Germany is not the first country most skiers think of when planning a winter holiday. France, Austria, and Switzerland tend to come first, and there are obvious reasons why. But Garmisch-Partenkirchen, tucked into the Bavarian Alps right on the Austrian border, makes a genuinely strong case for itself. Not because it competes with Chamonix or St. Anton, but on its own terms: two distinct ski areas, a town with real character, and a snow reliability problem that largely does not exist when you are skiing at close to 3,000 metres. For ski holidays, Germany offers this amazing destination: Eibsee.
The Zugspitze: Germany’s Highest Ski Area
The Zugspitze is Germany’s highest mountain and the only glacier ski area, with skiing between 2,000 and 2,700 metres above sea level. That altitude matters more than the headline figure suggests. The season typically runs from the beginning of December through to May, and the 20 kilometres of pistes are groomed on natural snow.
Getting up there is part of the experience. You can choose between the world-record-holding Zugspitze cable car, the almost century-old cogwheel train, and the Gletscherbahn cable car: the train in particular being one of those journeys that justifies itself regardless of what the skiing is like at the top. On a clear day, the summit panorama takes in over 400 mountain peaks across four countries. The restaurant up there, rebuilt and reopened in recent years, is worth lingering in.
The terrain suits beginners and intermediates well. Gentle ski meadows on the Zugspitzplatt ensure that less experienced skiers don’t miss out on the snow-sure skiing at Germany’s highest peak, while the freeride zones give more confident skiers room to find their own lines in the powder.
Garmisch-Classic: Variety and History
The second ski area, Garmisch-Classic, is a different proposition entirely. Its runs spread across three mountains (Alpspitze at 2,628 metres, Hausberg at 1,310 metres, and Kreuzeck at 1,651 metres), covering 40 kilometres of slopes at varied difficulty levels.
What gives Garmisch-Classic its particular character is history. The Kandahar downhill course has been a venue for FIS Ski World Cup races since 1970, and the Olympic ski jump still hosts the traditional New Year’s competition as part of the Four Hills Tournament. Skiing the Kandahar – a seven-kilometre run with 1,800 metres of vertical drop and gradients that reach 92% in places – is the kind of thing you mention afterwards. It is not for the faint-hearted, but simply watching it from the bottom costs nothing.
A Twin Ticket Worth Using
A special Twin Ticket covers one day in each ski area, which is the sensible way to structure a stay of four or five days — spending a day or two up on the glacier and the rest in Garmisch-Classic. The Eibsee area, sitting between the two ski areas at the foot of the Zugspitze cable car, is a natural base for exactly this kind of split week: close enough to the mountain to make early starts painless, far enough from the centre of Garmisch to feel genuinely quiet in the evenings.
Bavaria in winter rewards those who take it on its own terms. Come for the skiing, stay for the strudel and the long views.
