Germany / Belgium summit
Vaalserberg
You can see 127 km from here, looking east.
Calculating the panorama…
Drag to turn around. The relief is drawn 2.2 times taller so the ridges can be read; far ridges are paler, as in the real air.
The view
Up to 127 km away.
Calculated on the relief one degree at a time, up to 250 km, with the curvature of the Earth and the refraction of the air: what stands above the horizon from here.
Our own rating, from the relief and the climate only: open horizon (35 points), how far you see (25), sea and named peaks in view (20) and clear months (20).
- 127 kmFarthest ridgelooking east
- 99%Open horizonof the circle where the horizon is below your eyes
- 105Peaks in viewnamed summits that rise above the relief in front
- 324 mAltitudeabove the sea, at the highest point of the viewpoint
The 105 peaks you can name from here
From west to east as you turn around: height, distance and direction. Each one links to its guide on Peakyas, our mountain atlas.
From the relief only: buildings, trees and haze are not in the model. On a hazy day you see much less; 250 km is the limit of our calculation.
The sun
The best sunsets are in April and from August to September.
When the sun really disappears from this viewpoint — behind the relief or into the sea — and in which direction, on the 15th of each month, in local time.
- Jansouth-west6 min before the sea-level sunset23%
- Febwest4 min before the sea-level sunset26%
- Marwest4 min before the sea-level sunset31%
- Aprwest4 min before the sea-level sunset36%
- Maynorth-west2 min before the sea-level sunset32%
- Junnorth-west4 min before the sea-level sunset29%
- Julnorth-west4 min before the sea-level sunset32%
- Augnorth-west2 min before the sea-level sunset33%
- Sepwest4 min before the sea-level sunset35%
- Octwest4 min before the sea-level sunset30%
- Novsouth-west4 min before the sea-level sunset24%
- Decsouth-west6 min before the sea-level sunset22%
- Time: when the sun goes behind the horizon you see from here.
- Minutes: how much earlier the relief hides the sun.
- %: share of clear sky that month (NASA, 2001–2020).
The highlighted months are the clearest. Golden hour starts about an hour before.
The place
Vaalserberg.
Mountain at the border of Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands
Vaalserberg is a summit in Germany, 324 m above the sea.
On a clear day the farthest ridge you can see is 127 km away, looking east.
105 named peaks rise above the relief in front; the most prominent is Nordhelle (663 m), 129 km away.
The horizon is open, below your eyes, over 99% of the circle.
The skies are clearest in April and from August to September.
Get there and stay
- Official informationAccess, hours and rules from those who manage the place.Official site↗
- Camping Hoeve De Gastmolencampsite · 3.0 km · 36 within 10 km
- Hotel Kasteel Bloemendalplace to stay · 2.1 km · 187 within 10 km
- Vaalsnearest town · 1.8 km in a straight linePlaces to stay in VaalsBooking.com · sponsored link↗
- Maastricht Aachen Airport (MST)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 25 km in a straight lineCar hire at LGG airport (Grâce-Hollogne)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
A guided tour, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above
The viewpoint and its surroundings.
The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the viewpoint, with what OpenStreetMap shows nearby.
Around, in OpenStreetMap
- 52other viewpoints within 5 kmMeelenbroek and 51 more
- 15named peaks within 5 kmVaalserberg, Wolfsberg, Brandenberg and 12 more
- 225marked trails within 3 kmVia Mosana, GrenzRouten: Route 1 - Achse Raeren - Orsbach, GrenzRouten: Route 5 - Aachener Wald and 222 more
- 155shelters and huts within 5 kmSchutzhütte Siebenwege, Schutzhütte Schmalzloch and 153 more
- 300car parks within 3 km
- 7visitor centres within 5 kmASEAG Kunden-Center, Office du Tourisme de Plombières, Touristische Informationsstelle (TIS) and 4 more
- 49restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- 36campsites within 10 kmCamping Hoeve De Gastmolen, Jugendgruppenzeltplatz Aachen, Camping Kon Tiki and 33 more
- 187places to stay within 10 kmHotel Kasteel Bloemendal, Hotel Lousberg, City Apartments Regence and 184 more
- cable car and funicular stations within 5 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
In our other atlases
What you see from Vaalserberg, and what is near.
Everything around this viewpoint — mountains, water, forests, birds, caves and the night sky — in the family's atlases.
Peakyas111 mountains within 25 km
Forestyas14 forests and trees within 15 km
Birdyas3 birding sites within 25 kmFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap, GBIF). Links open when each site is online.
Photographs
The view, as people saw it.
Other viewpoints nearby.
Vaalserberg
Germany
- 72Viewyas Score
- 127 kmFarthest ridge
- 105Peaks in view
- 324 mAltitude
Bismarck Tower (Aachen)
Germany · 6 km
- 67Viewyas Score
- 95 kmFarthest ridge
- 63Peaks in view
- 264 mAltitude
Krawutschke Tower
Germany · 30 km
- 70Viewyas Score
- 111 kmFarthest ridge
- 267Peaks in view
- 395 mAltitude
Signal de Botrange
Belgium · 29 km
- 69Viewyas Score
- 105 kmFarthest ridge
- 99Peaks in view
- 700 mAltitude
Where these figures come from
| Name and type | Wikidata (Q159860) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Sun | J. Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms |
| Peaks in view | Peakyas (Wikidata, CC0) |
| Panorama and altitude | Copernicus DEM GLO-90 / GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Clouds | NASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2) |
| What is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Sister atlases | Peakyas, Forestyas, Birdyas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
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