Germany Guide
Schleswig-Holstein
North Frisian islands
Scattered in the North Sea 6km off Schleswig-Holstein are the North Frisian islands. For centuries these storm-battered, separate worlds eked out a living from farming and fishing, their thatched villages hunkered down behind sand dunes in defence against waves that occasionally washed whole communities into the North Sea. Tourism replaced agriculture as the premier source of income decades ago, yet even on Sylt the scenery is overwhelmingly bucolic-seaside. There are the same dune seas of marrum grass and vast skies – blue and brooding by turns and punctured only by lighthouses – that captivated artists in the early 1900s; the same thatched villages (though many house boutiques and restaurants rather than fisherfolk); and there are the same colonies of sea birds and seals in an area that is largely protected within the Nationalpark Schleswig-Holsteinisches Wattenmeer (literally "shallow sea"). This may be Germany's chic coastal playground, but it is more Martha's Vineyard than St Tropez. Sylt is the most popular and developed of the islands, centred on main town Westerland and the chic high-life of village-resort Kampen. Föhr and especially Amrum are peaceful rural islands of homespun charm with little to do except stroll or cycle – on these glorified sandbanks both are not just good options to get around, they are sometimes your only ones.
The islands are on the same latitude as Newcastle in northeast England or the southern tip of Alaska. And statistics tell their own story of changeable conditions as weather fronts barrel across the North Sea: although only fifteen days a year are free of prevailing westerly winds that can blow gale-force even in summer, the islands bask in 1750 hours of sunshine a year.