The Schlei Has Four Very Different Faces

Spring

From March it turns bright long before it turns warm. The hedgerows come into leaf, the cranes pass overhead, and in Kappeln the herring season begins. The water is still cold, but the light is clearer than at any other time of year.

It is the season for long walks and for evenings when you light the fire and still leave the terrace door open.

Summer

In summer everything moves outdoors. Breakfast on the terrace by the living room, down the natural path into the water at midday, grilling in the evening and staying out until it finally gets dark around eleven — this far north the evening stretches.

This is when the private shoreline shows its worth most plainly: while the Baltic beaches lie towel to towel, the strip below the garden is empty.

Indian Summer

September and October are often the best time on the Schlei. The water has stored the summer and is warmer than the air, the sailing boats are still out, but the resorts have emptied.

Mist lies on the water in the morning, at midday you sit outside in a T-shirt, and in the evening the gas fireplace is exactly right. If you are not tied to school holidays, take these weeks.

Advent, Christmas and New Year

In winter the area falls quiet, and that is not a drawback but the entire point. The house is warm — underfloor heating in every room, the panoramic gas fireplace on at the touch of a button, the 100-inch home cinema for the evening.

New Year's Eve on the Schlei looks nothing like New Year's Eve in a city. There is no crowd to edge your way through and no square where everyone stands at once. Instead the fireworks go up along the entire opposite shore — from gardens, from jetties, from the villages behind — and are mirrored across the full width of the water. From the grounds you see it from one end to the other without leaving the house.

The evening before it belongs to the house: the dining table at the panoramic window, a kitchen for a meal that may take its time, the gas fireplace visible from two sides. Because of the thatched roof, fireworks of your own are not permitted on the grounds — and they are not missed when the whole shore opposite is alight.

New Year is the booking you have to decide on earliest. The period is let as one block, the minimum stay is the longest of the year, and because there is only one house, it is either free or it is gone. If you want to see the year out here, look at the calendar a year ahead.

Weather, and What to Pack

On the Schlei the same rule applies as along the whole coast: the weather changes faster than any forecast can show. A rainy morning and an afternoon of full sunshine are not a contradiction here — they are the same day.

So pack in layers rather than for a season. A windproof jacket belongs in July too, and sturdy shoes are more useful on almost every day of the year than they look. If you come in winter, what you mainly need is something for going outside; indoors the underfloor heating keeps the floor warm.

The house takes the decision off your hands in any case: whatever the weather, there is a place inside with a view of the water, and the panoramic gas fireplace lights in seconds.

What This Means for the Rate

The nightly rate follows the season. The winter months are the cheapest, summer and New Year the highest; early spring, late summer, spring and the Indian summer lie in between. The minimum stay changes with the season too, ranging from two to seven nights.

The final cleaning fee of €190 is charged once, regardless of season or number of guests. There is no visitor's tax. The exact calculation is shown in the booking portal.