The Zugspitze is located in the Bavarian Alps, just an hour’s drive from Munich. It is accessible year round and offers stunning panoramic views of the German, Swiss, Italian and Austrian Alps. The official height of the Zugspitze is 2962 meters above sea level.

Round trip options

There are several ways to get to the Zugspitze, each with its own unique experience. First through, head for Garmish-Partenkirchen (G-P), which is just under an hour’s drive from Munich on the A95. You can also get there by train (the Deutsche Bahn - DB).

The Zugspitzebahn train station (bahnhof) is just on the other side of the railroad tracks from the G-P main train station. When you get off a DB train, take the stairs down from the platform to the corridor that runs under the tracks and follow the signs. It is literally a 90-second walk from the train station. If going by car, there is a small parking lot at the Zugspitzebahn bahnhof.

When ascending by train, you will be dropped off at the Zugspitzplatt, 300 meters below the summit, where there is a restaurant, great views, scenic trails, and Germany’s highest church. Then get on the Glacier cable car (Gletscherbahn) that will take you the final meters to the summit. To descend, take the Eibsee cable car (Eibsee seilbahn) from the summit down to Eibsee, a beautiful lake, and then get on the cog-wheel train again, heading back to G-P.

There are other alternatives to departing from G-P. The cog-wheel train also stops in Grainau and Eibsee and you can hop on at either of those stops. Some visitors drive directly to Eibsee, park and then take the cog-wheel train up and the cable car down. Taking the cable car both directions is also an option – with spectacular views. Visitors who have claustrophobia may prefer this as the cog-wheel train runs up the mountain through a long tunnel shortly after the Eibsee station. However, visitors who are afraid of heights might want to think twice about the cable car option.

You can also get to the Zugspitze from Ehrwald, Austria, via the Tiroler Zugspitzebahn. This is, in fact, a cable-car-type system and not an actual train. The individual panorama cabins are much larger than the German Eibsee Seilbahn cable cars as they carry about 100 passengers in each cabin. The German cable cars seem to carry around 25 people in one car.

The summit

The building at the summit is much larger than I expected, my only comparison being the viewing point on Mont Blanc in France. This one comprises several levels, two cable car stations, a restaurant, a small exhibition – unfortunately only in German, the highest beer garden (biergarten) in Germany, and Germany’s highest internet connection – which, by the way, is free. There are two terminals you can use.

The terrace on the upper level has a small gift shop from where you can buy and send a postcard with an official Zugspitze cancellation stamp. It also, and importantly, has a couple of small take-away snack bars that you can order a drink or hot snack from. Then sit back under a clear blue sky and enjoy the panoramic views. There is a deposit of € 3on the glasses from the snack bars. I decided that this was the best souvenir I could bring back from the mountain: A weizen beer glass with a lovely Zugspitze logo on it!

Cost

It is relatively expensive to take the round trip by cable car and cog-wheel train from G-P to the Zugspitze. However, this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, so for me it was worth the price.

Round trip from G-P:
Adult: € 45
Youth: € 31.50
Child: € 25
Discounts are possible. Ask at the ticket sales office in G-P. Of special note for DB travelers: Present your DB train ticket and you get a discount of €4. That is almost 10%!

Be aware that riding “black” is not possible. There is an inspector on the train who checks everyone’s tickets as they board at each stop along the way on the way up.

Tiroler Zugspitzebahn
Cost per adult: € 33
Cost per young adult (16-18 years old): € 27
Cost per child (6 -15 years old): € 20
Family packages are available.

My best advice:

Pick the day of your visit carefully. There is not much to see when the mountains are covered in heavy clouds. I went early the day after it had been raining for several days and there was lots of snow shoveling and snow blowing going on when I arrived. I estimate there was about 40 cm of snow at the glacier level and almost as much at the summit. But the sun was shining brilliantly and I got a wee bit pink from sitting on the top level terrace for almost two hours. More advice: Don’t wear sandals! Even in summer, it can snow at that elevation. Bring a jacket. And don’t forget sunscreen.