Rotwand : A Guide to an Easy Day Hike in the Bavarian Alps

One of the best things about living in Munich is the Bavarian Alps looming around the corner. The number of weekend getaways filled with hiking adventures, gorge walks and mountain lake dips that you can embark on irrespective of your level of fitness are truly endless. All you need is a few hours off your schedule for the world of adventure to come knocking on your doorstep! In this blogpost, I spill everything you need to know to hike up Rotwand, a beautiful mountain dominating the Mangfall Ranges of the Bavarian Alps to kickstart that adventure life…

Why Rotwand?
Getting to Rotwand
- Public Transportation
- Car/Motorbike
- Hike to Rotwand
The best time to visit Rotwand
Costs
Ready, Set, Go!

Why Rotwand?

Rotwand is the highest peak in the Spitzingsee region and one of the easiest summits that I have ever conquered! In fact, the summit is open to hiking all through the year. Therefore, if you fancy a hike through the autumn foliage, or amidst icicles and thick white snow or even through blooming flowers and buzzing bees, this hike is the perfect bet!

Moreover, since the hike is considered as an ’easy’ mountain hike, it requires absolutely no extra equipment and can be done by people of all fitness levels. All you need is a bit of grit and lots and lots of water!

Getting to Rotwand

This hike is best done as a day trip from Munich. Therefore, this section will feature directions from Munich. If you are reading this blog from elsewhere in the world, feel free to add this hike to your Bavarian Itinerary to experience one of the best (and the easiest) views in the Bavarian Alps!

Step 1: Getting to the Starting Point of the Hike

With Public Transportation from Munich

Once in Munich, getting to the starting point of the hike is quite easy. The Bayerische Oberland Bahn (BOB) runs every hour from Munich to Bayrischzell. Although it runs till Bayrischzell, you need to get off at Fischhausen-Neuhaus and continue further with bus number 9562 to Spitzingsee Kirche. The entire journey takes around 90 minutes. The connection time between the train and the bus at Fischhausen-Neuhaus is around 3 – 4 minutes. While this sounds tight, it is helpful to know that the bus almost always waits for the train to arrive! More information regarding the train and bus schedules can be found here (The departure and arrival stations must be mentioned as ‘München Hbf’ and ‘Spitzingsee Kirche, Schliersee’).

Another thing to keep in mind is that although the train initially starts with three bogeys from Munich Central Station, each bogey splits at some point and heads to a different destination. In order to reach the starting point of the hike, it is important that you are in the coach that goes to Bayerischzell. In case you are in the wrong coach, before the train splits at Holzkirchen, you will be given a few minutes to get into the right coach. This can be quite stressful, so it is always better to be in the right coach and relax before your arduous climb!

By Car/ Motorbike

If you would rather drive to the starting point of the hike, put this GPS co-ordinates in your navigation device and you are good to go! The co-ordinates correspond to a paid parking lot close to the starting point of the hike. The drive time from Munich to this location is just over an hour.

Step 2: Hike to Rotwand

Trailhead : Link

Tiny yellow boards located along hiking paths usually give information regarding the difficulty of the hike. Alpine hikes in Germany and Austria are classified into three categories,

Blue (or Easy): flat or slightly inclined terrain, no exposed sections
Red (or Medium): mountain hiking with some steep, rocky, partially exposed sections and a considerable elevation gain
Black (or Difficult): challenging terrain with plenty of steep rocky slopes and mostly exposed alpine terrain

I highly recommend reading my beginner’s guide to alpine hiking before attempting this hike!

Being quite a popular mountain, there are several hiking routes to Rotwand and all of them are easy (i.e., marked blue in the signboard’) till ‘Rotwandhaus’. The last twenty minutes of the hike is however a little hard and involves a few steep sections!

The ascent takes between two to three hours with an altitude difference of 800 metres. Depending on your fitness level, the entire hike (i.e., the ascent and the descent) takes anywhere between five to seven hours!

Optional Alternate Route: If you would rather traverse less ‘altitude’, it is probably a good idea to take the cable car to Taubenstein mountain station (Bergstation) and follow the signs to ‘Rotwand/Rotwandhaus’ (or Panoramaweg Rotwand) from there. This hike takes three to four hours. If you decide to do this hike instead, the public transportation instructions remain the same except the stop at which you have to alight. In this case, disembark at the bus stop, Spitzing Taubensteinbahn, Schliersee instead of at Spitzingsee Kirche, Schliersee and walk to the cable car station. More information regarding the cable car can be found here.

If you are a first-time hiker or are just looking for some useful tips and tricks regarding hiking equipment, feel free to glance through this blogpost for an insightful overview!

The Best Time to Visit Rotwand

Although spring and summer are the chosen seasons to hike in Germany, this mountain is an all-weather mountain. While summer hikes in this area can be topped with a swim in Spitzingsee surrounded by endless green rolling hills, a winter hike feels like a trip to Narnia! I hiked during winter without ice cleats and it was totally okay! The path is maintained all year around so hiking in winter is quite a pleasant experience.

Costs

The general costs you can encounter as a day trip from Munich is listed in this section. However, the budget would heavily depend on the kind of traveling you would like to do! All the costs listed are per person (unless otherwise mentioned) and assumes a ‘budget’ travel style.

Transportation

If you are traveling from Munich with a group of friends, I would highly recommend purchasing the Bayern ticket! Bayern Ticket is a day ticket that lets you travel all around Bavaria in regional trains. This Ticket costs 26 EUR for one person and 8 EUR for every additional person (upto 5 people). i.e.,

If you are traveling alone, you would pay 26 EUR
If you are traveling with a friend, you would pay 26 + 8 = 34 EUR (for 2 people, 17 EUR per person)

The easier, alternate route involves taking the cable car up and down. The price for a round trip in Taubenstein Bahn is 20 EUR. More details can be found here.

Food

It is a hiking tradition in Germany to end your hike with a beer at one of the mountain huts! While hiking Rotwand, the hut in question is the Rotwandhaus. Like other mountain huts, a meal with a drink of choice would cost you between 10 to 20 EUR.

Moreover, it is always a good idea to carry some snacks to munch on during the hike. If you need some insight regarding the kind of snacks to buy, the ‘smart snacks’ section of this blogpost should give you a fair idea!

Thus, to sum up, my day trip to Rotwand from Munich cost around 30 EUR!

Ready, Set, Go!

The Mangfall Ranges is a one of the most beautiful areas in the Bavarian Alps. Rotwand, being the highest peak in this area, is defintely worth every cramp and sweat you will encounter. A quiet, quick getaway to enjoy the stunning view should definitely be on your list!

Before you embark on your hiking adventure, I highly recommend skimming through my mountain hiking guide for an unparalleled overview on alpine hiking. Moreover, this blog post also lists all the equipment required to conquer an alpine hike.

If you are looking for another hiking experience, I cannot recommend the following hikes enough:

Have any questions about traveling to Rotwand or hiking in general? Leave them in the comments below!

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Everything you need to know to hike Rotwand

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