Oberammergau and Ettal

Painted houses, a pointy mountain, a palace up the valley and a monastery that brews its own beer. Here’s how we did Oberammergau and Ettal with a tent and two bikes.

OBERAMMERGAU: Mention Oberammergau to most people and they’ll say one thing: the Passion Play. It only comes round once every ten years, and I went in a year when it wasn’t on. I didn’t miss it one bit.
A friend and I put our bikes on the train in Munich one sunny September weekend, pitched a tent on the edge of the village and spent the next two days riding round the valley. We cycled up to King Ludwig’s Linderhof Palace, stopped at the huge old monastery in Ettal on the way back, and ate a lot of ice cream. It’s still one of my favourite weekends in Bavaria.

ALL ABOARD: Our bikes on the regional train out of Munich. Picture: Stu Anderson

Bikes on the train

Taking your own bike is easy. Regional trains in Bavaria have space for bikes, usually in the carriages with the bike symbol on the door. From Munich you take the train towards Garmisch-Partenkirchen, get off at Murnau and change onto the little branch line that runs up the valley to Oberammergau. The whole thing takes about two hours.

The rules for bikes on German trains

• Regional trains (RB, RE and S-Bahn). Bikes are allowed, but your bike needs its own ticket. In Bavaria the Fahrradtageskarte Bayern covers one bike on every regional train in the state for a whole day and costs €7.50. Elsewhere in Germany there’s a similar bike day ticket for local trains, and the price varies a bit from region to region.
• The Deutschlandticket doesn’t cover your bike. It gets you on any regional train in the country, but you still need a bike ticket on top. The same goes for the Bayern-Ticket.
• Space isn’t guaranteed. On regional trains it’s first come, first served, and staff can turn you away if the bike area is full, which happens on sunny weekends on the lines heading for the mountains. Prams and wheelchairs get priority. Go early or late if you can.
• Fast trains (ICE, IC and EC). These need a bike ticket and a reserved bike space, booked in advance. Not every ICE takes bikes at all, so check when you book.
• In Munich itself. On the U-Bahn, bikes aren’t allowed Monday to Friday from 6am to 9am and 4pm to 6pm. On the S-Bahn the morning ban (6am to 9am on weekdays) applies if you’re using the MVV’s own bike day ticket, but not with the Fahrradtageskarte Bayern. In the Bavarian school holidays the rules are relaxed.
• Folding bikes count as luggage once they’re folded up, so they travel free.

Heads up for late 2026: the Murnau to Oberammergau line has been closed since the end of June 2026, after the long dry summer made an embankment sink. Replacement buses are running, and Deutsche Bahn is aiming to get trains going again in mid-December. Replacement buses don’t usually take bikes, so check before you set off.

Camping under the Kofel

HOME FOR THE WEEKEND: Our tent with the Kofel looming behind it. Picture: Stu Anderson

We camped at the campsite on the edge of the village, a flat green field with the river close by and the mountains all round. Above it all sticks the Kofel, Oberammergau’s own mountain, which looks like someone has jammed a giant rock fang into the hillside. You can see it from just about everywhere in the village and it ends up in every photo you take.
Waking up in the tent, unzipping the door and seeing that thing glowing in the morning sun beats any hotel breakfast. Well, almost. Bring a warm sleeping bag, though. Even in September the nights get properly cold at this height.

Cycling to Linderhof

The ride from Oberammergau to Linderhof Palace is about 12km each way, and it’s one of the nicest bike rides I’ve done anywhere. You follow the Ammer valley west on cycle paths and quiet lanes, through meadows with mountains rising on both sides. It climbs very gently on the way out, so you barely notice, and you get the pay-off on the way home.

THE ROAD TO LINDERHOF: The cycle path heading up the valley. Picture: Stu Anderson

About halfway you pass through Graswang, a tiny village with a white church and a sharp spire that looks almost too neat to be real. Not far after that you reach Linderhof, the smallest of Ludwig II’s palaces and the only one he actually lived to see finished.

HALFWAY: The church in Graswang, on the way to Linderhof. Picture: Stu Anderson

I’ve written Linderhof up properly on its own pages, so have a look at Schloss Linderhof, my Linderhof pictures and the gardens and Venus Grotto. We spent a good few hours there, had a big lunch at the restaurant by the entrance and then rolled back down the valley.

HOMEWARD BOUND: Pedalling back down the valley after Linderhof. Picture: Stu Anderson

Ettal Abbey

On the way back we took a detour to Ettal, a few kilometres from Oberammergau, and I’m very glad we did. You come round a bend and there it is: a huge white Baroque monastery with a great green dome, sitting in the middle of nowhere.

OUT OF NOWHERE: Ettal Abbey and its enormous dome. Picture: Stu Anderson

The Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian founded the abbey in 1330, to keep a vow he’d made on his way back from being crowned in Rome. The story goes that his horse knelt down three times on this spot, so that’s where he built it. He also brought a little marble statue of the Madonna with him from Italy, and pilgrims still come to see it today.
The church you see now was rebuilt in Baroque style in the 18th century, and it became a basilica in 1920. Go inside and look up. The dome is covered in one enormous painting of heaven, and it’s the kind of ceiling that makes you stop talking.

LOOK UP: The painted dome inside Ettal’s basilica. Picture: Stu Anderson

Benedictine monks still live here. They run a school, and, more importantly for some of us, they brew their own beer and make a herbal liqueur, Ettaler Klosterlikör, which comes in a sweeter yellow version and a stronger green one. You can buy both in the monastery shop, and the restaurant over the road serves the beer.
The basilica is open from 8am to 6pm and you can wander in for free, although not during services. The brewery and the liqueur distillery can only be seen on guided tours, so check the dates on the abbey’s website if you fancy one.

GOLD AND MARBLE: Inside the basilica at Ettal. Picture: Stu Anderson

BLUE SKY BAROQUE: The dome and towers of Ettal Abbey. Picture: Stu Anderson

Oberammergau’s painted houses

We kept our last day for Oberammergau itself. The village is famous for its Lüftlmalerei, the painted fronts of the houses, and once you start looking you can’t stop. Some have saints and Bible scenes, some have fake window frames and columns painted so well you have to look twice, and some have fairy tales. The name probably comes from a house called “Zum Lüftl”, home of Franz Seraph Zwinck, who painted many of the best ones in the 1700s.

WHAT BIG TEETH: Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf on the front of a house in Oberammergau. Picture: Stu Anderson

FLOWERS AND FRESCOES: Painted window frames and window boxes, Oberammergau style. Picture: Stu Anderson

THE WHOLE STORY: One of the big painted buildings in the middle of the village. Picture: Stu Anderson

The other thing Oberammergau does is woodcarving. The village has its own woodcarving school, and the main streets are lined with shops full of carved saints, nativity figures and the odd slightly scary wooden goat. Prices go from a few euros to the cost of a small car.

MAIN STREET: The middle of Oberammergau, with the Kofel keeping an eye on things. Picture: Stu Anderson

PAINTED PILLARS: Even the window frames are painted on. Picture: Stu Anderson

The Passion Play

In 1633, with the plague spreading through the area, the people of Oberammergau made a vow: if God spared them, they would perform the story of Jesus’s suffering, death and resurrection every ten years. They first put it on in 1634 and they’ve kept it up ever since, apart from a few years when war or, in 2020, Covid got in the way.
Almost everyone in the cast has to be from the village, and the men start growing their hair and beards long more than a year before. The next one is in 2030, running from 18 May to 6 October, with no shows on Mondays or Wednesdays. Single tickets are due to go on sale in autumn 2028, with hotel-and-ticket packages earlier in spring 2028.
Even in the years without a play, you can see the big Passion Play Theatre, and there are often tours of the building.

ONCE A DECADE: The Passion Play Theatre in Oberammergau. Picture: Stu Anderson

SUNDAY MORNING: The parish church tower peeping over a rose arch. Picture: Stu Anderson

Good to know

• Getting there. Train from Munich to Murnau, then the branch line to Oberammergau, about two hours in all. Remember the line is closed until mid-December 2026, with buses instead.
• Tickets. The Bayern-Ticket covers regional trains and most local buses in Bavaria for a whole day and is usually the cheapest option, especially in a group. Add a Fahrradtageskarte Bayern (€7.50) for your bike.
• No bike? You can hire bikes and e-bikes in Oberammergau.
• Ettal from Oberammergau. Ettal is just a few kilometres away, along the road towards Garmisch. It’s an easy ride or a short bus hop.
• Ettal Abbey. Basilica open 8am to 6pm, free. Monastery shop Monday to Saturday 9.30am to 5pm, and Sundays and holidays 1.30pm to 5pm.
• Linderhof. Times and prices are on my Linderhof gardens and Venus Grotto page.
• Stay over. You could do Oberammergau as a long day trip from Munich, but you’d miss the best bit. Stay a night or two, camp if you can, and get on a bike.
Checked October 2026. Times change, so check the Deutsche Bahn and Ettal Abbey websites before you go.

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