Christmas markets
near Munich,
in the mountains

Munich’s big Christkindlmarkt on Marienplatz is open every day for weeks and is, on a December Saturday, about as crowded as a market can be. The markets in the mountains south of the city work differently. Most of them open only on the four Advent weekends, many are run by the village itself or by local clubs, and the people behind the stalls are often the people who made what is on them.

Lake Schliersee sits at the end of a direct train line from Munich Hauptbahnhof. Around it, each Advent weekend has its own market, and the villages coordinate them under one name, the Schlierseer Weihnachtszauber. Lake Tegernsee is 11 kilometres to the west and has three markets of its own, joined by a boat. Put together, that is a reason to come for a weekend rather than an afternoon.

We are a small hotel on the village square in Schliersee, and one of these markets takes place on that square, run jointly by our house and the village. So this page is written from the inside, with the dates the organisers have published for 2026.

Advent is the four Sundays before Christmas. In Bavaria the season is taken seriously: an Advent wreath with four candles, one lit each Sunday, and a calendar of small events from late November onwards. Most village markets here open on these weekends only, so the weekend you travel decides which market you will see.

Christkindl is the Christ Child, who in Bavaria brings the presents on Christmas Eve, the 24th. Traditionally it is the Christkindl, not Father Christmas, who does the giving here. A Christkindlmarkt is therefore a market where you buy what the Christkindl will bring. Weihnachtsmarkt means the same thing, just less Bavarian.

Nikolaus is St Nicholas, a bishop with a staff and a golden book, whose feast day is 6 December. He visits most markets here, usually in the late afternoon, and children get a small present. At some markets he comes with the Krampus, a horned, shaggy figure from Alpine folklore who is meant to frighten. Small children do not always find this charming.

Glühwein is hot spiced red wine, sometimes white. Punsch is a hot fruit punch, with or without alcohol; Kinderpunsch is the version for children. At these markets you will also see Hot Aperol, roasted chestnuts (Maroni), Raclette bread and, at the Wasmeier museum, Stachelbier: beer heated by plunging a glowing iron rod into it. At many German markets you pay a small deposit on the mug and get it back when you return it.

On the first weekend of Advent, wooden huts go up on the Xaver-Terofal-Platz, the small square between our hotel, the village’s historic peasant theatre and the maypole. The market is part of the village’s Schlierseer Weihnachtszauber. There are twelve stalls with crafts and food such as bratwurst, grilled meat, raclette, soups and crêpes, with mulled wine, punch and beer. In 2026 it is on Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 November.

Last year our kitchen grilled sausages and served Raclette bread, a beekeeper from Fischbachau sold honey, a farm café brought Christmas biscuits, and a local shop sold regional gifts. A Bavarian band and the Schliersee brass band played, and St Nicholas came on both days. The 2026 programme will be announced by the village nearer the time.

It is a small market. You can walk around it in two minutes, and most people stay for two hours anyway, because this is where the village meets. Darkness falls around half past four in late November, and that is when it looks its best. If you stay with us, the walk from your room to the Glühwein is one flight of stairs.

The best-known market in the area is held inside a museum. The Markus Wasmeier Freilichtmuseum in Neuhaus, named after the Olympic ski champion who founded it, is a village of old farmhouses from the Bavarian uplands, taken down elsewhere and rebuilt here. On two Advent weekends, makers sell inside the old farmhouse parlours and from huts between them.

In 2026 it opens on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 December and on Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 December, 11 am to 7 pm. Entry is 6 euros; under-18s go free. The museum inn is open on market days.

What makes it different from a town market: real candles and fire bowls instead of fairy lights, poems along the path into the village, chestnuts roasted over open fires, and Stachelbier at the blacksmith’s. Children can bake biscuits with the museum baker, do crafts or try Eisstockschießen, a Bavarian cousin of curling. A guided tour called Weihnachtsgschichtn explains old Advent customs, in German.

Two practical points. It gets busy; come at 11 am if you prefer space. And the paths are unpaved, so in snow or slush wear boots, not city shoes.

Lake Tegernsee, 11 kilometres west of Schliersee, has three Advent markets on its shore: the Seeadvent in Bad Wiessee, the Rottacher Advent in Rottach-Egern and the Christmas market in front of the former monastery castle in Tegernsee. They usually open on all four Advent weekends, Saturday and Sunday, from 2 to 7 pm. Entry is free. In 2026 that would mean 28 and 29 November and 5 and 6, 12 and 13, and 19 and 20 December; the tourist board confirms the exact days on its website.

Between 2 and 7 pm on every market day, an illuminated shuttle boat runs between the three markets. In 2026 a day ticket costs 17 euros for adults and 8.50 euros for children aged 6 to 15; under-6s travel free. Tickets are not sold at the markets: buy them in advance on app.tegernsee.com or at a tourist office. The ticket also covers the shuttle buses and the lake’s ring bus line on the same day. In Tegernsee the boat stops only at the town hall pier, a few minutes’ walk from the market.

Our honest view: the Tegernsee markets are bigger and better known, and busier on Saturday afternoons. A good plan is to go over in the afternoon, ride the boat at dusk, and come back to Schliersee for dinner.

Trains of the Bayerische Regiobahn (BRB) run from Munich Hauptbahnhof to Schliersee without changing, in about 50 minutes, every hour or every half hour. They are ordinary regional trains: buy a ticket from the machine or the DB app before boarding, or use a Deutschlandticket. From Schliersee station it is a seven-minute walk to the market on our square.

For the Wasmeier market, stay on the train one stop past Schliersee, to Fischhausen-Neuhaus. The museum is within sight of the platform. From Munich, the museum puts the journey at just under an hour. Trains run hourly on this stretch.

For Lake Tegernsee, the regional bus 9555 runs all year between Tegernsee and Bayrischzell via Schliersee and Fischbachau. Check the time of the last bus back before you set off: the markets close in the early evening and buses run less often at night.

If you stay overnight anywhere in the region, you receive a guest card (Gästekarte). With it and a photo ID, BRB trains south of Miesbach and the regional RVO buses in this area are free for the length of your stay, and dogs ride free too. That covers every market on this page except the shuttle boat.

Miesbach, the district town three train stops north of Schliersee, holds its Advent market on the town square on the third Advent weekend: Friday 11 December from 3 pm, Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 December from noon. Stalls sell handmade work and food from the region, and many shops stay open until 4 pm on Advent Saturdays.

Fischbachau, in the Leitzach valley below the Wendelstein, holds its Christkindlmarkt on the church square on the second Advent weekend: Saturday 5 December from 2 pm and Sunday 6 December from 10 am, with St Nicholas at 4 pm on Sunday. The stallholders are from the village: woodcarving, honey, jewellery. Ute and Markus Leitner, who run our hotel, send guests to the Winklstüberl in Fischbachau for coffee and cake, in their words the best cake for miles around.

If you came for the day, you head for the station when the stalls close. If you stay, the evening is still ahead. Our restaurant, the Xaver, serves Bavarian food in wood-panelled parlours; from Friday to Sunday it is open from 11.30 am, Tuesday to Thursday from 5 pm, with the kitchen open until 9 pm. It is closed on Mondays. On Advent weekends, book a table.

Six of our rooms have their own Finnish sauna inside the room, plus a balcony or loggia and a direct view of the lake. You set temperature and time yourself, from properly hot to mild. There is no shared spa and no opening hours: after four hours in the cold, you come back and warm up when you choose.

A weekend that works: arrive on Friday; on Saturday be at the Wasmeier market when it opens at 11 am, sauna in the afternoon, dinner in the Xaver. On Sunday take the bus to Lake Tegernsee and the boat between the markets. On the weekend of our own market, the first in Advent, you need not go anywhere at all: it is on the doorstep.