Top 10 things to do in Bavaria

07.09.2024 - 09:21 / lonelyplanet.com

Sep 6, 2024 • 7 min read

Practically a country unto itself, Bavaria packs in more than most independent states of its size.

Think peaks over 2000m (6560ft) and sweeping plains. Medieval cities and 21st-century museums. Roman ruins and Alpine lakes.

You could spend a lifetime exploring it all. If you need a place to start, here are 10 experiences that will introduce you to the pleasures of this special corner of Germany. 

Geography may have granted Germany’s south just a mere sliver of the Alps, but the region certainly makes the most of its mountains, many of which are but a short train ride from central Munich. The ski resort of Garmisch-Partenkirchen is the place to head for the best fun in the snow, as it sits under Germany’s highest mountain, the Zugspitze, the top of which can be reached by a special train. Surrounded by Austria on three sides, the Berchtesgadener Land in Bavaria’s far southeast delivers all the best Alpine pleasures, providing dramatic mountain scenery, great hiking and splendid lake vistas.

Local tip: Skiing is a big deal in the German Alps, with countless pistes scoring their snowy slopes. The skiing season here runs from around mid-December until sometime in April, depending on weather conditions. When the white stuff fails to fall, artificial snow made by special canons means the fun doesn’t stop.

You could devote many months to Bavaria’s exceptional museums, some of which rank as the best of their kind in Europe. It would be easy to while away a week “doing” Munich’s art museums alone, including the world-class Pinakotheken (Alte Pinakothek, Neue Pinakothek and Pinakothek der Moderne). The Deutsches Museum is a highly enjoyable repository of the country’s storied technical past, while Nuremberg boasts the Deutsche Bahn Museum, Germany’s top railway museum, and the Nationalmuseum, the country’s most comprehensive exhibition of Germanic culture. Of course, Bavaria witnessed one of the most sinister chapters in European history – the rise of the Nazis – and regional sites don’t sugarcoat this story. Berchtesgaden’s Dokumentation Obersalzberg and Nuremberg’s Reichsparteitagsgelände – where the largest Nazi rallies were held in the 1930s – memorably relate elements of this unfortunate past.

Planning tip: Many of Munich’s museums and galleries charge only €1 on Sundays, which could save you a considerable amount of your travel budget if you intend on visiting a few.

Munich has often been called “the city of art and beer,” and after you’ve taken in art by day (see above), the evenings belong to the one-liter steins of frothy brews in typical beer halls such as the Hofbräuhaus, the Augustiner Bräustuben and the Weisses Brauhaus. Of course, the best time for disciples of the hop to make a