Google-Maps Bavarian Forest

A holiday in the Bavarian Forest

Pristine nature

Endless woods, tremendous mountain ridges and smooth summits, mountain lakes with tenuous strips of mist at dusk.

Europe’s largest and certainly most impressive woodland scenery, the Bavarian Forest , is located here.

It spreads on an area of 6.000 square kilometres between river Danube, the Bohemian Forest and the Austrian border. You will find intact nature, crystal clear creeks and lakes, and the air you breathe is the cleanest of the entire Federal Republic.

The national park of the Bavarian Forest is also the site of Germany’s last preserved piece of primeval forest. 

It was as early as 1970 when this 12.000 hectare section in the northeast of Grafenau near the border of the Czech Republic was pronounced a protected area.

The national park was expanded to 24.000 hectare on August 1, 1997 and Europe’s largest nature reserve arose in Eastern Bavaria. Along with the Czech national park Sumava, landscape of the year 1999/2000, it forms Europe’s largest conservation project.

Everything is left to Mother Nature in the park and it maintains both its nativeness and biological diversity. Everybody who abides the regulations and keeps quiet can watch animal species such as lynxes and river otters, which were both said to be extinct.

Intact nature and pristine landscapes are found in the entire Bavarian Forest. The woodland scenery is towered by more than 130 mountain tops nearly reaching the 1.500 meter mark, which can also be climbed. Famous mountains include Arber, Ossel, Rachel, Lusen and Brotjacklriegel.

During the winter months, more than 2.000 kilometers of cross-country ski tracks make the snowy Bavarian Forest an ideal place for winter sport fans.

The Bavarian Forest perennially offers ideal conditions for sports, fun and games of all kind. 

This corner of Bavaria is also a mecca for art enthusiasts. Places of interest include the cities Straubing, Deggendorf and Passau. Cultural abundance is found in the museums of the cities and markets as well as in sacred monasteries and castle grounds.

Glass manufacturing is one of the main attractions in the Bavarian Forest. This artistic craftwork has been a domestic industry since medieval times. Today the Bavarian Forest is among Europe’s largest hubs for glass manufacturing. Glass is manufactured in the large factories of Zwiesel and Riedlhuette, but no machine replaces the old craft of the glassblowers.

To this day glassblowers use a long bar called “pipe” to extract the molten glass, a substance resembling honey, from the oven. The molten glass is twirled and twisted and chalices, glasses, vases and bowls are created.

A walk along the glass road reveals the beauty and treasures of glass manufacturing in this region.  

Sustenance is also provided. Taverns serving rural specialties are found everywhere. Finish your meal with a sip of Baerwurz, a liquor distilled from a root found only in the Bavarian Forest.