Willingen (Upland): Uplandsteig and Viewpoints

Hiking around the municipality

The Uplandsteig runs all the way around the municipality of Willingen (Upland), passing through all nine districts. The certified quality hiking trail is 66 km long. This distance puts the tour on a different scale from a visit to a single viewpoint: when planning your days, you can first choose between a long hiking route and individual attractions.

The trail passes through mixed forest, beech forest and fir forest, as well as open fields, flowering meadows and marshland. Its landscape is therefore not limited to a single type of forest; open areas and different forest landscapes are also part of it. If you are looking for a hiking route when planning your trip, the Uplandsteig offers a concrete option, while the observation structures each provide their own focus for a visit.

Skywalk, Mühlenkopfschanze and Hochheideturm

The Skywalk Willingen stretches for 665 m and soars 100 m above the Upland landscape. Mühlenkopfschanze has a 25 m-high ski jump tower with the “Adlerhorst” viewpoint. It attracts visitors year-round and is a leisure tip. Alongside the long hiking route, these distinctive structures offer additional points of reference for planning your stay.

The Hochheideturm on Ettelsberg is 62 m high. Its viewing platform is 875 m above sea level and is described as the highest viewpoint in northwestern Germany. An accessible lift for eight people leads to the platform. These figures refer to different measurements: for the Skywalk, 665 m is its length and 100 m its height above the landscape; for the Hochheideturm, they are the tower’s height and the platform’s elevation. This distinction makes comparison easier without treating the figures as equivalent.

Trip-planning information

Free parking is available on the Skywalk/Schanze–Ettelsberg circular route at the valley station of the Ettelsberg cable car, Zur Hoppecke 5. This information applies to the route named above. If you include this route in your plans, you can take the parking and the stated address into account together.

If you are travelling with people who have different interests, you can consider these options separately and then decide which ones are central to your stay. That way, your choice starts with the kind of days you have planned, rather than with assumptions about the features accommodation might offer.

Waldeck-Frankenberg as a broader context

The wider travel destination of Waldeck-Frankenberg also offers other distinct themes. The ancient beech forests of Kellerwald-Edersee National Park have been part of the UNESCO World Natural Heritage since 2011. The GeoFoyer Kalkturm Korbach presents the landscape and wildlife around Korbach as they were 250 million years ago. Another exhibition focuses on the extraction and processing of limestone and its industrial use in the quarry for more than 100 years.

These regional attractions complement the picture of Willingen (Upland) without replacing its local hiking routes and viewpoints: the Uplandsteig, the Skywalk and the towers provide concrete starting points for planning a trip to Willingen, while the forests and exhibitions mentioned belong to the wider region. This lets you shape your stay around what you want to do locally while also exploring other themes in the wider destination.

Discover more destinations: Usseln, Welleringhausen, Rattlar, Bömighausen, Schwalefeld, Eimelrod, Neerdar, Frankenberg

Go to the broader travel overview: Waldeck-Frankenberg.