Summer is holiday season — and it does not always have to be the beach or the city break. More than ever, wellness holidays are in demand: simply out of everyday life and stress, away from the job, obligations and to-do lists. At Lake Starnberg this time out can be combined particularly beautifully with nature and culture.
On a wellness holiday you gather strength, let go and bring body and mind back into harmony. The houses in Upper Bavaria in particular rely on special massages and facial treatments, on a healthy, balanced cuisine and on a well-considered programme of activities in the fresh air. At Lake Starnberg recreation, nature and history can be combined into a family holiday.
Arriving on the eastern shore
The lakeside hotels on the eastern shore often lie directly on the water — and the holiday really does begin with the journey, with the first view of the lake. From many a sun terrace you could almost jump in; over breakfast with a view of the water and the western shore the day starts relaxed by itself. In summer you watch surfers, sailors and swimmers, and whoever rises early sees the fishermen at their day's work. The surroundings invite you to extended cycling tours along the shore or up into the Oberland.
For the inexperienced it is worth checking the route beforehand and watching out for climbs: right by the lake it is mostly flat, but ride inland and it can well turn into a rollercoaster. Whoever arrives by car likes to make excursions to the beautiful old town of Bad Tölz, to visit the Wieskirche (worth a whole day) or to follow in the footsteps of King Ludwig II.
Near the shore at Berg a plain cross rises out of the water, marking the place where King Ludwig II was found dead on 13 June 1886 — the circumstances remain unexplained to this day. With one of the steamers you can make large and small circuits of the lake; at the landing stages it is worth getting off to explore the lakeside communities. Tutzing awaits you with a palace and an old cemetery, Bernried with the Buchheim Museum. And in Possenhofen and Feldafing you come closer to Empress Elisabeth: the Habsburg empress romanticised as “Sisi” spent her childhood at Possenhofen Castle on the lake, which a museum of its own recalls today.