Naila: Hiking and Culture

In Naila, educational trails covering a range of nature topics meet church architecture and museum culture. For planning your trip, the easy trails are particularly appealing: they differ both in length and in what they cover. Cultural attractions in Naila and the surrounding area offer further options. You can decide whether water, geology, views, or history should be the focus of your stay.

Hiking trails with different focuses

The 5.3-kilometer Water Adventure Trail is an easy educational circular hiking trail. It starts at the Höllensprudel and Hochfrankenquelle mineral springs. Its themes include the past and present use of hydropower and how the Selbitz created the Höllental valley. The trail returns to the spring house via the Röhrensteig trail.

The easy Naila Geotrail is 6.6 kilometers long and explores geology, the Slate Country Geopark, and former mineral deposits and their extraction in Naila. The trail passes a rest area at the Pikrite rocks. An additional option is a detour of about 800 meters to the Kalkofen flaser limestone quarry; this distance is for the one-way trip.

The Garles-Weg OS 43 is an easy, 10.6-kilometer circular hike from Naila to the Garlesfelsen rock and via Marlesreuth. The route starts at Naila train station. The Garlesfelsen in the surrounding area has a seating area and offers a view. This sets the trail apart from the two educational trails not only because it is longer, but also because it passes through Marlesreuth.

The FrankenwaldSteigla “Der Wilde Mann” offers another view of the landscape. It passes through the Naila district of Froschgrün. Near the former Schneckengrün estate, the trail offers a view across Naila and the former district to the Döbraberg. No trail length is given here, so it cannot be compared directly with the three easy trails in terms of kilometers.

Among the three trails with a stated length, distances range from 5.3 to 6.6 to 10.6 kilometers. All three are rated easy. The Water Adventure Trail is the shortest, the Geotrail is in between, and the Garles-Weg is the longest. In addition to distance, each trail’s focus can help you choose: hydropower and landscape, geology and the history of mineral extraction, or a circular hike via Marlesreuth to the Garlesfelsen.

Naila Town Church and Museum

Today’s Naila Town Church was built in the Neo-Gothic style between 1869 and 1871, following the last major town fire. Its organ was made in 1997 by the Karl Schuke organ-building company in Berlin and is considered one of the finest instruments in all of Upper Franconia. The church’s construction and organ offer two different points of cultural and historical interest: its rebuilding after the town fire and the later creation of the instrument.

The Museum Naila in the Forum Naila displays exhibits on the shoemaking trade and the well-known hot-air balloon associated with the spectacular balloon escape of 1979. A fascinating dollhouse is also among the museum’s themes. The exhibits range from local crafts to a notable event in contemporary history and an object from the home.

Cultural and scenic attractions in the surrounding area

In Marlesreuth, the Handwebermuseum explores the lives and work of handloom weavers and offers a glimpse into the bygone era of the “Handweber-Frankenwald” (Handloom Weaver Franconian Forest). Marlesreuth village church has a carved wooden coffered ceiling, a pulpit altar, and a baptismal angel. The Weberhaus Marlesreuth is also considered a tourist attraction in the area around Naila. The three sites offer different points of interest: the history of crafts at the museum, furnishings and carving at the church, and the weavers’ house as another tourist attraction.

The nearby Höllental valley is also considered wild and romantic. It also features as a landscape theme on the Water Adventure Trail, which explains how the Selbitz created the valley. This links the description of the Höllental with the trail’s geological and water-related focus, without treating them as the same attraction.

Discover more destinations

Discover more destinations: Issigau, Stammbach, Gattendorf, Trogen, Hof, Geroldsgrün, Schwarzenbach Am Wald, Feilitzsch.

Go to the main travel overview: Hof.