The area around Onstwedde is part of Westerwolde, the south-eastern corner of the province of Groningen. Unlike the open polders of coastal Groningen, Westerwolde is hilly (by Dutch standards), wooded in places, and dotted with small farms and villages that feel more like Drenthe than the north. The landscape is formed by ice-age ridges (zandruggen) that cross the otherwise flat terrain.
For walkers and cyclists, Westerwolde offers a network of well-marked routes through heathland, woodlands, and along small rivers. The village of Ter Apel to the south has a well-preserved 15th-century monastery — the Klooster Ter Apel — that is one of the few surviving late-medieval cloisters in the Netherlands and worth combining with a visit to Onstwedde.
The area is best visited by bicycle, following the regional cycling routes (numbered junction network) that connect the villages across the landscape.