Tiny houses & bungalows in the Spreewald

The Spreewald is a flat inland delta about 100 km south-east of Berlin, where the Spree splits into several hundred kilometres of narrow channels called Fließe. It has been a UNESCO biosphere reserve since 1991, and its landscape of alder woods, wet meadows and hamlets is still worked partly from flat wooden punts. Lübbenau is the main gateway, with the punt harbour and the museum village of Lehde a short walk away; Lübben and Burg are the other two bases. The pickled gherkins sold everywhere are a real local crop, and the Sorbian minority keeps its own language and customs here.

The small stays are spread around the edges of the reserve rather than inside it: log cabins and tree cabins on a farm near Lübbenau, a couple of tiny houses on the forest edge between Burg and Cottbus, and bungalows by the lakes near Straupitz and Lübben. The Spreewald is a bicycle and paddle landscape, so a tiny house here is mostly a base for day trips by canoe or on the flat cycle paths, then a punt ride and a plate of fish or Quark with linseed oil in the evening.