Bavaria is the Germany of the popular imagination: onion-domed churches, alpine peaks, beer gardens under chestnut trees, and castles that look like they were designed for a fairy tale rather than a monarchy’s actual defense needs. It’s also Germany’s largest state, spanning everything from the cosmopolitan energy of Munich to quiet farming valleys near the Austrian border, which makes “Bavaria” less a single destination than a whole region worth several trips.
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Best Things to Do in Bavaria
Spend a Day in Munich’s Old Town
Marienplatz, with its glockenspiel clock tower, anchors a walkable old town packed with churches, the Viktualienmarkt food market, and the Residenz palace where Bavaria’s rulers once lived. It’s the natural base for exploring the wider region by train.
Tour Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau Castles
King Ludwig II’s fairy-tale castle near Füssen, paired with the yellow Hohenschwangau Castle where he grew up, makes for Bavaria’s single most popular day trip from Munich, set against a backdrop of alpine lakes and mountains.
Drink in a Munich Beer Garden
Beer gardens like the Chinese Tower in the English Garden or the Augustiner-Keller let visitors bring their own food to eat alongside a litre of local beer under the trees — a genuinely communal tradition rather than a tourist gimmick, and one locals use year-round, not just during Oktoberfest.
Explore the Romantic Road Towns
Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Dinkelsbühl, both largely intact medieval towns, sit along the scenic Romantic Road route through northern Bavaria, offering half-timbered architecture and town walls with far fewer crowds than the bigger cities.
Hike or Ski in the Bavarian Alps
Towns like Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Berchtesgaden give access to genuine alpine scenery, including the Zugspitze, Germany’s highest peak, and the emerald Königssee lake, ringed by cliffs and reachable by electric boat.
Top-Rated Bavaria Tours & Experiences
Best Time to Visit
May through September brings the best weather for castles, lakes and hiking, with late September and early October adding Oktoberfest to the calendar in Munich. Winter suits the Alpine towns well for skiing and Christmas markets, though some rural sights operate on reduced hours, and the higher passes can close entirely after heavy snowfall.
How to Get There
Munich Airport is the main international gateway, with excellent train connections fanning out to the rest of the state, from Nuremberg and Regensburg in the north to Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Berchtesgaden in the alpine south. Bavaria’s rail and regional bus network is dense enough that a car isn’t strictly necessary, though it helps for reaching smaller villages and for building a flexible multi-town itinerary outside the main rail corridors.
Good to Know
Many rural attractions and smaller-town shops close on Sundays, so plan city sightseeing or castle visits, which stay open, around those days. Regional day tickets on Bavarian trains can make multi-stop day trips considerably cheaper than buying individual fares.
Whether the draw is beer hall culture, alpine hiking, or the castle that inspired half of pop culture’s idea of a fairy tale, Bavaria rewards travelers willing to get outside Munich and into its smaller towns and mountains.
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