Extreme sleepouts in Saarland

The German language has some marvellous words, ranging from wegbier (“beer to drink on the way”) to hamsterkauf (“panic-buying”). Another to add to that lexicon is waldeinsamkeit : a feeling of being alone and finding inner peace in the forest. Arguably, travellers can’t get any more at one with the woods than sleeping in a portaledge tent (or cloefhänger ) suspended between trees in the Saarland forest. It’s a wonderful way to immerse yourself into forest life: think morning mists, twit-twooing owls, mysterious nocturnal noises, and occasional bursts of “we’re up how high?!” when peering at the clouds below (the tents are perched at head-spinning heights overlooking a dramatic bend in the Saar river). The website specifies cloefhängers aren’t for people who don’t have schwindelfreiheit (“freedom from dizziness”; AKA a head-for-heights) or trittsicherheit (“tread safety”; AKA surefootedness), but there’s a less vertiginous version involving hammocks in the same forests .

Price: €119 (£102) a night, June-September
cloefhaenger.com

Eltz Castle near the Eifel national park: the area is a designated international dark sky park. Photograph: Francesco Carovillano

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