07/30/2026
We are currently boots-on-the-ground exploring and learning about Germany! At Avanti, we want to know exactly what your clients will experience so we can provide the best information for our Travel Advisor partners (but we won't lie, it's kind of our favorite part of the job). Here are the notes from staff who recently visited The Top of Germany 🇩🇪
"Today we headed out to Garmisch-Partenkirchen where we met our lovely guide, such a sweet and knowledgeable man! We learned that the town used to be split with the river as the border but now the train tracks are the border. This adorable town is also where the writer of Neverending story is from, Michael Ende. His father, a painter, Edgar Enda was in love with a woman who's father sent her to Garmisch so he moved there to be with her and Michael came 9 months later!
The towns merged in 1934. There is still the winter Olympic stadium from 1936 that you can visit. It is a common retirement town and oir guide referred to it as Germany's Florida. 😂 It is also the gateway to Zugspitze, the highest mountain top in Germany within the Bavarian Alps. The tourist center has all the info on how to get to the summit as well as plenty of other information on city tours as well as canyon hiking in the Partnach Gorge which can be reached via taxi or bus. You can also reach Linderhof for free with your hotel card by bus.
The town sits at an elevation of 2300ft but winters are typically mild due to it being in a valley despite the towering mountains that surround it. The King of Thailand owns a villa here and comes to ski as well!
To reach the summit you take a train to Zugspitze gondola. We did have to change trains once, but that is not always the case. The very large gondolas can hold up to 150 people and is about a 5 min ride to the summit. If you are afraid of heights, as I am, I recommend staying away from the windows as well as the center as there is a glass square you can look down through as you ascend. Once you are at the summit you can explore the views from multiple different levels and on a clear day you can see Austria, Italy, Switzerland, and German Alps. Pretty impressive!
There are multiple restaurants to choose from if you are hungry and we went with the buffet option which was quite good! Souvenir options are more limited than I expected but there are a few options to choose from. When you are ready to descend you can go back the way you came or take a different, smaller gondola down to the glacier area for more mountain viewing, which we got to enjoy. From there you take a cog wheel train that takes 25 minutes to descend to Eibsee, which is where the big gondola ascends from. From here you may have to change trains to get back to Garmisch but it can vary depending on the day. If you are lucky, the cog wheel train will take you all the way back to Garmisch.
If you come to Garmisch, experiencing the Top of Germany is not to be missed. To be at such high altitude with 360 degrees of magnificent mountains around you is something special indeed! Be sure to bring layers as it can get very cold up there depending on the season!"
