146 attractions in Bavaria, including Weissenstein Palace, Pommersfelden, Schleißheim Palace and Scots Church of St James, Regensburg.
Palaces
Pommersfelden
Schloss Weissenstein in Pommersfelden is a showpiece of Franconian Baroque and is still owned by the Counts of Schönborn. Built as a country residence for a prince-bishop, it has a spectacular staircase hall, a marble hall and a picture ga…
Palaces
Oberschleißheim
Schleißheim Palace in Oberschleißheim, just north of Munich, is a complex of three Baroque palaces set in a vast French-style garden. The New Palace, with a facade more than 300 meters long, is the centerpiece, flanked by the Old Palace an…
Churches & monasteries
Regensburg
Stone beasts, human figures and, among them, twelve characters no one wanted in heaven: the Scots Portal of St James's Church on the western edge of Regensburg's old town has puzzled visitors for more than 800 years. It is considered one o…
Nature
Fladungen
A wooden boardwalk leads through a landscape that looks more like Lapland than Franconia: small pines and gnarled birches, red peat mosses, dark pools and cotton grass. The Black Moor in the Bavarian Rhön, near the point where Bavaria, Hes…
Other
Ahorntal
The Sophienhöhle (Sophie Cave) near Ahorntal is one of the most beautiful show caves in Franconian Switzerland, a limestone landscape in northern Bavaria between Nuremberg and Bayreuth. It sits on the slope of the Ailsbach valley next to B…
Churches & monasteries
Nürnberg
St. Lorenz in Nuremberg (St. Lawrence's Church) is the great Gothic church of the southern Old Town and one of the finest medieval churches in southern Germany. Its twin towers and huge rose window dominate the pedestrian zone, and inside…
Lakes
Starnberg
Lake Starnberg (Starnberger See) is Munich's favorite lake, stretching about 12 miles (19.5 km) south from the town of Starnberg toward the Alps, only 15 miles (25 km) from the city. Germany's fifth-largest lake is lined with villas, beach…
Waterfalls
Sonthofen
The Starzlachklamm near Sonthofen is a narrow limestone gorge at the foot of the Grünten mountain in the Allgäu region of southern Bavaria. Secured walkways and bridges lead past waterfalls, swirling potholes and steep rock walls packed wi…
Churches & monasteries
Waldsassen
The Waldsassen Basilica (Stiftsbasilika Waldsassen) is a lavish Baroque church in the small town of Waldsassen in northeastern Bavaria, just a few miles from the Czech border. Built for a powerful Cistercian monastery, it surprises visitor…
Lakes
Lenggries
The Sylvenstein Reservoir (Sylvensteinspeicher) near Lenggries is a turquoise mountain lake in the Isarwinkel region of Upper Bavaria, framed by the Karwendel range. It lies about 75 kilometers south of Munich on the road between Bad Tölz…
Lakes
Tegernsee
Lake Tegernsee is one of the most popular Alpine lakes in Upper Bavaria, set in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps about 30 miles (50 km) south of Munich. Five villages ring its shores, including the town of Tegernsee with its former monas…
Caves
Pottenstein
The Devil's Cave (Teufelshöhle) near Pottenstein is the largest of roughly 1,000 caves in Franconian Switzerland, a craggy hill region in northern Bavaria about an hour's drive from Nuremberg. A guided tour leads through lofty halls filled…
Churches & monasteries
München
The Theatinerkirche, or Theatine Church of St. Cajetan, on Odeonsplatz in Munich is Bavaria's first Baroque church and one of the best-known landmarks of the old town. Its yellow facade, huge dome and twin towers define the city skyline. A…
Theme parks
Erding
Therme Erding, just northeast of Munich, is widely described as the largest thermal spa in the world – a vast indoor and outdoor complex of thermal pools, a wave pool, water slides and saunas. Only about 9 miles (14 km) from Munich Airport…
Zoos
Nürnberg
At Nuremberg Zoo you spend most of the day walking through a forest. The zoo sits on the Schmausenbuck hill in the east of the city, inside the Lorenzer Reichswald, and uses old sandstone quarries, ponds and slopes as backdrops for the ani…
Castles
Coburg
Veste Coburg is a vast medieval fortress perched about 160 meters above the town of Coburg in northern Bavaria, close to the border with Thuringia. Often called the "Crown of Franconia," it is one of the largest and best-preserved castle c…
Castles
Passau
From Passau's old town you see it all the time: high above the left bank of the Danube stands Veste Oberhaus, its façade marked with a large 1499, written with the medieval "half eight" for the four. The castle sits 105 metres above the va…
Museums
München
From outside it looks like a small Greek temple on Prinzregentenstraße; inside opens a world of dark walls, gold, ornament and symbols. Villa Stuck was the home and studio of Munich's "prince of painters" Franz von Stuck (1863–1928), who d…
Lakes
Kochel am See
What surprises everyone is the colour: on a sunny day Lake Walchensee glows a turquoise you would expect in the Caribbean. Yet it lies at 801 metres in the Bavarian Prealps, about 75 km south of Munich, framed by the Herzogstand, the Jochb…
Industrial heritage
Kochel am See
The Walchensee Hydroelectric Power Station in Kochel am See is one of Germany's great industrial landmarks and still produces electricity a century after it opened. Six enormous steel pipes carry water from Lake Walchensee down roughly 200…
Monuments
Donaustauf
The Walhalla near Donaustauf, just east of Regensburg, is a hall of fame built in the form of a Greek temple, high above the Danube River. King Ludwig I of Bavaria created it to honor great figures of the German-speaking world, and today m…
Mountains & peaks
Ramsau bei Berchtesgaden
The Watzmann is the signature mountain of Bavaria's Berchtesgaden Alps, a jagged double-peaked massif rising above Lake Königssee and the villages of Ramsau and Schönau. At 8,901 feet (2,713 m), it is the highest mountain lying entirely wi…
Mountains & peaks
Bayrischzell
The Wendelstein is a 6,030-foot (1,838 m) peak in the Bavarian Prealps, about an hour southeast of Munich, and one of the classic viewpoint mountains of Upper Bavaria. Its rocky summit, crowned by an observatory and a transmitter mast, can…
Castles
Eichstätt
Willibaldsburg Castle towers over the town of Eichstätt and the Altmühl Valley in Upper Bavaria, roughly halfway between Munich and Nuremberg. For centuries it was the seat of the prince-bishops of Eichstätt. Today it houses the Jura Museu…