Alpine huts
around the lake

In the Bavarian Alps an Alm is a high summer pasture. Farmers in the valley send their young cattle up in early summer, a herdsman or herdswoman lives in the hut beside the meadow until autumn, and when the grazing season ends the animals come down and the hut is shut. Many of these huts sell food and drink to walkers on the side. That is what Bavarians mean when they say they are going "auf d'Alm": a walk uphill to a wooden bench, a plate of bread and bacon, and a view.

It helps to know what you are walking into, because three words get used loosely. An Alm hut is a farm building that happens to sell a Brotzeit: simple benches outside, drinks from the bottle, food that is mostly cold, and opening hours that depend on the weather and the cows. A Hütte, in the stricter sense, is a mountain refuge, usually run by a section of the German Alpine Club (DAV), with dormitory beds and a season that often runs most of the year. A Berggasthof is a proper mountain inn with a menu, a kitchen and often rooms. Several places called "Alm" are really inns; the Obere Firstalm is one.

A Brotzeit, literally "bread time", is the Bavarian cold snack: dark bread, smoked bacon (Speck), sausage, mountain cheese, often Obazda, a spiced cheese spread. On the small huts that is most of the menu, along with homemade cake and filter coffee. Do not expect hot dishes everywhere, and do not expect a card machine.

Ask Ute and Markus Leitner, who run the Terofal, where to go for a Brotzeit and the first name you hear is the Freudenreichalm. It sits at 1262 metres at the head of the Dürnbach valley, below the Brecherspitz, and it is about as far from a restaurant as a place that sells food can be. There is no dining room, only benches outside among the pastures. The herdswoman serves bacon, sausage, drinks, filter coffee and a few cakes, and at weekends the local speciality: Auszogne, a fried dough ring stretched thin in the middle. If she is busy with the animals, you wait.

The usual start is the Dürnbach walkers' car park at the end of Dürnbachstraße in Neuhaus, the village at the south end of the lake. A signposted forest road climbs to the hut in about an hour to an hour and a half. Trainers with a decent grip will do; poles help on the way down, because the last stretch is stony. Without a car, take the train one stop beyond Schliersee to Fischhausen-Neuhaus. According to the village magazine, the Schliersee guest card lets you park at Dürnbach for free.

The hut has no telephone and patchy mobile reception, so plan on the published season: usually from mid or late June, open daily in good weather until mid-September, then at weekends only, weather permitting, until mid-October.

The Gindelalm, at 1242 metres on the wooded ridge between Lake Schliersee and Lake Tegernsee, is not one hut but three, a few steps apart and run by different families. The numbers are simply house numbers. All three serve a Brotzeit and hot Bavarian dishes, and their hours differ, which is worth knowing before you go.

Gindelalm No. 2, the largest, is usually open from early May until the church fair in October and closes on Mondays (on Tuesdays when Monday is a public holiday). It says plainly that it takes no cards. Gindlalm No. 3, which spells itself without the "e", opens daily from early May to the end of October with no fixed closing day, and closes earlier on Sundays and holidays. For No. 1 the tourist office lists a season from 1 May to the local church fair in October, cash only.

From Schliersee, the shortest climb starts at the walkers' car park on Hennererstraße and takes about an hour and a half. From the station, add roughly half an hour; the Terofal is seven minutes from the station on foot. Many walkers carry on over the Gindelalmschneid to the Neureuth inn and down to Tegernsee, then take the bus or a taxi back. That is the walk Ute and Markus Leitner recommend most often: three to four hours of walking.

The Kreuzbergalm, at 1223 metres, stands on an open grassy knoll on the Prinzenweg, the walking route between the two lakes. No trees block the view, and a few metres east of the hut a cross marks a viewpoint over Lake Schliersee to the Breitenstein and the Wendelstein. Food is self-service: Brotzeit, soup, sausages, coffee and homemade cake.

It is open daily during the season with no closing day. The season itself is less certain. The tourist office lists early May to mid October, 10am to 5pm; walking guides describe a shorter grazing season ending in September. In May or October, ring the tourist office before you go. The walk starts at the same Hennerer car park as the Gindelalm and takes an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half; it is easy to combine the two in one day.

The Ankelalm sits at 1311 metres in a broad bowl of pasture north-west of the Brecherspitz summit. The hut was completely rebuilt in 2018 and reopened in 2019. It serves cheese, sausage, bacon, bread, cake and smoked meat from the owner's farm, and drinks only from the bottle.

One detail catches people out. Two independent hut guides agree that the Ankelalm closes at weekends: it opens from early June to the end of September, Monday to Thursday from 9am to 9pm and Friday until 6pm, and stays shut on Saturday and Sunday. There is no website and no phone to check, so a weekday is the safe choice.

The climb starts at the same Dürnbach car park in Neuhaus as the Freudenreichalm and follows a broad forest road for 450 to 500 metres of ascent, about an hour to an hour and a half. Mountain bikers use the same road, which is steep in places. The Brecherspitz summit is another hour above the hut, but that last section is rocky and needs a sure foot.

The Obere Firstalm, at 1375 metres, is the easiest of the five to reach and the only one open all year. From the car park or bus stop at the Spitzingsattel, the pass between Schliersee and Spitzingsee, a broad forest road climbs about 250 metres in 40 to 45 minutes. It is an inn rather than a farm hut: a full menu, a breakfast buffet, rooms and dormitory beds, and a playground outside. The owners give kitchen hours of 11am to 8pm.

In winter the forest road becomes a toboggan run. You can hire a sledge at the inn, and our advice to guests is always the same: dress warmly and bring ski goggles if you have them. In summer the Obere Firstalm is where the Brecherspitz circuit ends, one of the hosts' favourite hikes, four to five hours and for experienced walkers only.

The Schliersbergalm, at 1061 metres directly above the village on the east side of the lake, has had a small cable car since 1952: 725 metres long, about four minutes up. At the top are a hotel restaurant, a self-service hut, a summer toboggan run and a large playground. On foot it is about 270 metres of climbing on forest roads, roughly an hour and a quarter. It is no longer a grazing Alm, but it is open all year and the easiest outing with small children.

The Stögeralm, a little higher up the same hill, is no longer a place to drop in. Its own website says it opens by arrangement for private events and on announced days, such as the church fair in October.

The Albert-Link-Hütte, at 1053 metres just south-east of Lake Spitzingsee, is a German Alpine Club refuge run by the Munich and Oberland sections. It is about 20 minutes on foot from the car park by the church in Spitzingsee, open almost all year, and closed on Mondays except public holidays. A meadow, a stream and a playground make it a good choice with young children, and it has beds if you want to stay up the mountain.

Most huts open when the cattle go up and close when they come down. Here that means the Gindelalm and Kreuzbergalm from early May, the Freudenreichalm and Ankelalm from June, and closing between late September and late October. Many take their cue from Kirchweih, the Bavarian church fair on the third Sunday of October. Small huts only open in good weather, so on a grey day check the operator's website or ring the tourist office first.

Bring cash. Gindelalm No. 1 and No. 2 state outright that they take no cards, and the Freudenreichalm and Ankelalm do not even have a telephone line. On the farm huts, a card reader is not something to count on.

Young cattle graze right beside the paths. Keep dogs on a lead and give the animals room. On an e-bike, stay on the forest and supply roads that reach all five huts, and walk the narrow paths above them.

Getting to the start points without a car is straightforward. Trains from Munich Hauptbahnhof reach Schliersee in about 50 minutes without changing, and continue one stop to Fischhausen-Neuhaus for the Dürnbach car park. Buses run up to the Spitzingsattel. If you stay overnight in Schliersee you receive a guest card (Gästekarte), and according to the Munich transport authority MVV it covers local buses and trains in fare zones 6 to 9.

From November to April, of the places on this page only the Obere Firstalm, the Albert-Link-Hütte and the Schliersbergalm are open. On those days, and on wet ones, the same Brotzeit (Weißwurst, sausage salad, Obazda and pretzels) is on the menu at our Xaver restaurant, served in a panelled Stube instead of on a pasture.