Cuxhaven. 1. Center

Last Updated on 14/03/2023

If someone wants to properly swim in the sea, perhaps you are not right in Cuxhaven. When the tide comes, the dragons guarding the beach entrance (you must pay) even leave their posts. Because the main attraction in the German North Sea is the Watt.

You can find a map of the attractions of the Lower Saxony coast here.
Next –
Cuxhaven Döse and Duhnen,
Cuxhaven Sahlenburg,
Bremerhaven.
Attractions. Schleswig-Holstein. Map

Watt – for endless ankle-deep walking in water, meditation of the boundless sky reflected in the endless water surface, calming the nerves, searching for small sea creatures and confronting crabs. Children can hang around on this shore for an infinitely long time, picking out someone, building castles and getting covered with a layer of mud as much as possible.

Watt – shallow water of sand and clay, in some places stretching for kilometers. Even at high tide, hundreds of meters offshore, you may lack depth for swimming. The bottom topography is clearly visible on satellite maps.

How to get to Cuxhaven

Getting to Cuxhaven is not at all difficult: the train arrives from two sides – from Bremerhaven and from Hamburg, the highway almost crashes into the sea near the city center.

Buses are actively moving around the city (and it is not small) and all its tourist suburbs. Their cost is inadequately high, but there are a lot of people in them. But renting a bike is cheaper than in many other cities: only 5-7 euros per day.

A mini wheeled train runs from the pier along the coast. I would not recommend it: it shakes very much, stuffy and a lot of people. It’s not cheap either, so it’s better to just get there quickly by bus.

If you are by car, driving outside the city center, if you do not want to go crazy with the many traffic lights (green line on the map). It means the penultimate exit from the highway (from Bremerhaven) and exit from B73 to K6 (from Hamburg, a white road crossing red autobahn).

Next, we will talk about the city – to the right of Kugelbake (look at the map above), that is, about the city center.

Cuxhaven map

The city has a high resort tax. Instead, they give a resort card with small discounts. You should always carry the card with you to show it on the beach both in Cuxhaven and nearby towns.

From Kugelbake to the city center

Walking from Kugelbake to the center is not recommended – it is too far, and there is nothing to see along the road. Here is already the Elbe: many ships, stone banks.

The beach here is marked on the map of the city as “grassy”. Which means a long sloping lawn with occasional benches and tourists. The lawn is separated from the “beach” by a road along which there are a lot of cyclists and walking tourists. In the corner of the bay, near port, there is something what can hardly be called a beach: a small piece of sand with a snack bar. The rest of the shore is covered with large stones, stairs lead into the water. But I would not voluntarily go into this water.

It can be seen that the water is brown

Cuxhaven Attractions in the center

The city center (shops, pedestrian streets) is located near the station.

Nearby is the Windstärke 10 Fishing and Marine Museum. The museum is hidden behind a shopping mall and other buildings, and they have poor signage. The museum itself is good for children, average for adults.

There is also a small castle mainly used for events. You can visit it, but perhaps only from deep boredom – there is almost nothing authentic there.

One and a half kilometers from the center (Alte Liebe lighthouse) there is a marina for excursion ships: from here you can go to the island of Neuwerk, Helgoland (and even in two versions – faster and slower), see the seals or take a ferry to the other side of the Elbe. The lighthouse ship Elbe 1 is also parked there, which sometimes rides tourists, and at other times serves as a museum and premises for events.

Lighthouse ship Elbe 1

My general conclusion: save your time and do not walk to the center, better take a bus, if you absolutely want visit a city centre or museum.

You can find a map of the attractions of the Lower Saxony coast here.
Next – Döse and Duhnen,
Sahlenburg,
Bremerhaven.