The Wadden Sea - UNESCO World Heritage Site - Unique travel experience

The Wadden Sea and the whole Wadden area, make you realise that nature is so unparalleled powerful, and at the same time vulnerable.

Standing on the Wadden dike, at the Dollard, or at Bokum, the sensation is the same: without the Wadden Sea, there would not have been a Groningen with the most fertile land in the world. And how much we should take care of it, after all, the Wadden Sea is the lifeline for biodiversity worldwide.

Just like the Germans cherish das Wattenmeer with great care and pride, and the Danes do the same for 'their' Vadehavet, we take responsibility for 'our' Wadden Sea.

The UNESCO status helps enormously in this respect, so that everything the Wadden Sea offers can be preserved and not damaged.

On the website of UNESCO-the Wadden Sea you can find all the information about this unique natural wonder, and about what makes the Wadden area so special for Groningen and for Friesland.

Here on this page you will find tips for a visit cq mini-holiday in the Groningen Wadden area.

Go to - Frisian Wadden Region - for inspiration for trips through the Frisian Wadden Region.

The UNESCO Wadden Region of Groningen

In other countries, UNESCO status is often granted for an architectural, unique building with a rich history. For the UNESCO heritage Wadden Sea, it is different.

In Groningen, you can count - besides the Wadden Sea, the salt marshes, and everything that goes with it - the typical wierdenland of Het Hogeland and Middag-Humsterland, and the grand arable landscape in 't Oldambt, as part of the UNESCO Wadden Sea domain.

This Gronings Wadden area stretches from Lauwersoog to where in the east De Dollard extends to Nieuwe Statenzijl. As the Groningen national anthem sings, "From Lauwerzee to Dollard tou".

Centuries of struggle and interaction between man and water have made the land extremely fertile, as well as the nature of the Groningers powerful. Even well before the era, people raised their mounds here to live and work the fertile land. The countless floods resulted in the building of ever higher and stronger dykes. Farmers and their communities brought great wealth to the region until the 20th century.

You can still recognise this development and the stories that go with it in many places, in the typical Groningen mound villages with their old churches, in the old dykes and watercourses winding through the landscape. But also the huge estates that monks of the many monasteries at the time and then farmers reclaimed from the sea are testimonies of the perennial relationship with the Wadden Sea....

All these developments are the subject of the two Localgroningen routes Hogeland and the one about the Grain Republic in the Oldambt.

Visiting the Wadden region

Or rather: you don't visit the Wadden area, you go and experience it.

This can be done in many ways. Walking, cycling, visiting museums, strolling through the beautiful Groningen villages and towns with their rich history. Many artists have settled in the Groningen Wadden area and have their own studios and galleries to visit.

In 2025, the WEC opened in Lauwersoog; the Wadden Experience Centre. If you are in the area then a visit is definitely recommended.

However, walking or cycling in the Groningen countryside is not for everyone. The distances can be spicy ánd that in the open countryside, where it "always blows".

Or do you want to discover the whole area in its full glory in a short time to return later?

Then the LocalGroningen routes and road trips are a godsend. During the ride, the most special places and stories pass by. You are regularly invited to take short walks, visit a church or climb the tower and enjoy all the beauty. You will be given all kinds of tips for more excursions, as well as good food and drink.

Make the road trip part of a multi-day package, and you're guaranteed an unforgettable mini-holiday. See below.