A day trip
from Munich
to Schliersee

Most lists of day trips from Munich send you to Neuschwanstein, Salzburg or the Zugspitze. All three are worth it, and all three mean two hours or more each way, usually with a change of train or a tour bus. Schliersee is the opposite kind of trip. You get on a train at Munich Hauptbahnhof, you stay on it for under an hour, and you get off in a village at the edge of the Alps with the lake at the end of the street.

The lake is small enough to understand in a day. It covers 2.22 square kilometres, it is about 2.5 km long, and the path around it is 7.4 km and practically flat. There is one island in the middle, Wörth, with an inn on it. The mountains of the Mangfall range start directly behind the southern shore, and Spitzingsee, a second lake at 1,084 metres, is a 15-minute bus ride further up.

We are writing this as the Terofal, a hotel and restaurant in the centre of the village, seven minutes on foot from the station. So we are not neutral about the destination. We have tried to be exact about everything else: what runs when, what closes on which day, and what you should check before you leave.

Trains to Schliersee leave from Munich Hauptbahnhof and are run by the Bayerische Regiobahn, usually shortened to BRB. The line to Schliersee and on to Bayrischzell is the RB55. The journey takes about 50 to 55 minutes without a change, and trains run hourly, in parts of the day every half hour, from early morning until around midnight.

The one thing visitors get wrong: the train from Munich is usually made up of several sections that split at Holzkirchen. One section goes to Bayrischzell via Schliersee, the others go to Lenggries and Tegernsee. Before you sit down, check the destination shown on the carriage or the platform display and make sure you are in the section for Bayrischzell. If you end up in the wrong part, you will arrive at a lake, just not this one.

Get off at Schliersee, not at Fischhausen-Neuhaus, the next stop. The village, the boat pier and the start of the lake path are all at the main station. Fischhausen-Neuhaus at the southern end of the lake is useful later in the day if you walk round and want to catch the train from there.

Since December 2023 the whole district of Miesbach, Schliersee included, belongs to the Munich transport network MVV. That means normal MVV fares apply all the way from the city, and the regional buses at the lake are part of the same system.

If you have a Deutschlandticket, the monthly subscription for local transport across Germany, you pay nothing extra: it is valid on the BRB and on the buses. At the time of writing it costs 63 euros a month and is only sold as a subscription, so it is worth it mainly if you are in Germany for a while.

For a day trip with several people, look at the Bayern-Ticket. It covers regional trains and almost all local buses in Bavaria for one day. According to Deutsche Bahn in October 2026 it costs 34 euros for one person in second class and 10 euros more for each additional traveller, up to five people. On weekdays it is valid from 9 am, at weekends and on public holidays from midnight. Prices change from time to time, so check the current figure on bahn.de before you go.

Single MVV tickets or an MVV day ticket also work. Which is cheapest depends on how many of you there are and where in Munich you start, and the MVV fare calculator answers that faster than any table we could print here.

Take a train that gets you there by about nine. If you left Munich without breakfast, you can have it at the Terofal: the buffet runs daily from 7:30 to 10:00, it is open to non-residents for 25 euros per person, and you need to reserve a table by the evening before. From the station it is seven minutes on foot along Lautererstraße to the Xaver-Terofal-Platz.

Then walk around the lake. The path is 7.4 km long, almost entirely at the water’s edge and with hardly any climbing. A brisk walker needs a good hour and a half, most people take about two hours with stops. Fischhausen at the southern end is roughly halfway and the natural place for a pause. Because the lake is only about 1.25 km wide, you can see the opposite shore almost the whole way round, and the island is in view from every side.

Our own suggestion if you have a little more energy: from Fischhausen, walk up to the ruins of Hohenwaldeck castle and come back along the Oberleiten slope above the lake. Ute and Markus Leitner, who run the Terofal, call it their favourite easy walk from the front door. Count on two to three hours in total.

Private motorboats are not allowed on Schliersee, which is a large part of why it is so quiet. One passenger boat runs anyway, and has done since 1897: the Schliersee Schifffahrt. In season, usually May to September, its round trip takes 45 minutes, starts from 11 am and passes the island Wörth. The pier is five minutes from the station, next to the Vitalwelt pool and the lakeside playground.

Next to the pier you can hire rowing boats, pedal boats and electric boats. The Leitners love the sandbank in front of Insel Wörth, a spot most day visitors never see. Ask at the boat hire where you may swim: their rules keep electric boats away from the island and do not allow swimming from the boats.

Season dates and departure times are set by the operator each year. Check their website before you plan the day around the boat.

Our restaurant Xaver, with its bar and beer garden, is open from 11:30 on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and public holidays. From Tuesday to Thursday we open at 5 pm, and on Monday we are closed. The kitchen takes orders until 9 pm. If your day trip falls on a weekday, plan the Xaver for dinner before the train home rather than for lunch.

In good weather the beer garden in front of the house has 200 seats under an old chestnut tree, with full table service rather than self-service, and dogs are welcome. On tap are Hopf from Miesbach and Tegernseer. The menu is the same as inside: Bavarian classics such as roast pork with dumplings and Käsespätzle, and char and trout from the Fischerei Schliersee, the fishery on this lake. You can reserve online; for the same day, online bookings close at 4:30 pm and after that you call.

Up the Schliersberg. A small cable car, running since 1952, climbs from the north end of the village to the Schliersbergalm, a mountain inn at about 1,060 metres with the best-known view of the lake: the whole length of it, with the island in the middle. In summer you can come down on the toboggan run. Opening times vary with the season and the weather, so check before you go.

Over to the island. Insel Wörth is 2.4 hectares of woodland with an inn on it, about 200 metres off the western shore. There is no bridge. You go by boat or not at all, which is the point.

Higher, to Spitzingsee. A regional bus runs from Schliersee station up to Spitzingsee at 1,084 metres in about 15 to 20 minutes. The upper lake is smaller and colder, ringed by mountain pastures and the Rotwand, Brecherspitz and Stümpfling peaks. A walk around it is about 3.3 km. Buses can be full on fine weekends, so board at Schliersee station rather than further along the route.

Or stay in the village. Directly behind the Terofal rises the Weinberg with its small chapel, and from up there you look straight down the lake towards the mountains. The Leitners count it among the things visitors most often walk past without noticing.

Trains back to Munich run until late in the evening. The exact time of the last departure changes with the timetable and with engineering works, so look it up on bahn.de or in the DB Navigator app on the day rather than trusting any time printed in a guide, including this one.

From the Xaver to the platform is seven minutes. If you order before 9 pm, you can eat properly and still be in Munich before midnight.

Summer, roughly June to September, is the lake day described above: walk, boat, swim, beer garden. The municipality gives water temperatures of up to 23 °C in summer, which is warm for a lake at 777 metres. The catch is popularity. On hot weekends the car parks by the lake are full by late morning, and even the boat operator advises coming early or coming by train. Arrive before ten and you will have the path largely to yourself.

Winter is a different trip. The boat does not run, and the lake walk becomes a winter walk. The interest moves uphill: Spitzingsee, 15 minutes up the road by bus, has a small ski area. For sledging, the Leitners’ tip is to walk from the Spitzingsattel up to the Obere Firstalm, hire a sledge there and ride the forest road back down. Wear warm clothes and, if you have them, ski goggles.

In a hard frost the lake can freeze. Whether the ice is safe is decided locally, and some winters it never is. The natural ice rink in the village is the reliable alternative. Ask in the village before you step onto the lake, never assume.

Spring and autumn are the quiet seasons, and in our view the best ones. October mornings often start with mist on the water that lifts by eleven, the paths are empty and the beer garden is still open on sunny weekends.

A day trip shows you Schliersee between ten and six, which is when everyone else is there too. The lake is at its best before the first train arrives and after the last one leaves. That is the case for staying, and it is the only one we will make.

The Terofal has 20 rooms in a listed building that has stood on this square for more than 500 years. Six of them are Wellness rooms with their own private Finnish sauna, where you set the temperature and the time yourself, and a balcony or loggia with a direct view of the lake and the mountains. They start at 250 euros a night for two people, breakfast included. Smaller rooms start lower. In high season a minimum stay applies; single nights are possible on request.

If you stay, the evening opens up: on Tuesdays at 8 pm the Schlierseer Bauerntheater next door plays, the first peasant theatre in Bavaria, founded in 1892, and we hold 12 tickets per performance for our guests. The next morning you can be on the lake path at seven, before the first train from Munich has left Holzkirchen.

For a longer stay there is the Seeheimat, our four apartments about 200 metres away directly on the shore, with a lakeside sauna house and free stand-up paddleboards and two small kayaks for guests. They are made for a week rather than a night, and minimum stays apply.