Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Monuments
Kelheim
The Befreiungshalle, or Hall of Liberation, is a massive rotunda on the Michelsberg hill above Kelheim in Lower Bavaria, where the Altmühl River meets the Danube. King Ludwig I built it to celebrate the victories over Napoleon in the Wars…
Other
Wiesenttal
Bing Cave (Binghöhle) in Streitberg is one of the best-known show caves in Franconian Switzerland, a hilly region of limestone cliffs and castles north of Nuremberg. A level path about 270 m (885 ft) long follows the bed of an ancient unde…
Gardens & parks
München
The Botanical Garden Munich-Nymphenburg covers 21.2 hectares and is one of the larger botanical gardens in Germany. It lies just north of the Nymphenburg palace park and grows about 16,000 plant species, from alpine flowers and rhododendro…
Waterfalls
Oberstdorf
The Breitachklamm near Oberstdorf in Bavaria's Allgäu Alps is one of the most dramatic gorges in the Alps. Over about 1.5 miles (2.5 km), the Breitach River has cut up to 490 feet (150 m) deep into the rock, and a secured walkway leads you…
Castles
Falkenstein
Falkenstein Castle (Burg Falkenstein) crowns a granite cone about 60 m (200 ft) above the small spa town of Falkenstein in the Upper Palatinate, on the edge of the Bavarian Forest. Surrounded by a wooded park full of huge granite boulders,…
Castles
Harburg (Schwaben)
Harburg Castle sits on a steep rocky spur above the Wörnitz river at the south-eastern entrance to the Nördlinger Ries. It is considered one of the largest, oldest and best-preserved castles in southern Germany, covering more ground even t…
Castles
Riedenburg
Prunn Castle (Burg Prunn) stands on a limestone cliff 70 meters above the Altmühl Valley and is one of the most picturesque castles in Bavaria. The whitewashed hilltop castle with its massive keep dates in part to around 1200 and is famous…
Castles
Landshut
Trausnitz Castle (Burg Trausnitz) towers above the old town of Landshut in Lower Bavaria and was for centuries a seat of the Wittelsbach dukes. Behind its medieval walls you'll find an elegant Renaissance courtyard with arcades, the "Fools…
Castles
Burghausen
Burghausen Castle in the Bavarian town of Burghausen, right on the Austrian border, is listed by Guinness World Records as the longest castle in the world, stretching 1,051 meters (about two-thirds of a mile) along a narrow ridge. Six cour…
Old towns & squares
Dinkelsbühl
Dinkelsbühl is one of the best-preserved medieval towns in Germany, a postcard-perfect stop on Bavaria's Romantic Road between Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Nördlingen. Behind an almost complete ring of walls and four gate towers, you'll fi…
Museums
Berchtesgaden
The Obersalzberg Documentation Centre is a place of learning and remembrance at a perpetrators' site: here above Berchtesgaden, from the 1930s, lay the restricted "Führer zone" with Hitler's Berghof and the houses of other Nazi leaders. Th…
Historic sites & memorials
Nürnberg
The Documentation Center Nazi Party Rally Grounds in Nuremberg (Dokuzentrum) is one of Germany's most important places to learn about the Nazi era. It occupies the north wing of the Congress Hall, a vast, never-finished Nazi building, and…
Churches & monasteries
Waldsassen
Holy Trinity Church at Kappl stands at 599 m in a hollow between the Glasberg and Dietzenberg hills near Waldsassen and is one of the most unusual church buildings in Germany. The architect Georg Dientzenhofer translated the Holy Trinity i…
Lakes
Grainau
Eibsee is an emerald-green mountain lake near Grainau in the Bavarian Alps, set directly beneath the north face of the Zugspitze, Germany's highest mountain. Its clear water, a scatter of small wooded islands and the wall of rock rising al…
Nature
Schönau am Königssee
Above you rises the Watzmann east face, the highest rock wall in the Eastern Alps; in front of you, in the middle of summer, lies a grey, gritty snowfield among the boulders. The Eiskapelle at the foot of the east face is the lowest year-r…
Gardens & parks
Bayreuth
The Hermitage (Eremitage) on the eastern edge of Bayreuth is a park of about 52 hectares with palaces, grottoes and fountains. It reached its peak under Margravine Wilhelmine, who created one of the most unconventional Rococo gardens here:…
Gardens & parks
Wonsees
The Sanspareil Rock Garden (Felsengarten Sanspareil) in Wonsees, near Bayreuth in northern Bavaria, is one of the most unusual 18th-century gardens in Europe. Instead of clipped hedges and fountains, Margravine Wilhelmine of Bayreuth turne…
Fortresses
Würzburg
Marienberg Fortress in Würzburg crowns a hill about 100 m above the Main River and is the city's most famous landmark. For nearly five centuries it was the seat of Würzburg's prince-bishops, before they moved into the grand Residence in to…
Fortresses
Kronach
Rosenberg Fortress rises steeply above the old town of Kronach in the Franconian Forest and in its long history was never taken by force. It is one of the best-preserved fortresses in Bavaria and shows within a compact area how military ar…
Lakes
Schwangau
Lake Forggensee near Füssen in the Bavarian Allgäu is Bavaria's largest reservoir, with the Alps as a backdrop and Neuschwanstein Castle just beyond its shore. It is a lovely add-on to a visit to the castle: you can take a boat trip, walk…
Museums
Bad Windsheim
The Franconian Open-Air Museum in Bad Windsheim (Fränkisches Freilandmuseum) is the largest open-air museum in Bavaria and shows how people in Franconia once lived and worked. Across 45 hectares, more than 120 historic buildings from all o…
Churches & monasteries
Chiemsee
Fraueninsel (Frauenchiemsee) is a tiny, car-free island on Lake Chiemsee in Bavaria, about an hour southeast of Munich, and home to one of the oldest convents in the German-speaking world. Fishermen's cottages, flower gardens and a white B…
Museums
Nürnberg
The Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg is the largest museum of cultural history in the German-speaking world and one of the top things to do in Nuremberg. Spread across a medieval Carthusian monastery and striking modern wings, it t…
Museums
Frauenau
The Frauenau Glass Museum in the Bavarian Forest tells the story of glass from its beginnings in Mesopotamia to the art of today. Frauenau looks back on some 500 years of glassmaking and became a European centre of the studio glass movemen…