From: Pirna
To: Pirna
Our time (ie s l o w): 8 days
Distance: 110km

The Germans call it the Malerweg. That translates to the Painters’ Way. That alone should give you a clue that this Malerweg Guide will send you on one beautiful walk.

Exploring an area of eastern Germany nicknamed ‘Saxon Switzerland’ (another clue) the Malerweg is based on the hikes of nineteenth century artists who came here to paint. But with or without sketchbook it’s a trail to inspire awe.

Incredible misty scenes near the Bastei Bridge, Saxon Switzerland

The 110km Malerweg trail is a giant loop of the Sächsische Schweiz, a national park of deep, dark forestland carved in two by the giant River Elbe. It’s all very picturesque: cosy villages line the riverbanks and steamboats chug constantly from side to side.

But the best bit: the landscape is dominated by mountains. Giant sandstone karsts rearing out above the treetops.

It’s a fairytale landscape of epic proportions:

Malerweg guide

Just because it’s so good, we’ve written a blog post solely about Saxon Switzerland: what it’s like, what to see, any which way you come. But we think walking the Malerweg trail is the best way to see the whole Park.

You see unlike a lot of trails, the Malerweg has been routed with a lot of thought. It gave us as walkers and visitors Everything. The best views of this awesome landscape? Yes. Via famous landmarks that people travel here to see anyway? Yes. Interesting and varied paths that wind up, down, through and round? Yes. Stopping conveniently in gorgeous tiny wooden villages to eat and sleep? Thought of that too.

This is such, such a good walk. So here’s our Malerweg guide, packed with all the practicalities you need.

The Malerweg Guide: what to know

Getting there

The nearest city is Dresden, easily accessible from Berlin via bus or train (or if you like, by train from Prague).

From Dresden hop on a regional train the half hour to the pretty town of Pirna. Pirna is where the walk technically starts and finishes, but to begin you’ll need to get the bus out to the trailhead about 20 mins away.

This train does run onto a lot of the villages on the Malerweg by the river. Can be handy if you want to do sections of the Malerweg, or stay in one place.

Also, just a little thing about German trains: make sure you stamp your ticket before you get on the train. Yeah, we’ve taken that shouty-ticket-inspector bullet for you this time.

Terrain

The Malerweg is really a forest walk. Springy pine needle floors, spidery tree roots, leaf mulch, that kind of thing. It’s very peaceful and a little bit eerie.

This changes every now and again when you hit rock: flat, bald areas of stone where the trees give out and you walk along on it. Don’t worry – strategic steel steps or railings are there for help and to stop you falling off. And honestly, those bits are just cool.

Malerweg guide

Either way the surfaces are all quite easy. Parts were completely covered in ice when we walked the Malerweg and (as long as we went carefully) it was fine.

Level of difficulty

A lot of it is fairly easy flat walking under trees or along the riverbank. Because of the dramatic landscape though every now and then there are climbs: usually long, magical-looking staircases leading you up and down through the forest.

Magical forest staircases as part of the Malerweg trail

So a bit more on the rock walking: although the most challenging, we found these parts the most interesting! We walked above, below, through – everywhere. It’s a bit like a fun house, scrambling around holding onto metal handrails drilled into the rockface, or squeezing through narrow avenues between boulders. As they used to say on that old Fun House TV show: it’s a whole lotta fun.

Stairways on the Painters' Way over root branches and up through rocks. All with helpful metal handles and chains.

Time of year

The Malerweg tourism site says that the Malerweg is pretty much walkable year round, bar heavy snow. Walking in light snow ourselves, we were a bit worried about that, but it was absolutely fine, and there were plenty of other hikers in the Park come the weekends. As a lot of the path isn’t too challenging, we just had to be wary of ice patches.

If you’re coming before Easter though (like us), a few restaurants and beer gardens were still closed for the winter, so be prepared for that.

Malerweg guide

Signposting

Is very very good – regular signs point you in the right direction, with timings for all kinds of trails. The Malerweg has a sketchy ‘M’ symbol which we followed. We also picked up the Nationalparkregion Sächsisch-Böhmische Schweiz N°17 map from Pirna tourist information and used that to navigate. Man those German maps are good.

Using the Nationalparkregion Sächsisch-Böhmische Schweiz N°17 map to navigate Saxon Switzerland
Signposting in the Sächsische Schweiz National Park

Supplies

The Malerweg essentially hops from one little Saxon village to another. Bringing snack and lunches will be good enough as you’ll always be able to stop in places at the end of the day.

The villages of Stadt Whelan, Schmilka, Hohnstein and Bad Schandau are all good stops as they’re very pretty and have plenty of cafes, restaurants and shops to stock up on food and, importantly, coffee.

The Malerweg Guide: what to see

We’ve written up our highlights of sights to see on the Malerweg trail in our blog about Saxon Switzerland here.

Malerweg guide

Where to stay

The villages of Stadt Whelan, Hohnstein, Bad Schandau and Schmilka are good options for accommodation. They’re en route and are big enough for plenty of choice. Really even the smaller ones not listed have the odd cosy B&B. It all breaks down really into:

Campsites: there are campsites at Königstein and in the valley outside Bad Schandau. The latter has rooms as well as pitches, and an on-site restaurant. The local tram stops right by it.

Guesthouses: gusthouses and hotels exist in the small villages. We didn’t tend to stay in these as they’re a bit pricey, but rather beautiful.

AirBnb: By far the easiest form of accommodation to find. We spotted online plenty of small flats in the houses of the villages and we rented one in Stadt Whelan with beautiful views of the forest and river.

Different types of accommodation including wooden houses on the Malerweg

What we think

This is an unmissable part of Germany, with some Brother Grimm style magic – go do this walk and feel it too.

Malerweg guide

Do you have a question for us to add into the Malerweg Guide? Leave a comment below.

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Malerweg Guide