You can discover East Frisia over a cup of tea: at an East Frisian tea ceremony at the East Frisian Tea Museum, you can taste tea and learn how it is traditionally prepared and enjoyed in East Frisia. This includes the right blend and rock sugar. Check the booking conditions for the ceremony in advance, as they may change.

Tea Culture and Museum Experiences

Guided tours of the exhibition rooms reveal other facets: you can discover special objects relating to East Frisian tea culture, tea around the world, the history of tea and East Frisian cultural history. The ceremony focuses on tasting and preparation, while the tour focuses on exhibition rooms and objects—two different ways of engaging with regional culture and the history of tea.

Within the broader travel destination of Lower Saxony, this tradition can be placed in its historical context: from the second half of the 17th century, East Frisia developed its own tea culture into a ceremony involving specific tea blends, porcelain and various rituals. At the level of the broader travel destination of Lower Saxony, the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture proposed East Frisian Tea Culture as a tradition typical of Lower Saxony for inclusion in the nationwide register of intangible cultural heritage.

The East Frisian Tea Museum is part of a wider regional network: the East Frisia Museum Association is a union of currently 16 museums across the region.

Landmarks, Castles and Mills

Beyond the museums, distinctive buildings and landmarks also shape the image of East Frisia. The Pilsum Lighthouse is one of the region’s best-known landmarks. The Bunderhee Stone House is one of the oldest surviving castles in East Frisia. Around 90 mills still characterize the vast landscape of East Frisia today. The region therefore offers different forms of cultural heritage: a famous landmark, an old surviving castle and numerous mills in the landscape.

The Wadden Sea in the Wider Natural Region of Lower Saxony

The Lower Saxony Wadden Sea National Park covers the Wadden Sea, including the East Frisian Islands outside inhabited areas. In the broader travel destination of Lower Saxony, more than 10,000 different animal and plant species have so far been found in the Lower Saxony Wadden Sea. The Lower Saxony Wadden Sea National Park is also a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Wadden Sea.

In the wider travel destination of Lower Saxony, three Wadden Sea visitor centres, 14 national park houses and one national park experience station are located along the coast and on the islands. At many Wadden Sea national park houses and centres along the Lower Saxony North Sea coast and on the East Frisian Islands, you can discover the Wadden Sea habitat.

Cycling and Paddling

East Frisia offers around 3,500 kilometres of signposted cycling routes, where you can plan your own rides. With Paddel und Pedal, you can rent bicycles and canoes at 15 stations for day trips or longer circular tours, either alone or in a group. All water and cycling routes in the Paddel-und-Pedal touring network are signposted. Blue signs along the waterways show the departure point, destination and next rest stop, with journey times.

Discover more destinations: Cloppenburg, Verden, Oldenburg, Goslar, Delmenhorst, Emsland, East Frisian Islands, Holzminden.

Back to the overview of the broader travel destination: Lower Saxony.