How to Visit Zugspitze Without a Tour

Zugspitze, Germany’s highest peak pronounced “Shoogspitz”, offers impressive 360° panorama views over 400 mountain peaks in four countries at almost 3000 metres. Despite being 55 miles from Munich Central, Zugspitze is incredibly easy to find without the need for a funded tour.

Zugspitze Peak, Munich, Germany

Getting to Zugspitze from Munich

At München Hauptbahnhof (Munich Central Station), you’ll need to purchase a Bayern-Ticket from either the tourist information or using the ticket machines that is valid from 9am onwards and costs 28 euros for 2 people. Locate the red train heading for Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Possibly Platform 9) and ride this until the end of the line.

There’s a funny story about how we mispronounced Zugspitze and almost ended up in Salzburg!

Once you arrive at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, follow the signs out of the station to Zugspitzebahn. Here you will purchase your desired ticket for reaching the peak, I recommend the Zugspitze tickets at 53 € which includes one mountain ascent and descent, either in the form of a roundtrip on the cogwheel train, a ride on the Glacier cable car and the Eibsee-Seilbahn cable car. You can use the Glacier cable car as often as you like on the day of your visit.

Reaching the Peak

Using your newly purchased ticket, walk onto the platform for the Cogwheel train located within the same area.

Here, you can either depart the cogwheel train at Lake Eibsee and enjoy a pedal boat for 10 euros an hour, and a bite to eat in the lake-side restaurant before making your ascent via cable car. Alternatively, you can ride the Cogwheel train all the way to Zugspitze and ride the Glacier Cable Car to and from the peak.

The Cogwheel train is slow-moving, taking approximately 30 minutes to reach Lake Eibsee from it’s staring point at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, so please allow plenty of time to enjoy the entire experience.

Once you reach the Glacier peak, expert climbers can enjoy an unsteady climb to the summit. Non-climbers are permitted, but make sure you have a rucksack and secure shoes as it can be very slippery and quite treacherous.

When we visited in September, the weather in Munich was incredibly warm for the time of year, however up on the peak it was a little chilly so be sure to wrap up warm.

We rode the Cogwheel train back to Garmisch-Partenkirchen before joining the train back to München Hauptbahnhof that run every hour.

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