Hilden between the city forest and urban history

Hilden combines nature, leisure and urban history. When planning your trip, you can choose different priorities: Hilden City Forest offers an extensive network of paths and protected natural areas, while the town itself also has swimming pools, a museum and historic buildings. This lets you connect the question of which hotel is right for you with deciding which aspects of Hilden matter most during your stay.

City Forest: Natural Areas and Paths

Hilden City Forest is a mixed forest covering around 430 hectares. About 20 percent of its area consists of nature reserves; the rest of the forest is designated as a landscape conservation area. Its varied natural environments include the dry heath at Sandberg and the heathland moor near Schönholz. Rare plant and animal species can be found there. Sightings may vary depending on the season.

There are 30 kilometres of paths in the city forest, used for walking, dog walking, cycling or jogging. The network therefore accommodates several types of activity. The natural areas and the paths are two distinct aspects of the forest: you can plan your visit according to whether the landscape or outdoor exercise matters more to you.

Swimming Pools and Leisure

Waldbad is located on the edge of Hilden City Forest and has sports, non-swimmer and diving pools. Hildorado offers sports and leisure facilities as well as a sauna area. The two facilities differ above all in the offerings listed: Waldbad has various types of pools, while Hildorado includes a sauna. As facilities may change, it is advisable to check the current offerings before your visit.

Culture and Urban History

The Wilhelm Fabry Museum features changing exhibitions on art and medicine. The museum also includes the Vogelsang Distillery, an industrial heritage site with a steam engine installed in 1887. The exhibitions may change; the distillery adds an industrial history theme to your museum visit.

The Hilden city-centre walking tour is about 2.8 kilometres long and is suitable for pedestrians and cyclists. Along the way, you will encounter visible traces of the medieval period, the Reformation, the industrial age and the 20th century. The Reformation Church offers a specific historical point of reference: it dates from the 13th century and is one of the town’s few listed buildings. The museum, walking tour and church thus offer different ways to explore Hilden’s history—through changing exhibitions, several historical periods and a medieval building.

Distinguishing Tours and Trails

The distance information for the city-centre walking tour and the city forest describes different options: the city-centre tour is around 2.8 kilometres, while the 30 kilometres refers to the network of paths in the city forest. If you want to distinguish a clearly defined town tour from paths for different activities, this comparison can help with your planning. The neanderland STEIG also passes by Hilden: stages 11 and 12 offer views of Menzelsee and Elbsee. Routes and trail conditions may change; check both before setting out on a specific tour.

Discover more destinations: Velbert, Langenfeld, Mettmann, Monheim am Rhein, Wülfrath, Ratingen, Haan, Heiligenhaus.

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