Campingplatz Altjessen 57

With eight different painter’s trails and 15 circular hiking trails, the Elbe Sandstone Mountains (50 minutes’ drive) are a dream for ramblers. The sandstone rocks and table mountains have been the inspiration for many an oil painting, after all. The Painters’ Way isn’t for the faint-hearted; it has iron ladders and bouldering on the route. One stunning place among all of these gorgeous local landscapes is The Bastion Bridge (half an hour), a bridge balanced between giant rocks 194 metres above the Elbe river. Schrammsteine (50 minutes) is another set of spectacular – this time jagged – rocks. Like the sound of the table mountains too? Pfaffenstein Nature Reserve (35 minutes) is based on a table mountain and has a circular wooded hiking loop. On one of these hills is Königstein Fortress (25 minutes). It’s one of the largest hilltop castles in Europe, and it runs guided tours and culinary experiences for the foodies among you.