I had never heard of Geo Naturpark Frau Holle Land until I arrived there. Friends lent me their second home in the region with nothing more than “it’s great, you’ll love it there” to convince me to get out of Berlin for two and a half weeks. Blindly accepting, I had no idea how much I would love spending time in Frau Holle Land. Picturesque villages, pristine nature, well-maintained bike paths, and miles of premium hiking trails, the Geo Naturpark Frau Holle Land is an absolute dream for anyone looking for an authentic and active experience in Germany.
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Where is Frau Holle Land?
The Frau Holle Land region is located in Northern Hesse and takes up approximately the entire Werra-Meißner County. This region is also known as the Grimm Heimat, or home of the brothers Grimm. I stayed in a little village outside of Werratal-Reichensachsen, which took 3.5 hours from Berlin. The location is quite central in Germany. Just 2.5 hours from Frankfurt, under 4 hours from Hamburg and Stuttgart, and 4.5 from Cologne and Munich by train.
After the ICE to Göttingen, I took RB87 for a magical hour-long train ride. I was glued to the window the entire time. RB87 traverses Göttingen to Bebra via Bad Sooden-Allendorf and Eschwege. The train tootles along in a valley between gentle mountains, the tops of which occasionally flaunt an old stone castle. Below, the Werra River floats from one half-timbered village to the next. It’s not hard to imagine that the Grimm brothers spent so much time here gathering their stories, because this is exactly what I picture when I think of fairy tales like Hansel and Gretel or Little Red Riding Hood.
Who is Frau Holle?
Frau Holle is one of the characters from the Grimm’s collection of stories. Their first volume of tales contains five Frau Holle stories. The one below is a popular fairy tale in Germany, though it is not well-known among Americans.
In the story there is an old widow who loved her ugly, lazy daughter and hated her beautiful, hard-working stepdaughter. The stepdaughter had to spin thread so much that it caused her fingers to bleed. One day when she was cleaning the spinning wheel at the well, the bobbin accidentally fell in. The stepmother instructed her to go after it. The stepdaughter sprang into the well, became unconscious, and woke up in a meadow. There, Frau Holle asked her to get bread from the oven, shake apples down from the tree, and shake out the blanket from her bed, which caused it to snow. When the stepdaughter asked to go home, Frau Holle led her to a gate. When the stepdaughter walked through, she got covered in gold and received the bobbin back. Upon return, the lazy daughter goes to Frau Holle to get covered in gold too. But because she did not help when she was asked to, she got covered in tar!
Other Stories about Frau Holle
Sometimes Frau Holle is helpful and kind, at other times she is wild, strict, and punishing. Some lore describes her as a youthful Venus-like woman, a mother, or an old long-nosed, sharp toothed granny with crazy hair.
The stories are as varied as the descriptions about Frau Holle. There is a lot of local folklore about her, especially around the Hoher Meißner mountain. There you can find the Frau-Holle-Teich. This pond is infinitely deep and leads to another world with Frau Holle’s castle. Coins from the Roman Empire have been found around the pond, showing that it was a gathering place of importance for over 2000 years. They say the pond is where children are born and that a stork carries them away. Other lore includes: when she makes a fire and cooks, then fog surrounds Hoher Meißner. If the sky around the mountain is red, she’s cooking bread (it also rhymes in German).
Frau Holle is also responsible for the amount of snow in winter. The more she shakes the down feathers out of her bed, the more snow there will be. Another tale holds her accountable for the greening of spring. When she walks through fields and meadows, Frau Holle shoots juice into the plants which awakens them. In other legends Frau Holle is the goddess of fertility, children, spinning, and weaving.
Geo Naturpark?
A Geo Naturpark is a geological nature park. Frau Holle Land has signs everywhere to explain the geology of the region. Limestone and sandstone permeate the region, but there are other interesting features as well. Whether you’re looking at hexagonal stones in the Kitzkammer, basalt rocks on Hoher Meißner, the region’s mining industry, the formation of the volcanic Blaue Kuppe, or the seabed which created Knots Keller, signs nearby explain when, how, and why this feature formed. The park also offers tours and events such as the healing power of buds, hiking the springtime beech forest, picking wild garlic, and hiking in the heath.
memorial out of basalt rock for fallen forest rangers in the world wars 
Premium Hiking in Frau Holle Land
Premium Hikes are certified by the Deutsches Wanderinstitut based on several criteria to ensure a pleasurable hiking experience. Frau Holle Land boasts 24 Premium Hikes, numbered P1 to P24 (with more in planning!). These trails are extremely well marked. Along the way there are several spots which have the map in overview, so you can determine where you are and if you’d like to take any of the equally well-signed shortcuts. Many of the hikes are reachable by public transportation, including P3 Über die Blaue Kuppe in Eschwege, P17 Waldkappeler Berg in Waldkappel, P19 Gänsekerleweg in Datterode, and P7 Söder Wald in Bad Sooden. A hike you don’t want to miss out on is P1 Hoher Meißner, which passes by many significant geological features. During my first short visit to Frau Holle Land, I completed 5 of these magnificent hikes and can’t wait to try more of them! (Update: I’ve now completed 8 of them!)
Gänsekerleweg 
Über die Blaue Kuppe
Other Hiking Trails
Werra-Burgen-Steig Hessen
Werra-Burgen-Steig Hessen, marked as X5 H in Hesse, won second place in Germany’s most beautiful Quality Hike in 2016. The 133 km long route crisscrosses many of the premium day hikes on its way from Hann. Münden to Nentershausen, but can be elongated to end in Eisenach (home of the famous Wartburg) in Thuringia or Wasungen. Along the trail, hikers pass many castles like Schloss Berlepsch, Jugendburg Ludwigstein, Schloss Rothestein, Tannenburg, and many ruins.
GrimmSteig
The 84 km long GrimmSteig traverses a loop passing through Söhrewald-Wellerode, Hessisch Lichtenau, and the Hoher Meißner. Each year there is a GrimmSteig weekend, where you can hike the whole thing over the course of the weekend. There are also extreme categories with 142 and 169 km, but also options for the marathon, 10k, or 25k.
Experience Trails
Additionally, there are experience paths including Ars Natura (art trail) with over 300 works of art, Energieweg Söhre (about wind energy), Trink Wasser! (about the importance of water), Knappenpfad (about mining around Hoher Meißner), and Barfußpfad (barefoot path). Most of the Premium Hikes also have several shorter routes which intersect and accompany them, for example the loop around the Werratalsee in Eschwege near P3.
Biking in Frau Holle Land
My first visit to Frau Holle Land was in January, but I still cycled to get around. The bike trails I experienced were well-paved, wide, and followed the river. And I LOVE river bike trails!
Werratal-Radweg
The 300 km long route begins near Siegmundsburg and Fehrenbach in Thuringia and ends where the Werra meets the Fulda in Hann. Münden. After a stop in Eisenach to the Wartburg Castle, the trail passes through Frau Holle Land, including Eschwege, Bad Sooden-Allendorf, and Witzenhausen.
Herkules-Wartburg Radweg
This 110 km trail connects two fantastic UNESCO sites: The Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe in Kassel with its iconic Herkules statue, pyramid, and water show, and the Wartburg Castle in Eisenach. Two versions of this trail allow it to be completed as a loop, for a total of 215 km.
Werra-Fulda Rundtour
A lot of these bike routes overlap one another, so if I had to pick one, it would be the Werra-Fulda Rundtour. The 190 km loop follows the Fulda and Werra rivers passing through Kassel, Hann. Münden, Witzenhausen, Eschwege, Sontra, Bebra, Rothenburg a.d. Fulda, and Melsungen.
More Bike Trails
Hessische Fernradweg R5 is 230 km long and connects the valleys of the Werra, Fulda, and Eder rivers. The route starts in Willingen, passes the Edersee, through Frau Holle Land, and ends in Treffurt, Thuringia. Two established mountain bike routes have multiple trails throughout the region.
What to see in Frau Holle Land
If you decide to do any of the above biking or hiking activities, you will certainly come in contact with many of the fantastic sites in Frau Holle Land. Several towns are also part of the Deutsche Fachwerk Straße, Germany’s Half-Timberd Road, including Eschwege, Bad Sooden-Allendorf, and Wanfried.
information along the Premium Hike Söder Wald 
typical map for Frau Holle Land – multiple trails, location, short cuts, important sites
Cities in Frau Holle Land
Eschwege
A half-timbered city on the Werratalsee which dates back to the 6th century, and gained city status in 1249 from Kaiser Otto II. Worth visiting in Eschwege are the Landgrafenschloss palace with Dietemann-Kunstuhr clock and park, the medieval churches, Stadtmuseum, and Zinnfigurenkabinett (tin figures museum). And don’t forget the 19 km Premium Hike, Über die Blaue Kuppe, which takes you to an extinct volcano, the Bismarckturm, and Werratalsee.
Bad Sooden-Allendorf
These two cities hug either side of the Werra and share the train station, making for an excellent two-for-one trip! As if the sheer number of half-timbered houses weren’t enough of a joy, Bad Sooden is home to a Kur (spa) and Premium Hike P7 Söder Wald. The cities, united as one in 1929, were Salzsiederstädte, where salt was produced. Today, the Gradierwerk, a construction used to concentrate salt, is used to supply the WerratalTherme spa.
Allendorf 
Market Square Allendorf
Witzenhausen
Germany’s smallest university city, this outpost of the Universität Kassel houses ecological agricultural studies. Over 150,000 cherry trees make Witzenhausen a feast for the eyes in April. This half-timbered city has a former wall and towers, several churches, a monastery, and two castles. From here, you can hike to Schloss Berlepsch.
Wanfried
Dating back to 800, the renaissance city won its importance by being an important end harbor for transfer on the Weser-Werra in connection to south eastern Europe. You can arrive in the half-timbered house city by canoe, bike, and foot on the Werra River, 3 of the long distance bike trails mentioned above, the Werra-Burgen-Steig, or Premium Hikes P5, P6, or P12!
Any Village Anywhere
Just riding my bike around, I came into gorgeous quiet villages full of half-timbered houses begging to be photographed. Most of them contain beautiful tiny churches, wooden fire department towers, and babbling brooks. Oetmannshausen, Wichmannshausen, Hoheneiche, Bischhausen, Waldkappel, and Datterode were all within short biking distance from where I stayed. I’m sure anywhere you go in the region will have a number of adorable tourist-free villages to explore.
Hoheneiche 
Bischhausen 
Friemen
Castles
Frau Holle Land has many castles to visit. Jugendburg Ludwigstein, Schloss Berlepsch, Tannenburg, Schloss Rothestein, Ruine Boyneburg (on Premium Hike P13), Landgrafenschloss in Eschwege (P3), Burg Ruine Brandenfels, Burg Fürstenstein, Schloss Lüderbach, Gut Hohenhaus, and many others.
Museums
There are lots of museums to explore in Frau Holle Land. In Bad Sooden-Allendorf, there are museums about the border, salt, a church and bible garden, and a Heimatsmuseum. Eschwege has a city museum, tin figures museum, train museum, the Earl’s grave, and Sophiengarten. You can see the entire museum selection here. For museums related to the region’s mining industry, see here.
To plan my visit to Frau Holle Land, I found their website very helpful and informative. I also used the Deutsches Wanderinstitut website for planning the Premium Hikes. This bus map was essential for getting around as well as nvv.de to plan journeys.
I can’t recommend Frau Holle Land highly enough! And I’m already looking forward to my next visit!