Harbours in Travemünde: arrival, harbour information and sailing destinations

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Travemünde belongs to the Hanseatic City of Lübeck and lies where the Trave flows into Lübeck Bay. The harbours in Travemünde are spread across both banks: Priwall to the east and the town side to the west. Here you can read how to get to the start of your trip, which harbour is where, where to park and shop, what the weather is like, which sailing destinations are nearby and what skippers need to be aware of on the Trave.

What harbours are there in Travemünde?

Three harbours in Travemünde are important for guests and trip departures: the Passathafen on Priwall, the Marina Sonnenbrücke in the town centre and the berths of the Lübecker Yacht-Club. Passathafen and Marina Sonnenbrücke lie on different banks of the Trave. The only way to get from one bank to the other without a big detour is on the Priwall ferry.

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Feature	Passathafen	Marina Sonnenbrücke	Lübecker Yacht-Club
Bank	Priwall	town side, between Priwall ferry and fishing harbour	Passathafen and Leuchtenfeld areas
Address	Am Priwallhafen 10	Auf dem Baggersand 1	Trelleborgallee 2a (Club)
Berths	490 from April to October, most permanently let	63, for boats up to 15 m	180
Visitors	Visitor berths subject to availability	Berths for seasonal and short-term visitors	Visitors welcome, register with the harbour master
Phone	0451 12287610	0451 2037310	04502 75554 or 0176 98639200 (harbour master)

There are also berths in the fishing harbour just west of the Marina Sonnenbrücke, where yachts lie alongside fishing boats and traditional sailing vessels, in the Rosenhof Yachthafen on Priwall, and further up the Trave on Travemünder Landstraße in the yard harbours of Böbs-Werft and Marina Baltica, which also undertake repairs.

Arriving in Travemünde for the start of your trip

The nearest major airport is Hamburg; from there you continue by train. For the last stretch, what matters most is whether your harbour is on the town side or on Priwall.

From Hamburg or Lübeck airport to Travemünde

From Hamburg airport, the S-Bahn line S1 runs every ten minutes to Hamburg Hauptbahnhof, taking about 25 minutes. From there, regional trains to Lübeck take around 40 minutes and run half-hourly during the day. Some trains continue without changing to Lübeck-Travemünde Strand; otherwise you change at Lübeck Hauptbahnhof for the train to Travemünde.

From the small Lübeck airport, take the bus or train to Lübeck Hauptbahnhof and from there continue by regional train to Travemünde.

By car, train, bus or ferry

By car, take the A1 motorway to Lübeck and continue on the A226 towards Travemünde. Regional trains run directly from Lübeck Hauptbahnhof to Travemünde. The route has three stops in the town: Lübeck-Travemünde Skandinavienkai, Lübeck-Travemünde Hafen and the terminus Lübeck-Travemünde Strand. For the harbours, the Hafen stop is the most convenient. Bus route 34 also runs from Lübeck Hauptbahnhof to the beach station in Travemünde.

If you arrive by ferry from Sweden, Finland or the Baltic states, you arrive at the Skandinavienkai. From there, bus line 35 runs Monday to Friday via the Strandbahnhof to the Priwall ferry.

Which harbour is mine?

The bank is what matters. Addresses with "Priwall", "Am Priwallhafen", "Priwallpromenade" or "Passathafen" are on the east side of the Trave. "Auf dem Baggersand" belongs to the Marina Sonnenbrücke and the fishing harbour on the town side. "Trelleborgallee" is the address of the Lübecker Yacht-Club, not that of a pontoon.

• Marina Sonnenbrücke: From Lübeck-Travemünde Hafen station it is around 400 metres as the crow flies to the south.
• Passathafen: From the town side, cross on the Priwall ferry. As well as the car ferry run by Stadtwerke Lübeck, a passenger ferry operates at set times.
• Lübecker Yacht-Club: The club has berths in the Passathafen and Leuchtenfeld areas. Leuchtenfeld is on the town side at the old lighthouse. Which berth and which bank applies to you will be confirmed when you register with the harbour master.

Anyone arriving on the wrong bank crosses on the Priwall ferry; by land it is a long detour. So give the taxi driver the full harbour name, and for Passathafen add "Priwall".

Parking

The municipal car parks in Travemünde, for example at the fishing harbour, at the harbour station, on the Trelleborgallee and on the Priwall, cost €3.20 per hour. Some of them offer a day ticket for €12; the municipal fee schedule does not provide for multi-day tickets (as at October 2026).

At the Passathafen you may only park in the designated areas; on the promenade only stopping for loading and unloading is permitted. On arrival day you unload there and then move your car.

Facilities

All three harbours have toilet and shower facilities for berth holders: in the Passat Harbour, in the Marina Sonnenbrücke and at the Lübecker Yacht-Club, where they are located next to the harbour master's office.

Shopping for the trip

The nearest large supermarket is a REWE-Markt on Gneversdorfer Weg. It is located on the edge of Travemünde's town centre, where Gneversdorfer Weg, Torstraße and Travemünder Landstraße meet, right next to the level crossing.

From Marina Sonnenbrücke you walk through the town centre, via Torstraße. The supermarket has a bakery and a drinks shop and is open Monday to Saturday from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., and on Sundays during the season from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (as of October 2026). If you are berthed on the Priwall, take the Priwall ferry across. On Vorderreihe, the shopping street along the Trave, there is a chemist and small shops.

Doctor, pharmacy and emergency services

You will find pharmacies on Vorderreihe and at Dreilingsberg, where the Travemünde day clinic of Sana Kliniken Lübeck with surgical and internal medicine practice is also located. This is not a 24-hour A&E. For serious complaints, you go to Lübeck, for example to the Krankenhaus Süd of Sana Kliniken on Kronsforder Allee, around 16 kilometres as the crow flies from the harbours.

• 112: Ambulance service, emergency doctor and fire brigade
• 116 117: out-of-hours medical service
• 0800 0022833: emergency pharmacy service
• On the water: sea rescue coordination centre of the Deutsche Gesellschaft zur Rettung Schiffbrüchiger (DGzRS) in Bremen on VHF channel 16 or by DSC on channel 70, callsign "Bremen Rescue", by telephone 24 hours a day on 0421 53687-0

What do the three harbours offer?

Passat Harbour is by far the largest of the three, Marina Sonnenbrücke is the most central, and at the Lübecker Yacht-Club you berth as a guest of a club.

Passathafen on the Priwall

Passat Harbour is the largest municipal marina and belongs to the Hanseatic City of Lübeck. Facilities include washing machine and dryer, a slipway, a derrick crane and a boat wash, and storage areas ashore in winter. Berths are allocated from April to October; during the season the harbour office is staffed daily from 7 a.m. to midday and from 1 to 5 p.m. The municipal tariff also includes berths at the Nordermole on the town side. The harbour is named after the four-masted barque Passat, which has been moored at the mouth of the Trave since 1960.

Marina Sonnenbrücke

Marina Sonnenbrücke lies in the centre of town between the Priwall ferry landing and the fishing harbour. It has 63 berths for boats up to 15 metres. Restaurants, cafés and shops on the promenade are within walking distance, as is Lübeck-Travemünde Hafen railway station.

Berths at the Lübecker Yacht-Club

The Lübecker Yacht-Club operates 180 berths in Travemünde, looked after by two of its own boatmen, and has its own clubhouse there. The berths are divided between the Passat Harbour and Leuchtenfeld areas; the berthing regulations and fees apply to both together. Visiting yachts are welcome and should register with the harbour master on 04502 75554 or 0176 98639200.

What is the weather like for sailing in Lübeck Bay?

Tides play hardly any role in Lübeck Bay: the tide only amounts to 7 to 10 centimetres. The decisive factor is the wind, which usually comes from the west and southwest. In summer it blows more gently and more often from the northwest; in autumn and winter it freshens more frequently and shifts more towards the southwest. For the coast, the Deutscher Wetterdienst issues a gale warning from 6 Beaufort, and a storm warning from 8 Beaufort.

Good to know for trip planning:

• Sea breeze: On hot summer days with little prevailing wind, an onshore sea breeze sets in during the day, usually at 3 to 4 Beaufort. It is strongest in the afternoon.
• Water level: Persistent northeast or east winds push water towards the coast; strong southwest winds cause it to drop, often by several decimetres. The BSH issues a water level forecast for Lübeck Bay twice a day.
• Sea fog: In late spring, the still-cold water cools warm air. Visibility on the water can then suddenly drop sharply.

Late July gets busy in Travemünde: during Travemünder Woche, a major regatta week with a public festival, guest berths are in demand. For 2027, regattas are scheduled from 23 July to 1 August.

Where can you go from Travemünde?

The first destinations lie only a few nautical miles away; for longer passages Fehmarn, the Mecklenburg coast and Denmark are on offer. For route planning the choice of harbour makes little difference, as all three lie at the mouth of the Trave. The distances are rounded over-water distances from the mouth of the Trave on the usual course; for precise planning the chart applies.

• Niendorf: around 3 nm
• Neustadt in Holstein: around 9 nm
• Grömitz: about 11 nm, Boltenhagen: about 12 nm
• Wismar: about 28 nm, through the Wismar Bight
• Burgstaaken on Fehmarn: about 30 nm
• Kühlungsborn: about 34 nm
• Heiligenhafen: about 35 nm, through the Fehmarn Sound
• Gedser in Denmark: around 52 nm

For a week's sailing trip, a circuit via Fehmarn and the Danish South Sea Islands is just as possible as a route along the Mecklenburg coast towards Rügen. What it looks like up there in the north is shown in the portrait of the Breege harbour on Rügen. At the other end of the German Baltic coast we present the Marina Flensburg in Flensburg .

What is there to see ashore in Travemünde?

Travemünde is a seaside resort with beach and promenades on both banks of the Trave; the old town of Lübeck is quickly reached by train. The distances below are as the crow flies; the walking distance is slightly longer.

Travemünde town centre and seaside museum

The seaside resort museum in the Gesellschaftshaus on Torstraße lies about 200 metres from Marina Sonnenbrücke and shows how the fishing village became a Baltic Sea resort. In the town centre there are also St. Lorenz Church and half-timbered houses on the Alter Markt.

Trave Promenade and Old Lighthouse

The Trave promenade runs from Vorderreihe along the Trave to the Nordermole. On it stands the Alter Leuchtturm (Old Lighthouse), about one kilometre from Marina Sonnenbrücke. The brick tower from 1539 was in operation until 1972. Today it is a maritime museum with a viewing gallery over the Bay of Lübeck.

Priwall Promenade with Passat and Ostseestation

On the other side of the Trave, at the Priwall promenade, lie the four-masted barque Passat and the Ostseestation, a small environmental centre with aquaria on Baltic Sea wildlife. From the Passathafen it's only a good 100 metres; coming from the town side you can cross on the Priwall ferry. During the season you can visit the Passat with a guided tour. As things stand (October 2026) a shipyard overhaul is planned, during which time the Passat will be absent from her berth.

Brodten Cliffs

North of Travemünde begins the Brodten Cliffs, a roughly four-kilometre stretch of steep coast from which the Baltic Sea erodes up to one metre each year. The footpath from Travemünde is about 3 kilometres long.

Lübeck Old Town

Lübeck's Old Town has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987. It lies about 15 kilometres away as the crow flies; the regional train runs directly to Lübeck Hauptbahnhof.

For skippers: Berthing, Trave regulations and marine weather in Travemünde

As a visiting yacht you report to the harbour master of the respective harbour in Travemünde immediately after making fast. On the Trave the Seeschifffahrtsstraßen-Ordnung applies, and the traffic control centre Trave Traffic works on VHF channel 13.

Registration and berthing in the harbours

Channel 13 is the channel of the Vessel Traffic Service, not the harbours. In Passat Harbour, red-green signs show which berth is free: when it shows green you may moor up. Afterwards you go immediately to the harbour office, which will confirm the berth or assign you a different one.

Harbour regulations in the Passathafen

The terms of use for Passat Harbour require third-party liability insurance for the boat; take proof with you when registering. For stays of less than two hours there is no electricity or water from the pontoon. Dogs must be kept on a lead throughout the harbour area, and swimming and fishing are prohibited in the harbour basin.

Entry and departure on the Trave

The Trave is a maritime shipping waterway as far as Lübeck. The Seeschifffahrtsstraßen-Ordnung (Maritime Shipping Routes Ordinance) applies, together with the special rules published by the waterway and shipping administration for the Trave.

Large ferries to Sweden, Finland and the Baltic States run on the Trave, as do cargo ships to the Lübeck harbours. The narrowest point is the Travemünder Enge in the mouth area, which is exactly where all three harbours are situated. For you as a recreational boater this means:

• Anyone following the fairway has priority over vessels entering the fairway, crossing it or leaving their berth. So when departing you wait until the Trave is clear.
• In the fairway, keep to the right. Large ferries usually travel in the middle and can barely manoeuvre.
• You should avoid tacking in the Trave fairway. The water police recommend motoring, as quick manoeuvres are easier that way.
• The Priwall ferries have no priority over through traffic. In season, consideration is still required at the ferry crossing.
• In the estuary area, boats with less than 3 metres draught must not exceed 12 km/h (6.5 knots); from the level of the southern tip of the Priwall, 15 km/h (8.1 knots); further towards Lübeck, 12 km/h again. In the Pötenitzer Wiek it is 8 km/h, and from 15 February to 15 June you may not navigate there outside the fairway, except on Sundays and public holidays (from midday the day before).

Trave Traffic also gives information on channel 13 about oncoming vessels. If you have a VHF radio on board, you must monitor this channel. The complete regulations are in the Seeschifffahrtsstraßen-Ordnung and in the notices issued by the Generaldirektion Wasserstraßen und Schifffahrt (Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration). Binding information on site is available from the Wasserschutzpolizeirevier Lübeck-Travemünde at Leuchtenfeld.

Which marine weather forecast applies to the Lübeck Bight?

For trips from Travemünde the marine weather forecast of the German Weather Service (DWD) for the North Sea and Baltic Sea applies, along with the DWD coastal warnings for the German Baltic coast.

The marine weather forecast describes wind, weather, visibility and sea state for fixed sea areas; in the Baltic these are the Belts and Sound, Western, Southern and Southeastern Baltic. The coastal warnings apply to three sections of the German Baltic coast: Flensburg to Fehmarn, east of Fehmarn to Rügen, and east of Rügen. A wind warning is issued from 6 Beaufort mean wind, a gale warning from 8 Beaufort.

You can read the current report on the DWD sea weather page or in the WarnWetter app. Underway you receive it via VHF coastal radio, via NAVTEX and on the radio. It's best to read it every morning before you leave the Trave.

Trips from Travemünde on Törnfinder

In October 2026 there are 50 trip dates on Törnfinder over the next twelve months with departure or destination in Travemünde. Most depart in May, April and August; seven days is typical.

All current offers are in the trip overview. An overview of the whole sailing area is on the Sailing in the Baltic Seapage; trips along the entire German coast can be found under Sailing in Germany.

Frequently asked questions

How do I get from Hamburg Airport to Travemünde?

By train: the S1 suburban train takes you to Hamburg Hauptbahnhof in about 25 minutes; from there you take the regional train via Lübeck to Travemünde. Some trains run through to Travemünde without changing.

At which station do I get off for the harbours in Travemünde?

At Lübeck-Travemünde Hafen station. You can reach Marina Sonnenbrücke from there on foot; to reach Passat Harbour continue by Priwall ferry. The Lübecker Yacht-Club harbour master will tell you where your berth is.

How do I get to Passat Harbour on the Priwall?

By the Priwall ferry from the town side. The car ferry runs all year round the clock.

Where do I park at the trip start in Travemünde?

In the municipal car parks, for example Am Fischereihafen, at the harbour station, on Trelleborgallee or on the Priwall. Multi-day tickets are not available there; at Passat Harbour only stopping to unload is permitted on the promenade.

Are there sanitary facilities for crews in the harbours of Travemünde?

Yes, all three harbours have toilet and shower facilities: Passat Harbour, Marina Sonnenbrücke and the Lübecker Yacht-Club.

Do I have to motor on the Trave?

There is no general requirement to use an engine. However, the water police recommend not tacking in the Trave fairway and proceeding under power, as large ferries have little room to manoeuvre.

On which VHF channel can Trave Traffic be reached?

On channel 13. Anyone with a marine VHF radio on board must monitor that channel.