Campers, motor homes or recreational vehicles – no matter how you call do have your hotel room with you during vacation, one of the European pioneer brands is Hymer. Nonetheless, the Erwin Hymer Museum illustrating the wheel estate vacation over time is definitely one of the more offbeat topics handled by a museum. During a trip to the Bodensee / Lake Constance region, I just had to have a look into this place. Hope you enjoy the trip with me.
Erwin Hymer Museum – Location & Admission
The museum is located on the Northern edge of Bad Waldsee, which is roughly half-way between Ulm and the Bodensee region. Thereby, the museum is close to the Hymer manufacturing site as well as the national route B30. The museum is located in a commercial area and you cannot reach it in a comfortable way by local transport. The parking lot is huge, though, and (of course) can also hold RVs.
The museum is opening daily from 10:00 to 18:00 hrs. On Thursdays, there is a prolonged opening time until 21:00 hrs. Adult admission is 11.50 EUR. People under 18 years (hard to still name them “kids”) have free admission.
Erwin Hymer Museum – The Visit
The museum starts at the very early stages of recreational mobility. The oldest exhibits are already dated as of the rather early times of the 20th century. Thereby, the Hymer Museum typically shows the camper vans as well as typical automobiles pulling them. You can at least have a look inside most of the mobile homes – very often, you are also able to step inside. At the beginning of your visit, you also learn about the key pioneers of mobile holiday homes – the Hymer Museum does not only concentrate on vehicles from their own franchise, but also of pee r companies.
The key focus is about post-WW2 history. Most of the exhibits are European campers and RVs, but there are some North American products as well. The Hymer Museum also features East German and East European cars and campers. The museum also focuses on certain eras and topics, e.g. camper travels in India.
As you are walking through the museum more or less in a chronological order, you finally reach the most modern vehicle. In this part of your visit, North America plays a stronger role as well. It is really interesting to see how the equipment of these vehicles and trailers changed until today.
Erwin Hymer Museum – Services
The museum features quite a neat souvenir store with a lot of standard gifts, but also literature about mobility. During my visit, the restaurant / cafe was rather popular. Last, but not least, there is of course also the potential to order some of Hymer’s very own products in close proximity to the museum.
Erwin Hymer Museum – My View
I felt tempted here and there to try out a trip with an RV, e.g. in Canada or similar destination. The Erwin Hymer Museum definitely increases your interest and the level of fascination about that topic. I feel that they really did a great job in presenting the history of recreational mobility. Despite the museum already comes with quite a lot of space, I felt that the museum is skipping some topics. I would have especially loved to have a stronger focus on the development in North America, Asia and Australia. Nonetheless, it is a really cool place to visit.
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