When it
rains

Schliersee sits at the edge of the Alps, and the mountains catch the weather. When it rains, guests ask the same question at reception, and Ute and Markus Leitner, who run the Terofal, answer it with the same list. Here it is in full, with what you need to know before you set off: how far, when it is open, and whether you need a car.

Two things apply throughout. Opening hours change with the season and on public holidays, so each entry links to the operator. And if you plan to taste whisky at Slyrs, take the train rather than the car.

A word on the guest card, the Gästekarte: if you stay overnight in Schliersee you receive one from your hotel. It gives free or reduced entry at several places mentioned below, so keep it in your pocket.

The indoor pool and sauna in the village, known locally as the Vitalwelt, are run by the spa company monte mare. It stands right on the lakeshore at Perfallstraße 4, next to the boat pier, 600 metres or about eight minutes on foot from the Terofal.

The pool side, the Vitaltherme, is the one for families, with a large enclosed slide and a play area for small children. It is usually open daily from 10 am to 8 pm. The sauna area has several themed saunas and is usually open Monday to Saturday from 10 am to 10 pm, on Sundays until 8 pm. Bathing and sauna time end half an hour before closing. Show your guest card for a one-euro discount.

A note for visitors from the UK and the US: in German saunas it is usual to go without swimwear and to sit on a large towel. The house rules at the entrance tell you what applies.

Our hosts name both monte mare sites, and the one on Lake Tegernsee is a different experience: a sauna complex on the shore at Hauptstraße 63 in the town of Tegernsee, about 15 kilometres or 20 minutes by car.

Its centrepiece is the sauna ship Irmingard, a 17-metre passenger boat built in 1925 that last served as a training ship for captains on the Chiemsee and has been moored in the sauna harbour since August 2008. The sauna on board runs at around 85 °C. Opening hours are usually Monday to Saturday from 10 am to 10.30 pm and Sunday until 9 pm. The operator asks guests to reserve a lounger in advance, which on a rainy day is good advice.

Markus Wasmeier is a former ski racer, a double Olympic champion from Schliersee, and this museum is his project. It opened in 2007 on the edge of the village of Neuhaus. On 60,000 square metres stand more than 22 buildings from the Bavarian uplands: real farmhouses, taken down where they stood, restored and rebuilt here, showing rural life at the start of the 18th century. Craftspeople work on site almost every day, and the inn, Zum Wofen, serves Bavarian food and its own museum beer.

Is it a rainy-day trip? Half. The houses are open inside, and sitting in an old farmhouse parlour while the rain comes down tells you more about how people lived here than a sunny afternoon would. Between the houses, though, you walk outside. Bring an umbrella and proper shoes, and make the inn the centre of the visit, not the end of it.

Plan around the season: in 2026 the museum is open from 28 March to 8 November, Tuesday to Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm, Mondays only on public holidays. In winter it is closed, except for Wasmeier’s Christmas market on two Advent weekends, in 2026 on 5 and 6 and on 12 and 13 December.

Slyrs distils Bavarian single malt whisky in Neuhaus, at Bayrischzeller Straße 13. You can watch the stillmen at the copper pot stills and smell, in the cask hall, what distillers call the angels’ share: the part that evaporates from the barrel while the whisky matures.

There are three ways to visit. On your own, with a film, a walk through the distillery and a tasting, it takes 30 to 40 minutes; entry is usually daily from 10 am to 5 pm, from €12.90 per person. A private guided tour takes about an hour and a half and costs €90 per guide plus €12.90 per person, by appointment. The general tour runs on Mondays at 2 pm, €19.90 including a basic tasting, booking required. If you would like a tour in English, ask when you book.

Getting there without a car is easy: the RB55 train goes one stop from Schliersee to Fischhausen-Neuhaus, and from there it is about a kilometre downhill, roughly 15 minutes on foot. The museum is in the same village, and a combined ticket for both is available from Slyrs.

If you would rather taste it in the evening: Slyrs is one of our suppliers and is on the shelf in the Xaver Bar, alongside spirits from Hoermann in Schliersee and Lantenhammer in neighbouring Hausham.

“The best cake for miles around” is how Ute and Markus Leitner describe the Winklstüberl, and they say it without hedging. The café is in Elbach, part of Fischbachau, at Leitzachtalstraße 68, just under 12 kilometres or 15 minutes by car. The same family has owned it since 1950. Cakes and tortes come from its own pastry kitchen, and the house displays a collection of more than 700 coffee grinders. The local tourist office lists no closing day; it usually opens from 8 am.

Bad Tölz is about 31 kilometres west, 35 to 40 minutes by car, and our hosts recommend driving: by train you would have to change at Holzkirchen. Head for the Marktstraße, which climbs from the bridge over the river Isar and is largely pedestrianised, lined with burghers’ houses and painted façades. It got its present look between 1900 and 1910 from the architect Gabriel von Seidl, whose brother Emanuel designed the Bauerntheater next to our house in 1892. In the rain it is a street of shops and cafés; save the Kalvarienberg hill above the town for a dry day.

The train from Schliersee runs to Munich Hauptbahnhof, the main station, without a change in about 50 minutes, hourly and at some times of day every half hour. The trains are run by the BRB, though many locals still call them by their old name, BOB. From the main station any S-Bahn (the suburban rail line) takes you two stops to Marienplatz, and from there it is a few minutes’ walk to the Viktualienmarkt, Munich’s open-air food market.

Check the day before you go: the Viktualienmarkt is closed on Sundays. From Monday to Saturday it is open from 8 am to 8 pm, though individual stalls set their own hours. On the way back, note that the train splits at Holzkirchen. In Munich, board the section signed for Bayrischzell.

The Terofal has no shared spa or pool; for that, monte mare is eight minutes away. What we have instead: six of our rooms have their own Finnish sauna inside the room. You set the temperature and the time yourself, hot or as mild as a gentle herbal sauna. No opening hours, no loungers to reserve, no walk through the rain. Each of these rooms has a balcony or, under the roof, a loggia, and a direct view over the lake.

Downstairs are the Stuben of the Xaver restaurant: traditional Bavarian dining rooms, the Alte Stube, the Jägerstube, the Kaminstube and the Theaterstüberl. During the day the Kaminstube is open to hotel guests when no event is booked: armchairs by the fire, games and books, and in the afternoon tea and small snacks, free for hotel guests. From Friday to Sunday and on public holidays we open at 11.30 am, Tuesday to Thursday at 5 pm, the kitchen cooks until 9 pm, and we are closed on Mondays. So on a wet weekday you will need to go out for lunch, but not for dinner.

And on Tuesdays during the season the Schlierseer Bauerntheater next door plays at 8 pm. Founded in 1892, it was the first peasant theatre in Bavaria: folk comedies, performed in Bavarian. Even if you follow only half of it, the room and the audience are worth the evening. We hold twelve tickets per performance for our guests.