Places to See and Things to Do

Holidays by Destination Europe Germany Bavaria Places to See and Things to Do 

Bavaria is dense with attractions. With more than 1,000 cultural collections and museums, castles and palaces, zoos and similar, plus theme parks and more, they are too numerous to be listed.

Here we highlight some potential key draws, and once on the spot it is worth looking out for local leaflets which will tell you of everything from a museum to wood cutting (at Ruhpolding ); to glassworks where children can blow their own glass ball (Joska in Bodenmais ); a German car collection (at Amerang ); wolves, otters, elks, and more (in the Bavarian Forest animal park ); or the falconry displays (at Jagdfalkenhof at Oberfrauenau ).

And even without paying entrance fees there is plenty to see. At Freising, a small town close to Munich airport (so a good last stop if flying home) the main street is full of large fibreglass bears for example.

Castles and Palaces

The area is packed with these and you could just visit the ones you happen to be passing.
The most famous palaces are those built for Ludwig II. Herrenchiemsee, a homage to Louis XIV, includes a hall of mirrors outstripping the original at Versailles and plenty of other superlatives, including 3 square kilometres of gold leaf in just 20 rooms - fascinating for children who just can't believe what they are seeing. Linderhof was modelled on the traditions of the French Bourbons and was Ludwig's favourite palace. Schachen includes fountains, carpets, ottomans, gilded candelabra in a Tales of a Thousand and One Nights style. Neuschwanstein is the most famous, a model for Disney's trademark fantasy.

Elsewhere most towns offer a castle of some kind - some up-dated to palaces, others still clearly bearing the marks of their more war-faring past. For more details see schloesser.bayern.

If you have an enthusiast in the family there are also castle hotels where you can stay, plus some historic youth hostels.

Lakes and Mountains

The region has plenty of lakes, particularly in the south. There is often an attractive grassy area to swim from. Closer to the Alps the melting snow can be a little chilly, though beautiful for a swift dip on warm days, the lower lying and shallower lakes more forgiving.

You will in many ways do best to pick one close to where you are, but Worthsee is known as being calm and a lake which warms up fast. You can rent paddle boats and there is a castle to visit on Mausinsel. Wesslinger is good for both fishing and bathing. And Herrsching is a bathing resort boasting Germany's longest beachfront parade. The Tegernsee is particularly attractive, and the Wagingersee considered good for swimming.

South of Munich the Starnbergersee and Ammersee together with the Wesslingersee, Wortsee and Pilsensee make up the Funfseenland (Land of the Five Lakes).

The larger lakes have boat services, the boats ranging from electric motored traditional wooden vessels to multi-levelled sightseeing craft. Those on the Chiemsee take you to Ludwig's palace. On Konigsee the crew play a flugelhorn to demonstrate the cliff echo.

The mountains offer the option of cable cars and potentially walks down - or simply hike to look-out points, ice caves, or to pick the wild bilberries which grow in summer. There are plenty of less demanding walks and in centres like Bodenmais if you complete them all (stamping your walks book as you go) you qualify for a certificate of achievement. There are also attractions such as summer toboggan runs (Sommerrodelbahn) which, (with breaks to control your speed) can be enormous fun for a range of ages.

Theme Parks

Here is somewhere the innate sympathies between British and German parenting styles become very clear. There are plenty of parks, and well designed ones too. Some are international names, others draw more on the local fairytale traditions.

A site offering details, along with other attractions such as zoos, aquaria and water parks, is infoparks .

Allgau Skyline Park
Im Hartfeld 1, D - 86825 Bad W?rishofen
+ 49 43-(0)8245

Rides like roller coasters and ferris wheel, and waterpark with slides, go-karting and snow free bobsleigh racing, along with gentler options.

Bayern Park
Fellbach 1, 94419 Reisbach
+49 08734-817

Gentle rides among traditional buildings.

Churpfalzpark
93455 Loifling bei Cham
+49 9971-30340

A garden with slides and rides, generally of the gentler and more traditional variety, along with an automated puppet theatre.

Freizeitland Geiselwind
Wiesentheider Stra?e 25, 96160 Geiselwind
+49 95 56-92 11 92

With more than 100 attractions including shows, wild as well as petting animals, and some scarier rides as well as plenty of gentle ones. Rides, play grounds, live shows, electronic theatres, animal shows, exhibitions and relaxtion areas.

Freizeitpark Ruhpolding
Vorderbrand 7, 83324 Ruhpolding
+49 8663 1413

Fire breathing dragons, frog princes, knights, gold panning, and other fairytale stuff, along with slides, trampolines, dodgems toy trains and more.

Legoland
Legoland Allee, D-89312 Gunzburg
+49 8221 700 700

Featuring an interactive discovery world with 50 million Lego bricks, Knight's Kingdom, Animal Land (lego giraffes) as well as the usual driving centre, Miniland and so on The Bionicle Power Builder where the rider sits in the robot's arms and controls speed and direction. There are around 40 attractions plus shows.

Marchen-Erlebnispark Marquartstein
Jagerweg 14 - 83250 Marquartstein
+49 8641 7105

Good for younger children but including for example a summer toboggan run and more demanding rides including a mechanical bucking bronco.

Playmobil Fun Park
Brandstatterst 2-10, 90513 Zirndorf
+49 911 96 66 700

Near Nurnberg, has all the figures and knights' castles with secret passageways and walls to climb, the American Indian village, the pirate ship, and a play area with water, plus kids' golf.

Ravensburger Spieleland
Am Hangenwald 1, 88074 Meckenbeuren
+49 75 42 400 0

Around 40 attractions, including slides, rides, a maze, children's diggers, and a driving school.

Schloss Thurn
Schlosspark 4, 91336 Heroldsbach
+49 91 90/92 98 98

North of Nuremburg, rides, slides, puppet shows and historical renactments on a site around a palace built on a lake island.

Music

Bavaria is big on music, Munich alone offering three orchestras of international standard and even the quiet spa town of Bad Reichenhall hosting a spa orchestra of no less than 40. There are summer performances in castles, baroque basilicas, and even Herrenchiemsee and Neuschwanstein.
For those with a taste for the slightly more kitsch, the life of Bavaria's Ludwig II is the subject of a musical that runs continuously in a dedicated theatre close to Neuschwanstein castle.
And for something more traditional there are the outdoor brass band performances which are regular occurrences in summer.

Activities

Swimming is a good option here where outdoor pools are attractive but low key - a place most German teens spend most of the summer hanging out with friends, lounging on the grass. All resorts will have a pool of some kind - in or outdoor. Look out for the ‘bio' ones, a trend started just across the border in Austria, with natural water purification and plants growing happily in the swimming water. There's a very attractive one just outside Berchtesgaden. Resorts, particularly those which also see winter tourism, also have indoor pools. Some may be relatively straightforward - though often less chlorinated than in the UK. Others such at the Watzmann Thermae in Berchtesgaden offer leisure pool, lap pool, children's pool, spa water pools, flume and more.

There are in and outdoor tennis courts in almost every major tourist spot and local brochures will detail other sports facilities including golf and fishing.

Also on offer is hiking, with routes ranging from half an hour to longer options like the 120km King Ludwig Way between Starnberg and Fussen.

Cycling is catered to with a growing network of cycle paths). There is also horse riding while holidays on farms allow children to feed and pet the farmyard animals, tack tractor rides, even milk the cows.

There are also Fussball-Land Bayern Euro Camps. Father and son, mother and daughter pairs can get together at centres throughout Bavaria to hone their skills. Fussballland-bayern covers football issues in the region.

Christmas Fairs

(See the report on Winter Breaks.)