Hiking in Germany
 

Germany, like Switzerland, is a real paradise for hiking, whether short distance or long distance trails. There are some great books to be found in German bookshops published by Rother Verlag (small red hiking books) or Kompass (which has been recently redesigned). In Switzerland there is a free app, called Switzerland Mobility, which has detailed ordnance survey maps of the countries with either hiking or biking trails superimposed on them. Does such a thing exist in Germany?

Try the Alpenvereinaktiv app. Komoot is not bad either.

https://www.alpenverein.de/huetten-w...aid_32643.html

https://www.komoot.de

The open source maps are also a valuable resource: https://www.openstreetmap.de/

Some excellent options there, thanks. I find it useful to have something as a backup, because the descriptions and route maps are often erroneous in Kompass, and to a somewhat lesser extent in the Rother books.

I must say, I used both apps for a hike that I did yesterday in the Ruhrgebiet (Hiesfelderwald, north of Oberhausen in the direction of the Netherlands border). Really excellent, amazing detail, absolutely no question of any navigational errors. Because even the maps in the Rother Wanderführer are sometimes surprisingly inaccurate, especially in the placing of the red line. Kompass used to be much worse, a real nightmare with much time wasted en route with navigational errors. But they have overhauled their guides and the new paths and depiction of the path ways (according to quality from tarmac to mountain trail) are really excellent.

Out of the two apps I used, I had a slight preference for the Alpenvereinaktiv over the Open Street Map one, but both were really good and a huge help when I came to dubious intersections on very small trails in the forest.