There aren't too many places where you can simply go on a SUP tour against a picturesque backdrop and a cityscape that has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This really whetted our appetite for the three-hour SUP tour through the heart of the beautiful Hanseatic city of Lübeck. I like to call the paddling area the "Amazon of the North". The city centre is surrounded and flowed through by water and boasts beautiful old town architecture - with many listed buildings separated by small alleyways.
Being from Hamburg, we have a short journey and have already paddled a few times on different routes through and around the old town centre. On today's tour, we are extending our SUP session with a start at the surf station of the Surf Centre Lübeck, directly on the Wakenitz and close to the old town. The options for parking your car in the old town are very limited and are subject to parking meter or multi-storey car park charges. Outside the old town centre, the situation eases considerably. There are hardly any such problems on Falkenstraße, and the tips from Malte, the manager of the surf centre, make it easier for us to plan our tour and get started with the boards.
SUP tour through Lübeck
"You need about two to three hours for the big tour," says Malte. "You can take breaks along the way, stop off somewhere and then paddle on." You don't even need to ask Malte for tips, because somehow he keeps on talking, which has probably also attracted his followers from the Lübeck SUP scene. In addition to families who come to hire a few iSUPs, there is a queue of female stand-up paddlers who are happy to chat to the 38-year-old and seem to hire boards here regularly. The chat lasts a while, because the women never really let go of him. "That man has a way with women," I think - but that's another topic. The surf station at the Surf Centre Lübeck is simply a meeting place for the Lübeck SUP scene.
Today, summer is shining on us with its full force. With air temperatures of easily 25 degrees and veiling clouds, we have the best conditions for paddling. We paddle a little way up the Wakenitz, where there are large, magnificent villas with long plots of land on the eastern side. Most of the families living here are relaxing in the gardens or on their jetties, enjoying the sunshine and launching their paddle boats and, in some cases, SUP boards. In this glorious summer weather, people are either paddling on them or - and probably even more frequently - using the SUP board as a bathing island. The water is at its seasonal peak on this late summer's day at a good 20 degrees, so people like to swim here. On one side, we marvel at the villas and on the other, the hiking trail runs along the Wakenitz. We pass the canoeing club and then the Falkenwiese natural swimming pool, which is often busy in summer. The sailing club with sailing school, which appears a little later, offers catering facilities to the left and right.
Explore Lübeck's old town by SUP
Meanwhile, we paddle further south, now having to paddle more intensively against the current. Or is it more the wind, which is blowing from the south at three force today and creating choppy water conditions? Before the Moltke Bridge, we turn right at the Wakenitzufer bridge and pass underneath it, finally setting course for the old town via the culvert. In fact, this canal, the Düker, makes the SUP tour "a wonderful lap around the pudding," says Frank Ziboll from the Surf Centre Lübeck, or rather it's the classic: the "Old Town lap". On the Düker, we enjoy the flair of a residential town with small gardens to the left and right of the canal, and this section reminds us a little of the gardens in Friedrichstadt, the Dutch town in North Friesland.
What is comfortable on one side can be more challenging for less experienced stand-up paddlers on the other, as the two bridges that are paddled through in the feeder channel have less and less clearance height. At the second bridge, we have to sit down on the board, which is a wobbly affair, at least on the narrow 24-inch race board. The feeder canal ends far too early for us, we are so pleasantly surprised by the scenery and now have to transfer our boards to the city canal.
While everything was small and tranquil a moment ago, we are now paddling on a waterway that is wider, generally has somewhat wavier conditions and is used by quite a few boats. For example, the excursion boats, called launches, sail around the historic old town centre just as we do. Commercial shipping always has priority, so please keep a sufficient (!) distance for good co-operation.
Paddling on the Obertrave
We continue paddling southwards along the Kanaltrave, the weather turns cloudy and shortly after the imposing Wallstraße bridge we turn right onto the Obertrave and thus onto a very entertaining section of our paddling tour. On the right-hand side, we pass the Alte Mühle restaurant and a free car park at the weekend. You can also use your board here, as we have already done an extra round on the Mühlenteich and Krähenteich ponds from here on previous visits to Lübeck.
The route continues north along the Obertrave, passing the old town and city centre, which are well worth seeing. Initially there are residential buildings, which are still separated from the water by the street An der Obertrave and a green strip. Locals like to sit here and enjoy the ambience with the river in front of them. On the left-hand side is Malerwinkel, which, as the name suggests, is popular with painters and photographers because it offers a particularly attractive view of the old town with its numerous churches.
And right here, near the Dankwartsbrücke bridge, the green backdrop and the perhaps "cosy" atmosphere are over, and the city shows us its busy, lively side. Cafés and restaurants alternate, people sit outside a lot and it is also the neighbourhood that attracts the most tourists. It is not without reason that the launches start their round trips here. On the left-hand side are the historic salt warehouses, which were built between 1579 and 1745 in the brick Renaissance and brick Baroque style. At that time, as the name suggests, they were used to store salt, which was shipped in from Lüneburg and Bad Oldesloe and sold on to countries such as Norway to preserve the fish caught there. The town's wealth at the time was largely based on this trade, and today the salt store is home to a textile department stores'.
It's just too bad that the salt storehouses and the neighbouring Holsten Bridge largely block the view of the nationally renowned Holsten Gate. The city's landmark is one of the remains of Lübeck's city fortifications and is the only one of the three former Holsten Gates to have survived. Today it houses the Lübeck City History Museum. Knowledge quiz for in between: On which DM banknote was the Holsten Gate depicted? Exactly - on the 50 mark note.
The Untertrave
We leave the Holstenbrücke bridge behind us and with it the part of our SUP tour that many describe as the most entertaining part, as this section has the largest range of catering outlets with the option of sitting outside. If you were hungry or thirsty, you should have taken care of that by this point. The Untertrave is much wider and the further north we go, the choppier the water becomes. We paddle past another starting point for city, canal and harbour tours and catch a glimpse of the Lübeck Marzipan Warehouse, where you can buy more than just marzipan. There is a real marzipan school and a marzipan show. Yes, we are in Lübeck!
"Yes, we're in Lübeck," we think again, delightedly, as we leave the busiest section behind us, as things are still much more leisurely and quiet here compared to the hotspots on Hamburg's Outer Alster. On a summer's day like this, there are probably 30 times as many people on the water in Hamburg, and here we are even happy to see other stand-up paddlers.
We walk past the theatre ship and some historic boats moored in the museum harbour and approach the Lübeck Water Steps (also known as the swing bridge square), which invites you to take a break. Lübeck's new favourite spot was redesigned in 2020 and has been attracting even more people ever since. We take the boards ashore, buy fish sandwiches and chips and chill out for a while on this wide, nicely designed wooden platform.
The tour continues past the Media Dock Lübeck, past exclusive motorboats and then along the old harbour facilities, where a historic, restored ship, the Lisa von Lübeck, which looks like the pirate ship Black Pearl from "Pirates of the Caribbean", is moored. And didn't the children just see the pirate captain Johnny Depp alias Captain Jack Sparrow?
We quickly make sure we don't get into any pirate battles and paddle eastwards, passing under the lift bridge and into the city canal. A few minutes further and there would now be a good opportunity to end the tour at the canoe launching point, as our starting point for this wonderful afternoon SUP tour is only about 100 metres away.
We quickly leave the moat behind us
Or would you prefer a slightly longer SUP tour? From the pirate ship, we also paddle about 200 metres in a northerly direction. But instead of turning east, we briefly head west (to the left) and then immediately turn down into the Stadtgraben, which runs roughly parallel to the Untertrave and Obertrave, just a little further west and with a different atmosphere: the Stadtgraben runs alongside railway tracks, large factory buildings and the car parks of large hotels. And somehow there is a lack of attractions here, of nature, of places to chill out. The Stadtgraben is not our first recommendation for paddling, but rather an option to avoid paddling down the same route again. So we paddle down this trip with a little more speed, and after about two thirds of the way to the Untertrave and Obertrave, which run roughly parallel, we can turn left to the Obertrave or take the section with the Stadtgraben to the end and turn back onto the Stadtkanal and head for the canoe launching point.
Summary of the SUP & The City Tour Lübeck:
SUP tours in the Hanseatic city of Lübeck are also worth the long journey. The historic old town can be easily explored on a SUP board, and there are always cafés, ice cream parlours or simply beautiful scenery to stop and linger. The tour can be travelled in both directions due to the low currents. Lübeck also offers many other sights and several museums, which can be easily explored on foot on a walk through the narrow streets and alleyways: Everything is close together in Lübeck, and we won't have been SUPing in Lübeck for the last time.
SUP addresses in Lübeck:
- SUP Station Surf Centre LübeckFalkenstr. 56, 23552 Lübeck, open from May to September.
- Surf Centre Lübeck, shop in Lübeck
- Paddlepoint Lübeck
- Boardrider, shop in Lübeck
Further useful links:
Tourist information Lübeck, information on sights and culture in Lübeck
Restaurant Alte MühleRestaurant am Mühlensee
