Beach Holidays in... Germany?

Take a quick splash through the Bathtub's top spots:

Rügen Island - Much mythologised in the German imagination, Rugen was frequented in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by the country's good and great, including Bismarck, Thomas Mann and Einstein. Its chalk coastline was also immortalised by the Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich in 1818.

Unfortunately, Hitler was also beguiled by Germany's largest island, choosing one of its most beautiful beaches to build a monstrous holiday resort for his loyal troops. Later, GDR governments made Rügen the holiday choice for dedicated comrades; top apparatchik Erich Honecker visited there. Although it boasts 574km of coast, much of Rügen is covered in leafy vegetation. Driving across the island, you'll pass beneath lush canopies of chestnut, oak, elm and poplar trees. Its surrounding waters are national parks or protected nature reserves.

Many visitors make a beeline for the main resort of Binz and the Stubbenkammer area of white chalk cliffs in the Jasmund National Park. However, Rügen has many corners to explore and also features some interesting historic buildings. Its resorts' white villas have been refurbished since 1990, when the island began to reclaim its place in tourist itineraries. A couple of flights of architectural fancy are found in the planned town of Putbus. The Jagdschloss Granitz, Germany's largest island, boasts more white cliffs than Dover, boat trips, spas and the grotesquely compelling shell of the 4.5km-long Nazi holiday resort, Prora, built on Hitler's orders.

Warnemünde - At the mouth of the Warnow River just north of Rostow is one of Germany's most popular resorts. A lighthouse and a mollusc-shaped 1960s pavilion stand guard over a gorgeous sandy beach where punters sip cocktails, watch flaming sunsets and savour freshly caught seafood.

Heiligendamm - The 'white town on the sea' is Germany's oldest seaside resort, founded in 1793 by the Mecklenburg duke Friedrich Franz I and fashionable throughout the 19th century as the playground of nobility. It languished during the Communist era and was only really reborn when the exclusive Kempinski Grand Hotel complex reopened in 2003. There's still little here bar the Kempinski (the G8 venue), but the dinky 'Molli' train links to nearby Bad Doberan and Kühlungsborn.

Usedom Island - The first place to be called 'Berlin's bathtub', this island is also where the first space rocket was fired in 1942. Once on Usedom you can walk into Poland, which owns the eastern half. The greatest assets of this island are its 42km stretch of inviting beach and its bask-worthy weather (it has, on average, more than 1900 hours of sunshine annually, which makes it the sunniest place in Germany). Elegant 1920s villas with wrought-iron balconies grace many traditional resorts, including Zinnowitz and Ückeritz in the western half and Bansin, Heringsdorf and Ahlbeck further east.

Hiddensee Island - If Rügen is exalted, the mention of Hiddensee Island makes Germans swoon. Dat söte Länneken (the sweet little land) is a tiny patch off Rügen's western coast. What makes it so special is its remote, breathtaking landscape. North of the village of Kloster are the heath and meadows of the 'Dornbush' area, with the island's landmark lighthouse and wind-buckled trees. From the main village of Vitte, dunes wend their way south to Neuendorf. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Hiddensee bewitched artists like Thomas Mann, Bertolt Brecht and Gerhart Hauptmann, the last of whom is buried here.

Thorn Tree travellers dip into their favourite Baltic memories:

Altona:

I grew up looking across a bay seeing the coast of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania on the other side. It was like watching another planet as it was virtually impossible to visit.

Two weeks after the wall had come down, two friends and I sailed across this bay and our first port of call was tiny Timmendorf on Poel Island. What a wild and emotional trip! I'll always have a soft spot for this still underrated small island.

In later years, we spent many summers sailing along the coast of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (and further east along the Polish, Lithuanian and Latvian coast).

My favourite spots:

• Darßer Ort: harbour of refuge; lacks facilities
• Regenbogen: Camp Prerow - apparently it was an oasis of fun and freedom in GDR times. Even in later years, there was lots of mixed nudity, free living, etc. Beautiful beach.
• Hiddensee: no cars on this tiny island, has been a favourite hide-out of the nomenclatura for a reason
• Rügen: walking from Gager to Groß-Zicker across the hill, best done with a summer lightning storm approaching

Catchat:

Pedal along the Baltic Coast Trail on a bicycle! Close towards the Hanseatic gem of Wismar you come to a small and quiet island: the island of Insel Poel. The harbour in Kirchdorf is pretty, but walk up to the little church on the hill and perhaps along the coast to the beach of Timmendorf. You can either take the bus from Wismar or even go by boat from the harbour of Wismar.

Gigolochrist:

I like Rügen, in particular we stayed in Goehren (a town in Ruegen) which is like a resort town with Old Baltic villas. It's not a raging party town, but totally relaxed. We also spent a day checking out Binz (an old-school resort town 15 minutes driving from Goehren west on the island), which is really neat, and has a classic 19th-century feeling to it.

The beaches are all nice, and in particular the smoked fish selections are great, and also be sure to drink a kuemmel, which is this cold caraway-seed schnapps to wash down your fish experience.

Colognegirl:

The Stoertebeker Festspiele (a summer festival on Rügen) is magnificent. If you can afford it (we splashed out) get a room at Ralswiek Castle, which sits on a hill overlooking the open air stage - so from the hotel terrace you can catch a glimpse of what's going on on stage! You can also walk down the hill and catch some of the show from behind the actual (fenced-in) seating area. So basically we saw it three times - once 'properly' inside and on two evenings caught some glimpses from further away.