Discover Gehlberg
Accommodation in Gehlberg
Gehlberg combines winter activities with regional glass culture and hiking trails. When looking for accommodation, consider the themes you want to shape your stay: cross-country skiing and winter trails, a circular trail connected to the history of poaching, or museum visits offer different focuses. This lets you tailor your choice to your interests.
File:Geierturm rocks near Gehlberg, Germany, Thuringia.jpg
Photo: Thuringius via Wikimedia Commons, CC0
Winter activities in Gehlberg
Gehlberg’s winter activities include a ski lift with a toboggan run, as well as 33 km of groomed ski touring trails and 30 km of winter hiking trails. There is also a practice area behind the Glass Museum for first attempts at cross-country skiing. This means several activities are available: cross-country skiing, ski touring, winter hiking and tobogganing. The practice area is intended for people who want to gain their first experience on cross-country skis; the trails mentioned offer other ways to spend time outdoors.
When planning, it is useful to distinguish between these activities: a toboggan run is different from a ski touring trail or a winter hiking trail. Use of seasonal facilities and trails depends on conditions, so check what is currently available before your visit.
Glass culture and museums
The Thuringian Museum Park Gehlberg is a family-friendly regional museum comprising six museums or sections in two buildings. It is located in the former Gundelach glassworks and offers insights into traditional glassmaking. Opposite is the Post Office Museum, which documents the history of the postal service. The museum park and its surroundings bring together two distinct subjects: the glassmaking tradition and postal history.
The Thuringian Museum Park also includes a park with a 350-year-old lime tree, a fountain and children’s playgrounds. A visit need not be focused solely on the exhibitions: the park is a part of the museum park in its own right, complementing the museum sections with open space and opportunities for play.
Hiking trails with different focuses
The Wildererpfad circular hiking trail starts and ends in the mountain meadow behind the Thuringian Museum Park Gehlberg. It is 9.2 km long and challenging in places. Along the way, reconstructed traps, information panels and photographs at original locations tell the story of poaching in the Thuringian Forest. If you are weighing up museum visits against a longer hike, this offers a distinctly different focus: the trail connects the route with the history of poaching, while the museum park provides insights into the traditions of glassmaking and postal history.
In the wider destination of Suhl
Suhl offers its own cultural and natural setting within the wider destination. It is located close to the Rennsteig. The Suhl Planetarium has an 8-metre dome with room for up to 56 visitors. Using the Zeiss “Skymaster” small planetarium, it projects around 6,000 fixed stars as well as the movements of the sun, moon and planets. Spread over three floors, the Suhl Weapons Museum showcases the city’s almost 600-year tradition of manufacturing firearms. A separate section offers insights into Suhl’s porcelain production, which played an important role between 1861 and 1930.
Discover more destinations: Altenfeld, Geschwenda, Gräfenroda, Großbreitenbach, Friedersdorf, Stützerbach, Ilmenau, Herschdorf
See the overview of the wider destination: Ilm-Kreis.
