Hiking on the Maxi­mi­li­ans­weg and the SalzAlpenSteig

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…becau­se the good is so clo­se. True words. You don’t have to tra­vel far away by pla­ne or crui­se ship if you want to expe­ri­ence some­thing on vaca­ti­on. Less than an hou­r’s dri­ve south of Munich, Lake Tegern­see is a pic­tu­re-book idyll in Upper Bava­ria. This is whe­re the tra­vel pro­fes­sio­nals from Feu­er und Eis Tou­ris­tik live and work. And offer lots of exci­ting hiking tours from and around their Tegern­see.

The Feu­er und Eis tra­vel agen­cy is loca­ted whe­re others go on vaca­ti­on — on the sou­thern shore of Lake Tegern­see. If you look south from the modern, two-storey office buil­ding in Rot­tach-Egern, you can direct­ly see the Wall­berg with its famous litt­le church. The Sarei­ters live and work here on Lake Tegern­see. In 1933, Sebald Sarei­ter chauf­feu­red vaca­tio­ners from Lake Tegern­see to Venice. Today, his grand­son Wolf­gang and his team take more than 10,000 hikers over all the moun­ta­ins every sum­mer. This makes Feu­er und Eis Tou­ris­tik the mar­ket lea­der when it comes to Alpi­ne crossings for hikers. So if you live on Lake Tegern­see, you auto­ma­ti­cal­ly look south. Just like the Sarei­ters. So it’s a per­fect oppor­tu­ni­ty to start a crossing of the Alps right on your door­step. Which is what the tra­vel pros from Tegern­see did: In 2018, they inven­ted their own crossing of the Alps from Tegern­see to Kitz­bü­hel, into the Dolo­mi­tes and on to Venice. Its name: On the pul­se of the Alps. Every sum­mer, many hikers fol­low this clas­sic rou­te from Tegern­see to the south. Lake Tegern­see is not only a gre­at start­ing point for crossing the Alps, but also a base for star-shaped day tours. Vaca­tio­ning whe­re others work. 

At the pul­se of the Alps: from Tegern­see to Kitz­bü­hel. And straight on to the Three Peaks

The best way to feel the pul­se of the Alps is to go hiking. Howe­ver, Am Puls der Alpen is not just one crossing of the Alps, but three in a row: in the first week you hike from Tegern­see to Kitz­bü­hel, then from Kitz to the Three Peaks. And in week three, we tra­vel from the Dolo­mi­tes to the lagoon city of Venice. Com­mon to all parts of the tri­lo­gy: per­fect orga­niza­ti­on and all-round care­free packa­ges inclu­ding lug­ga­ge trans­fer from hotel to hotel and a com­for­ta­ble return jour­ney. But let’s get back to the start: Most of the cyclists who cross the Alps natu­ral­ly start on the shores of Lake Tegern­see, only to stroll through the chic pede­stri­an zone of Kitz­bü­hel a week later. In bet­ween, many scenic and cul­tu­ral high­lights await, such as Kuf­stein, the pearl on the Inn, the Berg­dok­tor­haus on the Wil­der Kai­ser and the famous Streif high abo­ve the cha­mois town of Kitz­bü­hel. The six stages bet­ween Tegern­see and Kitz­bü­hel offer hikers bet­ween 11 and 23 kilo­me­ters a day. And in Kitz­bü­hel at the very latest, you can feel it very cle­ar­ly, the pul­se of the Alps. So what could be more obvious than tack­ling the second stage from Kitz­bü­hel to the Three Peaks next summer?

The Feu­er und Eis tra­vel agen­cy is loca­ted whe­re others go on vaca­ti­on — on the sou­thern shore of Lake Tegern­see. If you look south from the modern, two-storey office buil­ding in Rot­tach-Egern, you can direct­ly see the Wall­berg with its famous litt­le church. The Sarei­ters live and work here on Lake Tegern­see. In 1933, Sebald Sarei­ter chauf­feu­red vaca­tio­ners from Lake Tegern­see to Venice. Today, his grand­son Wolf­gang and his team take more than 10,000 hikers over all the moun­ta­ins every sum­mer. This makes Feu­er und Eis Tou­ris­tik the mar­ket lea­der when it comes to Alpi­ne crossings for hikers. So if you live on Lake Tegern­see, you auto­ma­ti­cal­ly look south. Just like the Sarei­ters. So it’s a per­fect oppor­tu­ni­ty to start a crossing of the Alps right on your door­step. Which is what the tra­vel pros from Tegern­see did: In 2018, they inven­ted their own crossing of the Alps from Tegern­see to Kitz­bü­hel, into the Dolo­mi­tes and on to Venice. Its name: On the pul­se of the Alps. Every sum­mer, many hikers fol­low this clas­sic rou­te from Tegern­see to the south. Lake Tegern­see is not only a gre­at start­ing point for crossing the Alps, but also a base for star-shaped day tours. Vaca­tio­ning whe­re others work. 

Very char­ming: the luxu­ry opti­on from Tegern­see to Ster­zing

Over 40,000 suc­cessful Alpi­ne crossers are cer­tain: this is the most beau­tiful long-distance hike in the Nor­t­hern Alps. So many Feu­er und Eis cus­to­mers have alre­a­dy hik­ed the rou­te from Tegern­see via Achen­see, Fügen, Mayr­ho­fen, Schle­geis and Pfit­scher­joch to Ster­zing in South Tyrol sin­ce 2015. This makes the seven-stage tour the most popu­lar. And the most fle­xi­ble one at that. Whe­ther with or wit­hout lug­ga­ge trans­fer, indi­vi­du­al­ly or as a group tour or as a charm vari­ant — at Tegern­see-Ster­zing, every hiker gets exact­ly what they need. Spea­king of the charm ver­si­on: in the luxu­ry ver­si­on of the best­sel­ler, you stay over­night in four-star and four-star supe­ri­or hotels after your (hiking) work is done, inclu­ding dai­ly lug­ga­ge trans­port from hotel to hotel. In addi­ti­on, all trans­fers such as the Achen­see cable car, Spiel­joch cable car ride, trans­fer to the Schle­geis reser­voir and the com­for­ta­ble return trans­fer from Ster­zing to Tegern­see are included in the pri­ce. Extra tre­at for con­nois­seurs: addi­tio­nal nights befo­re the start of the tour at Lake Tegern­see or after the end of the tour in Ster­zing can be boo­ked fle­xi­bly. Feu­er und Eis the­r­e­fo­re takes care of a hiking expe­ri­ence of the hig­hest qua­li­ty. You only have to hike yours­elf. In other words, a real Tegern­see charm offensive

From Tegern­see in all direc­tions: the white-blue star hike

If you like hiking but don’t want to check into a dif­fe­rent hotel every evening, a hike with a fixed loca­ti­on is just the thing for you. In this case, the star hike around Lake Tegern­see. Start­ing from the three-star Hotel Bel­le­vue direct­ly on the lake­si­de pro­me­na­de in Bad Wies­see, the­re are six day tours, all of which end back at the hotel. You know what you have. On the second day after arri­val, a short seven-kilo­met­re walk awaits — from Gmund via the Tegern­seer Höhen­weg to Tegern­see. Day two is more deman­ding: after the mor­ning trans­fer to the Sut­ten area, you climb the Riss­erko­gel. The next day, we head via the Auer­alm to the Focken­stein, one of the most beau­tiful vie­w­ing peaks on Lake Tegern­see. After the lei­su­re­ly hike from Schlier­see to Tegern­see on the fourth day of the tour, the Rie­der­stein with its famous cha­pel clinging to the ver­ti­cal rock face beck­ons on day five. On the last day of the tour, you final­ly hike via Spit­zing­see, Ross­kopf and Sut­ten befo­re arri­ving at the cozy Hotel Bel­le­vue for the last time — and cele­bra­ting the suc­cessful Tegern­see star tour with a glass of fine wine. Why not add ano­ther night? 

Five lakes in one go, or: the gre­at lake addic­tion in the heart of Upper Bava­ria

Lined up like a string of crys­tal-clear pearls in the midd­le of the moun­ta­ins of Upper Bava­ria: Tegern­see, Schlier­see, Spit­zing­see, Achen­see and Syl­ven­stein­see. With the excep­ti­on of the lat­ter, they are all rem­nants of the last gre­at gla­cial melt. The next ice age is pro­ba­b­ly yet to come. What remains are the lakes, which are gre­at for wal­king around. The best thing to do is to com­bi­ne all the lakes into a magni­fi­cent long-distance hike. It starts, of cour­se, at Feu­er und Eis’s home lake, Lake Tegern­see. A vari­ant of the Prin­zen­weg takes you over to Schlier­see with its Was­mei­er Muse­um. On the second day of the tour, the small but extre­me­ly pho­to­ge­nic Spit­zing­see awaits. On day three, you reach Lake Tegern­see again via Sut­ten­stein and Stümpf­ling. Now you turn south — and dis­co­ver Lake Achen­see, the Tyro­lean fjord. On the fifth day of the tour, you dive deep into the Kar­wen­del Alpi­ne Park and dis­co­ver the magni­fi­cent Syl­ven­stein­see lake. The next day along the Isar to Leng­gries. On the seventh and last day of the tour, you final­ly reach the start­ing point of Tegern­see again (with bus assis­tance). After a week, this lake-see­king hiking tour ends here.