The Malerweg is one of Germany’s most popular long-distance hiking routes in one of the most well-known natural regions. Located in Saxon Switzerland National Park, along the Elbe River and the border with the Czech Republic, the Malerweg hikes by many impressive rock formations including the world famous Bastei. Surprisingly, this hike isn’t a Quality or Premium Hike or even a Top Trail of Germany. But I believe this is because the trail and the region do not require any additional advertising – accommodations are quickly booked solid for holidays and weekends.
The trail is easily the most beautiful I have ever been on. Long-distance trails are really more about the journey than the destination, but every step of the Malerweg brings you to incredible highlights with a frequency unmatched by any other thru-hike. It is six to eight days of pure magic. If you are planning a trip to Germany, you must plan some time in Saxon Switzerland. If you can swing it, make sure to hike some (if not all!) of the Malerweg!
I had heard whisperings of the Malerweg, but it really caught my attention two years ago when my partner C hiked it (and camped!). I accompanied him on the last day and was completely enamored. He only kept telling me how sorry he was. Compared to the other days of the hike, C felt the final day wasn’t as spectacular. From then on I knew that I wanted to experience this whole hike for myself.
Table of Contents
Day 1: Liebenthal to Hohnstein – 23km
After visiting my friend, Nikolai, and his family in Dresden, they kindly drove me to the start of the Malerweg, which begins at the bus stop Liebenthaler Grund just a few kilometers from Pirna.
Arriving by public transportation is just as easy, since the bus G/L (Direction: Sonnenstein Süd) leaves Pirna Bahnhof every 15-20 minutes and takes 21 minutes.
Section 1: Liebenthal to Stadt Wehlen – 11.7 km
The hike started with a bang! Within a few steps of leaving the bus stop, the gorge reached high above the trail with impressive cliffs hugging the Wesenitz stream. The hazy June day and the vibrant greenery made me feel like I was in the jungle. The trail passed a few old mills and the Richard Wagener monument, the world’s largest statue of the composer. Saxon Switzerland is where he wrote most of the work Lohengrin, about Brabant in the 10th century. A wide waterfall gushed at the end of the spectacular valley, where I reached Mühlsdorf. As I sauntered through town, I thought that the next highlight would be the world-famous Bastei Bridge in nine or ten kilometers… I was about to be very wrong!
Uttewalder Grund
The next few fields were not as exciting as the gorge, but had beautiful views of the surrounding landscape. I passed the coordinate stone demarcating exactly 51N and 14E. After Lohmen, the trail became magical again as I entered the Uttewalder Grund. No wonder I said “hello” to hiker after hiker. There were so many people wandering through this beautiful valley. The Uttewalder Grund was even more fascinating than the Liebenthaler. The cliff formations came so close to the trail on either side.
At one point I passed under the Uttewalder Felsentor, or Uttewald Gate. Three giant boulders fell and got stuck before reaching the floor of the valley, forming a sort of gate to pass under. Even I had to duck a bit passing under them, and I’m barely 5 feet tall. Not sure if it was normal or just a very dry summer, but there was no water running through this gorge at all, which surprised me a bit. Towards the end of the gorge, I passed the restaurant Waldidylle. It was closed (Monday and Tuesday rest days) but looked super cute!
Stadt Wehlen
The first thing you see arriving in Stadt Wehlen is the ruins of the Castle Castrum Wylin. I had to climb out of the gorge on old stone steps to get up to the castle. And then the view hit me, as I looked down onto the market square of the tiny town. This was the end of the guide book’s first section, but it was only my halfway point for the day. And the easier half. I didn’t spend much time in Stadt Wehlen because I had more to hike for the day, but it is worth spending some time in. You can wander around the tiny alleys between Stadt Wehlen and Dorf Wehlen. The latter has an open-air miniature park of Saxon Switzerland.
Section 2: Stadt Wehlen to Hohnstein – 10.8 km
After Stadt Wehlen, I hiked along the Elbe briefly, also noticing the vegetation growing on the banks where there probably should be water. It’s been quite a dry spring this year. In contrast to the Uttewalder Grund, the trail was empty. I only passed a cyclist carrying his bike down the stairs, as the trail became very steep very quickly. It was tough to get up, since I had already come more than 10 kilometers, but once at the top the route was flatter for a while. I passed the Steinernen Tisch (stone table), which was in use at the moment and the Biergarten with the same name (another closed one – open Sat/Sun).
Bastei
Then it was time for my dream to finally come true! I was going to the Bastei! Way before it was popular on Instagram, the Bastei was the cover of one of my German textbooks in high school. It is one of Germany’s most-visited natural formations, already well-known as a tourist destination as early as 1768. Even if you do not know it, you would most likely recognize a picture of it.
the most famous viewpoint of Bastei was closed for reconstruction while I visited, but you can still get an idea of what it looks like here
The trail became quite busy again. There were people buying fries and wursts from the kiosk and a mass of people exiting the bus arriving at the Berg Hotel. Then I was there! The Bastei is a bridge built between the needle-like sandstone rock formations at the precipice of a cliff overlooking the Elbe. Saxon Switzerland is full of these spindle formations, which are excellent for rock climbing. On one side of the bridge is amazing views of the river and wider landscape. The other side has lots of rock formations to admire, like spindles and cliffs.
I checked out every view point I could and even paid 2.50€ to see where there once was a castle up there, Felsenburg Neurathen. It was amazing to be up so high and see so far along the Elbe. There were many people visiting the Bastei, but I had expected it to be even worse. The Bastei is as well known as Neuschwanstein and can be just as overrun.
view towards the Czech Republic 
the Elbe 
The trip down from Bastei was agonizing. The stairs seemed never ending and I began to pity the people coming up, especially the further down I went. It felt like more than 600 stairs! I stopped to take a break halfway down. The humidity was really high and none of my clothes were dry (ew!).
Amselgrund
As if the Bastei wasn’t enough, the next highlights came up right away in the Amselgrund. Before reaching the Amselsee, there is the option of taking detours to Kurort Rathen, a village worth seeing, and the Schwedenlöcher, a tight gorge which hid residents from the Swedes during the Thirty Years War. The 500m long Amselsee is a beautiful glass-still lake. A few couples had rented rowboats, of course, with all the men rowing. There are many benches along the shore from which you can see clear to the bottom of the lake and enjoy watching the many fish swim by. The half kilometer long lake turns into a creek and another wonderful gorge to walk through.
Halfway through the gorge, I passed the Amselfallbaude and other huts which were all closed (Mondays). At the Amselfallbaude, there is a waterfall. When I was there, a lot of it was under construction, so you couldn’t get a good view of the fall, but the area was still very pretty even with the scaffolding. Rathewalde had a Biergarten which was open. Then came an unfortunate busy stretch along the road. But it was short and I was soon back into the woods after passing another restaurant.
Hockstein and Polenztal
Then I hiked to the Hockstein. I was exhausted from the heat, humidity, and stairs, but I still climbed all the steel ladders to get to the view. Here at the top, the Malerweg has a beautiful view of Hohnstein castle and town. Hiking down through the Wolfsschlucht is totally awesome: it’s a very tight passage though the rock down steep metal stairs. I wondered how C made it through with his backpack full of camping gear. I had to lower my head to get through the final hole.
It’s not far on the Malerweg from the Hockstein to Hohnstein, but every step felt like a kilometer. The trail crossed the Polentz creek and an adorable hotel with the same name. The Polenz valley is an area I’d like to return to another time. It was so serene. The Malerweg headed steeply upwards toward Hohnstein, sometimes on worn sandstone steps. Eventually I left the Malerweg trail to head into town and Burg Hohnstein.
Hohnstein
The town was cute and the castle was fantastic. Burg Hohnstein, first mentioned in 1353, now houses a hostel, which was where I spent my first night on the Malerweg. After such a hot day, I was happy to have the thick castle walls to keep my room cool. I didn’t have to wonder why there was a metal lattice in front of the window for very long. After a few minutes in my room a bird flew to the window sill, screeched and flew off when it saw me. I think it was some kind of falcon or other bird of prey. The bird came several times, and I began to wonder about the Medieval Ages. Did they have pigeons back then too? Were they as obnoxious as they are now? Were pigeons or falcons worse as uninvited house guests?
In the evening I walked around town and took a bunch of pictures of the rainbow which came out as the sun was setting. Hohnstein was the perfect ending to an amazing first day on the Malerweg. I had a great view of it and the town from the Burg’s tower. Dinner was a buffet out in the courtyard. It was fun to try and guess which guests were hiking the Malerweg and which ones were “just on vacation” in Hohnstein. There was also a school group staying in the castle for the week, but luckily there are like 6 different buildings at the castle and they were sleeping in the one furthest from everyone else.
In Hohnstein, I had a double room to myself. I booked with “Halbpension” which means with breakfast and dinner. I would not recommend this if you are vegetarian. The buffet dinner included mostly meat-based dishes (even the side dishes). The regular à la cart menu was much better for vegetarians with 2-3 options. Breakfast was fantastic.
Day 2: Hohnstein to Altendorf – 14 km
In the early morning it began to downpour. The air got much cooler, but the rain never seemed to stop. At breakfast I sat and chatted with the dad and daughter I had seen at dinner the night before. Another woman, Nadine, hiking the Malerweg alone joined our table. The breakfast buffet was great!
Section 3: Hohnstein to Altendorf – 14 km
The rain didn’t prevent me from enjoying the hike, but the fog prevented me from seeing the views. The hike started out above the Polenztal, continuing along the “learning path” from the day before. There trail walks along the edge of sandstone cliffs, so tall that I had to crane my neck back to see the tops. I passed several rock climbing crags, identifiable by a white triangle on a black background marking the trails to them.
Brand – the Balcony of Saxon Switzerland
Halfway to Brand, the trail changes to a wide unpaved road. I was looking forward to the view because, like many other spots, it’s one of the best!! It’s also called the “balcony of Saxon Switzerland,” because it sits nearly 200 m over the Polenz Valley with a view of the Bastei and Schrammstein, and on clear days to the Erzgebirge. Today was not a clear day. I was lucky enough that the rain had slowed down just after I arrived at Brand, but there was still a thick fog. When the wind blew a bit, I could see some of the trees in the valley below, but even that wasn’t worth getting the camera out.
Stairs to Waitzdorf
Next, I was happy to be headed down instead of up because there are 867 steps from Brand into the valley. Once at the bottom, I followed a busy street for a short bit with a pretty creek alongside. Then it was another 500-ish steps up to Waitzdorf. The restaurant there is closed on Tuesdays (it was Tuesday and I had yet to see an open rest stop). At the end of town, I stopped at the bus stop (which someone had outfitted with a carpet and seat cushions!) to take off my rain jacket and get a reprieve from the wet air. A man walking his dog came by and lamented to me that the restaurant was closed. He was concerned about how much further I needed to go before I could something to eat. I reassured him that my backpack held many snacks and hiked on.
Kohlmühle
Just outside Waitzdorf, there are two more viewpoints, from which I saw nothing. Then the Malerweg headed back downhill again. There was another stretch along a pretty stream. I assumed it babbled much more than usual because of all the rain. The stream ended and the trail turned onto a street through the village of Großdorf-Kohlmühle. Once producing paper and later linoleum, the brick factory is hard to miss. The rundown factory and thick mist made it feel like the whole town was abandoned. I crossed the railroad tracks and followed the trail over the Sebnitz stream, running parallel to the tracks for a while.
Detour?
I made the mistake of following the sign for Altendorf, and prematurely headed up the hill away from the trail. I only realized my error once I was pretty much at the top of Adamsberg, where another nice view should have been, but it was foggy. Because C told me how much he enjoyed the end of this section, I didn’t want to miss a thing. Although I was already in Altendorf, I went back down to the stream and followed the actual Malerweg. Along the way I met the 5-guy hiking group I saw previously at the Burg hostel. When we got up to the top in Altendorf there was no view of the Schrammstein. There was no view of anything at all. The guys continued onwards and I left the trail to find my place for the night.
Altendorf
My hotel in Altendorf also had a rest day on Tuesdays which meant no dinner. The owner offered me a ride with her husband who was going into town (Bad Schandau) in a few hours, and said that another hiker would also join. Promptly at 4pm, I met Nadine from breakfast and the hotel owner’s husband. Once dropped off in town, Nadine and I were hiker hungry and agreed to eat at any place that was already open for dinner. We wanted to walk around town afterwards, but it was raining some more, so we used our tourist tickets from the hotel to take the bus back home.
To plan my trip on the Malerweg, I used this guide from Hikeline.
I could not believe the first two days on the Malerweg were so fantastic. And the highlights would just keep coming. They were amazing even in the pouring rain and fog! I knew that the hike would be good, but I hadn’t expected it to be this good! Stay tuned for the next installment of Germany’s best thru-hike.