Bavaria

Bavaria is Germany at its most theatrical. The castles of Ludwig II, Alpine lakes such as the Tegernsee and the Königssee, baroque monasteries, onion-domed churches and mountain villages create a landscape where romantic imagination and deep regional pride remain part of everyday life.

Bavaria is the largest German state and was a kingdom until 1918, ruled for more than seven centuries by the Wittelsbach dynasty. Munich, its capital, holds the Residenz, the Pinakothek galleries and one of Europe’s great opera houses. To the south, the land rises to the Alps through the Fünfseenland, the Tegernsee and Garmisch-Partenkirchen beneath the Zugspitze, Germany’s highest summit.

Beyond the capital the region divides into worlds of its own: Franconia, with Nuremberg, Bamberg and the Bayreuth of Wagner; the Allgäu, where Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau face each other across the valley; and the Berchtesgaden Land around the Königssee. Tradition is lived rather than staged — dirndl and Lederhosen are everyday dress at a village feast.

Summer is the season of the lakes and the mountains, of beer gardens under chestnut trees, the Munich Opera Festival in July and the Bayreuth Festival from late July to the end of August. Oktoberfest begins in the second half of September and closes on the first Sunday of October, filling Munich and its hotels for more than a fortnight.

Advent brings the Christmas markets of Munich and Nuremberg, the Christkindlesmarkt being among the oldest in Germany. Winter turns Garmisch-Partenkirchen into a ski town and the castles into snow scenes; spring, with blossom along the lakes and the beer-garden season opening, is the quietest and often the most beautiful time to travel.

In Munich, the Hotel Bayerischer Hof on Promenadeplatz has been the city’s grand address since 1841, the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten Kempinski stands on Maximilianstrasse, Mandarin Oriental, Munich has reopened after a full renovation near the Hofbräuhaus, and Rosewood Munich occupies a former Bavarian state bank. In the mountains, Schloss Elmau lies alone in a high valley near Garmisch, and the Althoff Seehotel Überfahrt sits on the shore of the Tegernsee.

LVXE books the Vier Jahreszeiten through Kempinski Club 1897 and Mandarin Oriental through the Mandarin Oriental Fan Club — at the official hotel rate, with the privileges each programme attaches to the stay. The Bayerischer Hof, Rosewood Munich, Schloss Elmau and the Seehotel Überfahrt are independent houses, and LVXE advises on and arranges those stays directly with each hotel, often combining a few nights in Munich with the lakes or the mountains.