The beach is 12 kilometers (7 miles) long and up to two kilometers wide, and it's full of life: people wading in the tidal flats and walking along the sand, but most of all, holidaymakers who enjoy an active vacation.

In addition to the sand, there's plenty of wind. Surfers of all sorts flock to St. Peter-Ording on the North Sea. Every year, the World Kite Surfing Championship is held here. With about 130,000 spectators, it's the largest event of its kind.

Fans of land yachting, or land sailing, also need wind for their sport. Nowhere else in Germany are conditions better. The three-wheeled vehicles with sails can whiz along the sand at speeds of up to 130 kilometers an hour.

If that's all too fast for you, you can slow things down a bit and go horseback riding on the beach, enjoy the natural surroundings, then end the day at a beach bar in one of the area's typical stilted houses.