Walking in the Bavarian Alps

Book excerpt: A comprehensive guidebook detailing walks in Germany's Bavarian Alps. Lying along the German-Austrian border in a thin sliver of land roughly 300km long, this area contains some of the most spectacular walking and beautiful scenery that Germany has to offer. 70 graded walks explore mountain landscapes, wild mountain gorges and alpine meadows as well as the region's picturesque villages, opulent baroque churches and fairy-tale castles like Neuschwanstein. There is also the northernmost glacier in the Alps (Blaueis), Germany's largest ice cave (Schellenberg) and its highest mountain, the Zugspitze, all visited on walks described in this guide. The walks are divided into six mountain areas, grouped around base towns to make planning a walking holiday as easy as possible. Bases include Oberstdorf, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Mittenwald, Marquartstein, Inzell, Oberammergau and Ramsau among others. The walks are mainly between 3 and 8 hours in duration, though some longer walks are included staying at mountain huts. The guidebook gives an outline of two multi-day tours and suggestions for shorter valley walks of less than 3hrs are also included. The Bavarian Alps make an ideal destination for an easy-to-organise and affordable walking holiday.