Places to Explore

• Aschau

  Aschau is an enchanting red-roof village nestled in a wide valley of the Chiemgauer Alps.... (more)

• Bad Reichenhall

  Bad Reichenhall is remarkably well located, near the mountains for hiking and skiing, and near Salzburg in Austria for a lively cultural scene. The town shares a remote corner of Bavaria with another prominent... (more)

• Bad Tölz

  Bad Tölz's new town, dating from the mid-19th century, sprang up with the discovery of iodine-laden springs, which allowed the locals to call their town Bad (bath or spa) Tölz. You can take the... (more)

• Berchtesgaden

  Berchtesgaden's reputation is unjustly rooted in its brief association with Adolf Hitler, who dreamed of his "1,000-year Reich" from the mountaintop where millions of tourists before and after him drank... (more)

• Chiemsee

  Chiemsee is north of the Deutsche Alpenstrasse, but it demands a detour, if only to visit King Ludwig's huge palace on one of its idyllic islands. It's the largest Bavarian lake, and although it's surrounded... (more)

• Ettal

  The village of Ettal is presided over by the massive bulk of Kloster Ettal, a great monastery and centuries-old distillery.... (more)

• Garmisch-Partenkirchen

  Garmisch, as it's more commonly known, is a bustling, year-round resort and spa town and is the undisputed capital of Alpine Bavaria. Once two separate communities, Garmisch and Partenkirchen fused in... (more)

• Mittenwald

  Many regard Mittenwald as the most beautiful town in the Bavarian Alps. It has somehow avoided the architectural sins found in other Alpine villages by maintaining a balance between conservation and the... (more)

• Oberammergau

  Its location alone, in an Alpine valley beneath a sentinel-like peak, makes this small town a major attraction (allow a half hour for the drive from Garmisch). Its main streets are lined with painted houses... (more)

• Schliersee

  Schliersee is smaller, quieter, and less fashionable than Tegernsee but hardly less beautiful. The different histories of the Tegernsee and the Schliersee are made clear in the names local people have... (more)

• Spitzingsee

  Arguably the most beautiful of this group of Bavarian lakes, the Spitzingsee is cradled 3,500 feet up between the Taubenstein, Rosskopf, and Stumpfling peaks, and the drive here is spectacular. The lake... (more)

• Tegernsee

  The beautiful shores of the Tegernsee are among the most expensive property in all of Germany. The interest in the region shown by King Maximilian I of Bavaria at the beginning of the 19th century attracted... (more)