to discover on daily sightseeing tours.

Highlights

Dortmund: Skywalk Phoenix West - on the tracks of a former iron ans Steelworks
Would you like to see the Ruhr Area from a new perspective? On the Skywalk Phoenix West you can enjoy the great view of the former ironworks.

Skywalk Phoenix West

The Henrichshuette: Iron and Steel Works in Hattingen
The oldest blast furnace in the area can be found at the Henrichshütte works in Hattingen. It is 55 metres high and was built 80 years ago.

Henrichshuette Hattingen

Landscape Park Duisburg Nord
North Duisburg Landscape Park is one of the Ruhr Area’s most iconic industrial heritage monuments, now transformed into a leisure park for the whole family.

Landscape Park Duisburg Nord

Emscher Conversion
The face of the Emscher region is changing once again. It is more than a hundred years since a sparsely populated agricultural landscape was transformed into an industrial metropolitan area, and the naturally flowing Emscher became a manmade system of open sewers.

Emscher Conversion

Railway Muuseum Bochum
The Railway Museum Bochum is one of the largest private museums of its type in Germany today.

Railway Museum Bochum

 

Round trip through the Ruhr Area

easy to moderate
Bike tour
8 Days / 7 Nights
individual tour
from
899.00 €
Book now Book

Tour

All places in the Ruhr area can be easily reached by train or car, including Herne. If you arrive early, you can plan an excursion to the German Mining Museum in Bochum or to the heritage-listed substation in Recklinghausen with the “Electricity and Life” museum to get in the mood for the next few days.
If you arrive by car, there are free parking spaces at the hotel or near the hotel.

In the morning you cycle directly on the quiet cycle path "Route der Industriekultur" along the Rhine-Herne Canal to the "Henrichenburg ship lift industrial museum", a "14 meter elevator for ships" from 1899, which was considered a technical masterpiece when it was built. The steel construction is explained in the historical machine hall and museum ships are at anchor. Then follow the well-developed Emscher cycle path towards Dortmund, where you can cycle through the first ecological sections from the generation project “Emscher conversion”. Excursions to the Hansa coking plant and the Borussia Dortmund football stadium are possible on the way. The gigantic structure of the Phoenix West ironworks, which was active until 1998, is right next to the bike path in the afternoon. This is where the Skywalk starts, a two-hour tour full of anecdotes, a fascinating tour through the complex industrial plant up to the blast furnace.

Then enjoy the evening at the Phoenixsee, the new landmark and leisure area of ​​Dortmund with a variety of restaurants on the beautiful promenade. Have a walk around the lake and taste the local beers.

The city exit leads past the Phoenixwerk once more and along the extensive green area of ​​the Rombergpark. You will quickly reach rural surroundings with horse farms and agriculture . Here you cycle on the 'Rhenish Esel', a disused railway line, into the Ruhr Valley to Witten. Soon you come to the "cradle of Ruhr mining" with the Muttental circular route, where over 60 small mines were in operation in the 18th century and the coal seams come to the surface and the Nachtigall colliery, which was opened in the 19th century as one of the first underground mining shafts went into operation. Here you go in the visitor mine, equipped with a helmet and miner's lamp. You walk in a horizontal underground tunnel to a real coal seam and get to know the technology and difficult working conditions of the miners in the 19th century. In the historical machine house you will experience an audio-visual journey into the time of industrialization and you will understand the beginnings of the Ruhr mining industry with all your senses in an exciting and vivid way.

In the afternoon you cycle on the well-developed Ruhr valley cycle path. You can take a break at the dammed lake Kemnader, and finally come to Hattingen with its half-timbered idyll in the historic center.

The day begins with an exciting tour of the Henrichshütte Industrial Museum Hattingen. You will see the oldest blast furnace in the area, which was in operation until 1987. 10,000 people worked on the huge area, producing coke, iron and steel and casted, rolled and forged the metal. Back in the saddle, you cycle the entire day on the comfortable Ruhrtal cycle path through the green landscape, take a short excursion to the Bochum Railway Museum and relax on the shores of Lake Baldeney. In the afternoon, it is worth visiting Villa Hügel with its extensive English landscape park. The palace-like villa, was built by the industrialist Alfred Krupp as his own residential and prestigious house. It has 269 rooms which today represent the multi-layered Krupp history of the company and family in historical rooms. Back on the Ruhr valley cycle path, it is not far to Kettwig with its cute old town and the Mühlengrabenbrücke directly at the Ruhr.

Today's cycling day on the Ruhr Valley Cycle Path is again peppered with highlights. The award-winning Aquarius Water Museum in Mühlheim with its multimedia museum on 14 levels lies on the short bike stage so that you reach Duisburg in the early afternoon. You have enough time to take part in a harbor tour through the world's largest inland port. The widely ramified navigable waterways in the Ruhr area were considered to be the lifelines of heavy industry and the port of Duisburg as the most important transshipment point.

In the evening you can stroll in the urban inner harbor, which serves as a prime example of the structural change in the Ruhr area. Here, where the city's central port and trading center was for over a century, is now a place that combines work, living, culture, gastronomy and leisure in an attractive location at the water.

Today's stage offers everything you can imagine on this trip: You cycle a short distance on the Rhine Cycle Path and then follow the “Route of Industrial Culture” cycle path to the Duisburg-Nord Landscape Park. This disused ironworks has become a big city oasis with around 250 cultural events and 1 million visitors per year. (The British daily newspaper The Guardian counts the Landschaftspark Nord among the ten best city parks in the world.) Here you can experience a guided tour by bike. You cycle through the 180 hectare area and learn everything about the history of the ironworks, the adjacent coking plant and the present day diverse leisure, recreation and sports offers on the spacious grounds.

You then cycle on a disused freight railway line to Oberhausen, where you can visit the famous Gasometer. From here the “Route of Industrial Culture” cycle path continues to the Bottrop Tetrahedron, the viewing platform with an all-round view of what was once a mighty spoil dump. In the afternoon the route leads through the former colliery settlement Gartenstadt Welheim and again on a former railway line to Essen directly to the Zollverein colliery.

The day begins on foot with a guided tour through the Zeche Zollverein (UNESCO World Heritage Site and known as the most beautiful colliery in the world) and an individual visit to the Ruhr Museum in the former coal washing plant of the Zeche Zollverein. Together with the impressions of the last few days, the picture of the unique history and development of the Ruhr area is now complete. Back in the saddle, you cycle on a former colliery railway line to the iconic cycling meeting point "Holgers Erzbahnbude", where you have the best opportunity to eat the original red and white "Currywurst" (curried sausage). In the afternoon there is a real highlight on the route, you reach the Hoheward waste dump, which, together with the Hoppenbruch dump, forms the largest dump landscape in Europe with around 220 hectares. Today it is a developed local recreation area and offers a variety of viewing platforms on the balcony promenade which is leading around it. And those who make it to the top will be rewarded with the best all-round view of the entire trip. Here you can't stop being amazed - the Ruhr area is so green in front of you, no matter where you look! Over the dragon bridge it goes down again and soon Herne is reached and the eventful round tour comes to an end.

You have now got to know the Ruhr area on beautiful bike paths and on many visits on water, land, in the air and underground - and you probably fell in love with it! Even after the end of this trip, you will remember this unique cultural landscape in Europe for a long time!

Map

Prices / Dates

Prices per person in EUR

Services / Info

All-carefree service
  •  
  • Overnight stay with breakfast
  • Room with D/bath/WC
  • Luggage transport
  • Cycling map with marked route
  • Digital route guidance via smartphone app
  • Tips for trip preparation
  • Tourist information
  • 7-day hotline service
further included services:
  • Guided tour Skywalk Phoenix-West
  • Guided tour underground LWL industrial museum, Zeche Nachtigall
  • Guided tour LWL industrial museum Henrichshütte Hattingen
  • Guided tour by bike in the landscape park Duisburg Nord
  • Guided tour Zeche Zollverein (UNESCO World Heritage Site)

Please note that these guided tours are only available in German language!

Things to know about your trip:

Below you will find specific information about the Round trip through the Ruhr Area. If you have further questions about this trip, you simply call us: Phone: 06421 – 886890.

Arrival by train

Herne is easily accessible from all major cities in Germany by train. The preffered starting hotel in Herne is about 1.5 km from Herne train station. The best way to get there is with a short taxi ride. Current schedule information and price information can be found at: www.bahn.de.

Train schedule information

Parking facilities at the hotel in Herne

The hotel in Herne has free parking spaces. that cannot be pre-reserved. In addition you may leave your car in the streets near the hotel. You will receive detailled information on the parking facilities together with your travel documents 2 weeks prior to your arrival.

Condition of the bike paths

The varied round tour was specially designed by Velociped. You usually cycle on separate cycle paths, or along the river or canal, or on disused railway lines. You rarely cycle on small or large roads without a separate cycle path. The tour is mostly flat, with short climbs only around Dortmund. Two worthwhile rises to former spoil heaps with a beautiful all-round view are optional. The route that has been worked out is well signposted and the junction system also facilitates orientation. You will receive our special Bikeline as map material with an exact route description (in German language).

Available rental bikes

If you would like a velocipede rental bike for the tour, we will bring it to your starting hotel and of course pick it up at your destination. You can choose from women's and men's bikes with either a 7-speed gear hub and coaster brake or 27-speed derailleur gears and free-wheeling. All women's bikes have a deep step-through and men's bikes are available in different frame sizes. Our women's bikes are suitable for all cycling enthusiasts from 150 cm in height and the men's bikes from 165 cm. Furthermore, 8-speed unisex e-bikes are available on request.

Velociped rental bikes

5 included guided tours

The trip through the Ruhr area includes 5 exciting tours of cultural highlights in the Ruhr area:

Guided tour of the Skywalk Phoenix-West

  • Experience the gigantic construction and technology of a blast furnace up close and walk safely over the fascinating skywalk at lofty heights.

Guided tour of the underground LWL industrial museum, Zeche Nachtigall

  • A guided tour through the visitor mine is one of the highlights of the museum visit. Equipped with a helmet, you advance to a coal seam in Hettberg, learn how to work with a jackhammer and compressed air drill and experience the typical atmosphere of a coal mine on the Ruhr “on site”.

Guided tour of the LWL industrial museum Henrichshütte Hattingen

  • The oldest blast furnace in the area is on the Henrichshütte in Hattingen. Let yourself be fascinated by the relics of the ironworks, marvel at the huge gas machines, enjoy the panoramic view from the blast furnace and visit the show foundry in the Bessemer steelworks, where metal is flowing again today.

Guided tour by bike in the Duisburg-Nord landscape park

  • On a bike tour you can explore the diversity of the Duisburg-Nord Landscape Park - safely guided over secret paths and old railway embankments. Compared to the guided tours on foot, you have the advantage of exploring the 180 hectare area in full. You can find out everything about the history of the iron and steel works, the adjacent Friedrich Thyssen 4/8 colliery and coking plant.

Guided tour of the Zollverein Coal Mine UNESCO World Heritage Site

  • Discover industrial history in a place that stands for superlatives like no other: Get to know what was once the largest and most powerful coal mine in the world and the largest central coking plant in Europe. The colliery has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001.

If you do not want to take part in the tours, the travel price is reduced by € 50 per person.

Extra costs which are not included in the price

Further sightseeing options are on the route, these must then be paid for on site. A possibly applicable city tax is not part of the tour price and has to be paid at the hotel locally.

7 day hotline service

Just in case the bike chain breaks, flooding makes it impossible to continue your tour or any other nasty surprise: You can reach us seven days a week and we will do anything to help you as fast as possible.

Passport and visa requirements

For EU citizens, there are no special passport or visa requirements and no health formalities to be considered for this trip.

Travel insurance

The tour price already includes the statutory insolvency insurance. In addition, we recommend that you take out travel cancellation insurance upon receipt of your travel confirmation in order to protect yourself against financial disadvantages in the event of travel cancellation, interruption of travel, illness or accident.

For all those who want to combine comfort with sustainability and only require digital travel documents, we grant a discount of € 20.00 per room.
Please let us know at the time of booking whether you would like to use printed or digital travel documents.

Your travel expert for this tour

I provide you with advice and assistance

Siriphon Nuphim

Travel Expert

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