From Poppelsdorf to Local Orchards 🍎: A Bike Agritourism Ride Through Bonn’s Green Side
What happens when you combine a bike ride, a sunny day, and an orchard full of apples? You get a pretty good example of what Bike Agritourism looks like in practice.
Recently, we brought a group together in Bonn for a Bike Agritourism ride connecting the city with the surrounding farmland. Starting at Poppelsdorf Palace, we set off on an approximately one-hour ride through Bonn’s greener surroundings and forest paths, heading towards Obsthof Cremerius in Meckenheim.
The destination was part of the adventure. Obsthof Cremerius was hosting one of its open apple-picking days, giving us the chance to park the bikes, head into the orchard and pick fresh apples straight from the trees.
From city streets to apple trees
One of the ideas behind the Bike Agritourism project is that cycling and cycle tourism can be more than just scenery and transport.
Bike tourism can connect people with farms, orchards, vineyards, local producers and rural communities that might otherwise be overlooked when travelling by car or staying within traditional tourist areas.
Within about an hour, we went from meeting in the middle of Bonn to cycling along quiet, tree-lined paths before arriving among the apple orchards of Meckenheim.
And after cycling there, picking (and inevitably sampling) apples, and having some coffee and cake at the local cafe felt particularly well earned.
Experiencing local agriculture up close
At the orchard, participants had time to walk between the rows of trees, pick their own apples and enjoy the surroundings together.
It was also an opportunity to experience agriculture in a very direct and uncomplicated way. Instead of buying fruit that has already travelled through a supply chain to reach a supermarket shelf, we were standing among the trees where it was grown.
For the Bike Agritourism project, activities like this demonstrate the potential of combining slow tourism, sustainable mobility and local food production.
It doesn’t necessarily require complicated infrastructure or a major tourist attraction, just simply finding a great cycling route and connecting it with an existing local experience, such as an orchard’s open picking day.
A different way to explore the region
The Bonn and Rhein-Sieg region is particularly well suited to this kind of tourism. Urban areas, forests, agricultural landscapes, farms and orchards are often within cycling distance of one another.
That makes the bike a great way to experience the transition between them.
Our trip to Obsthof Cremerius gave participants a chance to spend time outdoors, discover somewhere new, meet other people and support a local agricultural business at the same time.
Most importantly, it showed what the Bike Agritourism project is trying to encourage: tourism that moves a little slower, looks a little closer at the places around us, and creates stronger connections between visitors and local agriculture.
🍎🚲 Want to try the route yourself?
You can find our Bonn–Meckenheim cycling route on Komoot.
This activity was organised as part of the Bike Agritourism project, which explores how cycling tourism and agricultural tourism can be combined to support sustainable travel, local producers and new ways of experiencing rural areas.
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