Hi iris1777,

You can see the Alps from München, but hiking in them will require some travel. It's sort of like being in Bern --

If you want to walk out your door and walk in the woods, you need to travel closer to the mountains -- maybe Garmisch-Partenkirchen (90 minutes from München), certainly Mittenwald (2h from München).

The Zugspitze, for example, sits just outside of Garmisch.

More information at

www.gapa.de

Have fun as you plan!

s

Thanks, Swandav2000!

To clarify, we're completely willing to travel far from Munich, especially if there are interesting stops along the way. We can stay in hostels multiple days, too. My only concern was getting so drawn into the Alps that we miss our flight!

Drive over the Brenner pass and go to the Dolomites.

http://www.google.com/search?num=10&hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1125&bih=629&q=dolomites+mountains&oq=Dolomites&gs_l=img.1.2.0l10.10313.12249.0.15632.9.8.0.1.1.0.107.801.4j4.8.0...0.0...1ac.1.zS7IIv0hp8Y

The Bavarian Alps are not as jaw-dropping gorgeous as the Swiss Alps. But they are still beautiful and impressive.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen is a good choice. Berchtesgaden is also very nice. Please keep in mind that April is sort of off-season, between winter (skiing) and summer (hiking). Depending on the weather (snowfall this winter) you may not have many options for hiking, especially not in higher regions. In April I recommend the lower areas around the towns - it's early spring there with first flowers in bloom while you can gaze at the snow-capped mountains from there.

6 days are plenty. Munich is not *that* far from the mountains.

I used to work for a company that had an mfg plant near the Munich airport.

We had an annual ski weekend in Schmittenhöhe Austria. It was about a 4-5 hour bus ride to the Austrian Alps.

The Bavarian Alps are simply the Northernmost bit of the Alps, more or less a corridor 20kms deep max.
If people wanted to explore this area, i.e. not just stay for vacation in one place for a week or two, it makes no sense to limit yourself by the now meaningless political borders. The further South you go into Austria, the taller the mountains get (as tall as in Switzerland) - plus you save 30- 50% of costs compared with Switzerland.
As Ingo wrote, weather will be an important factor as April is somewhat in between and access to trails will be hard to predict.
It's easiest when the regions you go to still have decent snow as most Alpine communities also maintain a network of winter trails which are groomed for hiking.