Hotels in Kevelaer

Kevelaer is a small Lower Rhine town near the Dutch border whose entire identity rests on one thing: it is Germany's leading Marian pilgrimage site, drawing visitors since the mid-seventeenth century to a tiny devotional image of the Virgin housed in the Gnadenkapelle. Around it cluster the Candle Chapel and the Marienbasilika, a neo-Gothic church whose richly painted interior is worth seeing even if you're not religious.

Be honest: outside the pilgrimage season, which runs roughly from spring to autumn, the town is very quiet, and even in season the streets are lined with candle and souvenir shops rather than anything resembling nightlife. It does make a calm, flat base for cycling the Niederrhein countryside, and Moyland Castle, a moated neo-Gothic castle with a major Joseph Beuys collection, is a short drive north. Weeze (Niederrhein) Airport is just up the road, handy for budget flights. Stay near the Kapellenplatz in the compact centre so the chapels, basilica and restaurants are all within a few minutes' walk.