Bavarian market town at the Inn-Mangfall confluence, known for arcaded streets and a local autumn beer festival
Rosenheim is a Bavarian market town at the confluence of the Inn and Mangfall rivers, about an hour southeast of Munich on the road toward Austria. It is a pleasant, unpretentious place with a handsome old town centre — colourful facades, arcaded streets, and a pedestrian zone around the Max-Josefs-Platz.
The town is popular with German visitors for its traditional Bavarian character without the tourist crush of the bigger Alpine towns. The Herbstfest, Rosenheim's autumn beer festival, is one of the largest in Bavaria after Munich's Oktoberfest and has a more local feel. The Inn-Museum, housed in a medieval toll house on the river, tells the story of salt transport along the Inn — a trade that made the town wealthy.
The Chiemsee, Bavaria's largest lake, is about 20 minutes east by train, and the mountains around Kufstein and the Inntal are close enough for day trips. Rosenheim works well as a base for exploring the Bavarian Alps without the higher prices of resort towns like Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
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Day Trips
Rosenheim sits at the intersection of several good day trip routes. The Chiemsee — Bavaria's largest lake, known as the "Bavarian Sea" — is 20 minutes east by train; boats cross from Prien am Chiemsee to Herreninsel, where King Ludwig II's unfinished copy of Versailles stands amid formal gardens. The castle interiors are extraordinary, and the lake itself is beautiful.
To the south, Kufstein across the Austrian border is 30 minutes by train: a small town with a formidable medieval fortress above the Inn gorge, worth an afternoon. The Inn Valley narrows dramatically south of Rosenheim, with steep forested hills on both sides.
Bad Reichenhall is 45 minutes east, with its own spa and saline baths and the Rupertus Therme; the town is quieter than Bad Gastein and less spectacular but comfortable and cheap. The Berchtesgaden valley — with the Königssee lake and the Eagle's Nest — is reachable from there by local bus.
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Getting There
Rosenheim is well connected by rail. Regular trains run from Munich Hauptbahnhof, taking around 40–50 minutes; the journey is fast, cheap, and requires no reservation. The station is at the edge of the old town and easy to walk from.
By car, Rosenheim is just off the A8 motorway between Munich and Salzburg — about an hour from Munich and 45 minutes from Salzburg. Parking in the centre is available in several multi-storey car parks near the pedestrian zone.
From Rosenheim, local trains run south into the Alps toward Kufstein (Austria) and east to the Chiemsee stations, making day trips in both directions easy.
