Some trips earn a proper write-up the moment they happen, and some sit as a video file for a few months until you finally carve out an evening to do them justice. This is the latter. We spent a stretch of last summer looping through Bavaria and Tirol — castles, gorges, alpine meadows, more waterslides than we can count, and a finale among the red roofs of Rothenburg. Here's the route, roughly in the order we lived it.
Lake Achensee, Tirol
- Lake Achensee → Tratzberg Castle — 27 min (23 km)
- Tratzberg Castle → Wolfsklamm — 6 min (4 km)
- Wolfsklamm → Großer Ahornboden — 1 hr 47 min (83 km)
- Großer Ahornboden → Eng Alm — 52 min (19 km)
Total driving: 3 hr 11 min · Open this route in Google Maps
Our base for the first leg was a chalet resort right on Achensee , the big turquoise lake tucked into the Tirolean mountains. The early drone footage shows it best: a dark, fog-bound lake before dawn that turns reflective and dramatic once the morning light spills over the ridges.
From here we radiated out. There were easy lakeside forest walks (one curved wooden bench got thoroughly goofed-around-on), a steep, root-laced trail, and a properly soggy waterfall hike where the spray and the rain made it hard to tell which was which — Dad's selfie in a drenched poncho says it all.
We also toured Tratzberg Castle, a Renaissance pile with a painted red-and-cream courtyard and a rose-hedge garden. Inside there's a dark medieval kitchen with a real fire going, coffered ceilings, and rows of ancestral portraits — but the clear winner was the hands-on bit where you can try on chainmail and metal helmets. Highly recommended for anyone traveling with a kid who likes the idea of being a knight.
Next came Wolfsklamm, a gorge near Stans where wooden staircases and walkways are bolted straight to the cliffs beside a roaring white waterfall. It was another wet-weather day, rain jackets all round, but the drama of the ravine more than made up for it.
Then the weather turned, and we drove up into the Karwendel range to the Großer Ahornboden and Eng Alm — a wide glacial valley scattered with old maple trees, braided river channels, and limestone walls towering overhead. It's a working alpine dairy, so there were cows wandering past while our boy played on a wooden balance playground and pedaled an orange go-kart around the gravel.
We capped the area with a swim day at a lakeside lido (signposted "Area 4") — a natural roped-off swimming zone with jump platforms, floating obstacles, and metal slides straight into the green water.
Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria
- Eng Alm → Garmisch-Partenkirchen — 1 hr 11 min (57 km)
- Garmisch-Partenkirchen → Partnachklamm — 13 min (5 km)
Total driving: 1 hr 24 min · Open this route in Google Maps
Crossing back into Germany, we landed at Garmisch-Partenkirchen under low cloud and mist. The headline here was the Partnachklamm (Partnach Gorge) — a turquoise river squeezed through a deep slot canyon, with a narrow walkway hugging the rock and the occasional tunnel to duck through. It was busy, but the sunlight slanting down into the gorge made it worth the crowds.
Afterward we found a Sommerrodelbahn — a summer toboggan run — and sent the kid careening down the metal track with mountains in the background.
Leutasch & Seefeld, Tirol
- Partnachklamm → Leutasch — 41 min (41 km)
- Leutasch → Olympiabad Seefeld — 11 min (8 km)
Total driving: 53 min · Open this route in Google Maps
Back over the border into Tirol, we settled into the Leutasch valley . This was our e-biking leg: we picked up electric mountain bikes and rode through the village streets, shaded forest trails, and open hillside gravel paths with big valley views. On a rainier mood we headed to the Olympiabad in nearby Seefeld for a pool-and-waterslide afternoon.
Neuschwanstein & Füssen, Bavaria
- Olympiabad Seefeld → Neuschwanstein Castle — 1 hr 35 min (102 km)
- Neuschwanstein Castle → Hohenschwangau — 5 min (1 km)
- Hohenschwangau → Alpsee — 2 min (0 km)
- Alpsee → Füssen — 8 min (4 km)
Total driving: 1 hr 50 min · Open this route in Google Maps
Then a scenic drive west toward the Alps brought us past the postcard view of Neuschwanstein Castle perched on its wooded hill, with Hohenschwangau and the Alpsee below.
We based ourselves around Füssen , wandering its cobbled pedestrian streets — where our boy ended up in a full blue Tracht outfit complete with a feathered green Alpine hat — and stepping into one of the town's white-and-gold Baroque churches. A lake swim off a wooden dock rounded out the stop.
Legoland Deutschland, Günzburg
- Füssen → Legoland Deutschland — 1 hr 26 min (146 km)
Total driving: 1 hr 26 min · Open this route in Google Maps
After a night at an Egyptian-themed holiday park (hieroglyphs, fake palm trees to climb, very pleased child), we pointed the car at Legoland Deutschland in Günzburg. The Miniland alone is worth it — there's a Lego Neuschwanstein that pairs nicely with having just seen the real thing — plus a miniature railway, a log flume, mosaic-building walls, and a pirate splash-battle ride that we rode just as the storm clouds rolled in.
Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Franconia
- Legoland Deutschland → Rothenburg ob der Tauber — 1 hr 30 min (136 km)
- Rothenburg ob der Tauber → Plönlein — 6 min (1 km)
- Plönlein → Rathaus Tower — 2 min (0 km)
- Rathaus Tower → Käthe Wolfahrt — 0 min (0 km)
- Käthe Wolfahrt → Bad Mergentheim — 43 min (40 km)
Total driving: 2 hr 21 min · Open this route in Google Maps
The last big stop was Rothenburg ob der Tauber, and it lived up to the trip title. We got there early enough to have the Plönlein — that famous fork in the road framed by the Siebersturm tower and the little yellow house — almost to ourselves.
By midday the streets filled up. We climbed the Rathaus (Town Hall) tower via a steep wooden ladder for a panoramic sweep over the sea of red roofs and Franconian hills, browsed the year-round Käthe Wolfahrt Christmas village (a glittering indoor world of trees and ornaments), and parked ourselves in a side street for gelato. There were also toy wooden swords, brandished fiercely.
For a quieter day we slipped over to Bad Mergentheim for its indoor leisure pool — inflatable obstacle course, enclosed blue waterslides, the works. One evening wrapped up in a cozy Franconian Gaststube full of antlers and old photos, with a man in Lederhosen playing live accordion. A very fitting last note.
Tips for families
- Drives are deliberately short. We plan road days around the small passenger: 10 of the 18 legs on this trip are 30 minutes or less, and the longest single hop is 1 hr 47 min (Wolfsklamm → Großer Ahornboden).
- Pack for two seasons. We had fog and rain at the waterfall, Wolfsklamm, and Garmisch, then full sun in the Karwendel and at Legoland. Rain jackets and swim gear, always both.
- Gorges are a kid win. Wolfsklamm and Partnach are walkable, dramatic, and full of "look at that!" moments — just mind the wet boardwalks.
- Mix big sights with water days. Every couple of castles or towns, we slotted in a lido, pool, or lake swim. It reset everyone.
- Hands-on beats look-only. The armor try-on at Tratzberg and the tower climb in Rothenburg landed far better than any plaque.
- Arrive early in honeypot towns. Rothenburg 's Plönlein at dawn versus midday is two completely different experiences.
One trip at a time — and this one was a good one.
Budget notes — the asterisk trip
The spreadsheet says this was our cheapest trip per day in this series. The spreadsheet also knows that comes with an asterisk. (The actual numbers stay in the family — the shape of them is below.)
- The asterisk: airline miles. We burned a serious pile of miles on the flights, so the cash cost of getting there was a fraction of normal. Count the miles at face value and this trip lands mid-pack.
- Lodging was the biggest real line. And within it, one lakeside resort on the Achensee cost as much as several nights anywhere else. The pool slide says it was worth it; the spreadsheet abstains.
- Food adds up faster than you expect. Mountain-hut lunches are honest value. Hotel and resort dinners are where the food budget quietly doubled. Also: Legoland prices are Legoland prices, in any country.
- The Alps themselves were the bargain. Gorge walks, lake swims, public pools and thermen — the activities line stayed small for two straight weeks of doing something every day.
- Souvenirs were our downfall. Our biggest souvenir spend of any trip, by a wide margin. Trachten shops, sheepskins, and a certain year-round Christmas store in Rothenburg are precision-engineered to defeat a family's resolve. Budget for it honestly.
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