Farm holidays are very popular – especially in times of Corona, when many do not want to travel abroad or stay in hotels. We present ten farms in Bavaria for authentic holiday experiences – from the rustic farm to the luxurious chalet.
Vacation in the apartment? Until recently, convinced hotel guests would have thankfully refused. Prepare breakfast yourself? Isn't your thing, final cleaning is only something for Swabian housewives. Where, please, should relaxed wellness take place in an apartment? And wasn't the hotel bar the best place to make new friends at the nightcap?
Preferences change in pandemic times. Now there is a need for accommodations in which one is not constantly reminded of distance rules and hygiene regulations. Especially landlords in Bavaria and especially on the edge of the Alps report hot telephones. Your tenor: We could rent our apartments five times this summer if we had more space. The winners are mainly those who offer chic chalets, exceptional hostels and luxurious farm holidays. We show Where the isolation de luxe is the most fun and where the real jewelry boxes are hidden.
Alpin Chalets Oberjoch: Chalet vacation in Germany's highest holiday resort
In Oberjoch, the highest town in Germany at 1,200 meters, 13 chalets form a small hut village, which is attached to the Panoramahotel Oberjoch. Low, protruding roofs and materials such as stone, old wood and leather create a homely atmosphere.
The suitcases enter the bedroom as if by magic, and an Allgäu snack board is ready in the living area immediately upon arrival. Upon request, the "Ghost Service" lets the water in the tub or the hot water heater on the terrace and stokes the fire in the open fireplace. An eventful outdoor day ends relaxed with a cozy atmosphere in the chalet.
If you want, you can also enjoy the wellness treatments of the panorama hotel in a private atmosphere. Culinary, all doors are open to guests: five-course dinner in the "Panorama Restaurant", front cooking in the "Twelve Hundred NN" or "room service" in your own chalet.
Moierhof: luxury farm on Lake Chiemsee
If you check in at the Moierhof on Chiemsee, you can look forward to stylish living with rustic charm. Matthias and Susanne Untermayer have converted and expanded the family farm with a strong sense of sustainability into a certified holiday farm with active agriculture. From a three-star holiday room to a brand new luxurious five-star holiday apartment with its own sauna, the accommodations radiate a lot of warmth with their combination of wood and masonry.
The apartments are furnished with individual pieces from locally based carpenters. Waste wood from the 19th century was partly used for this. Despite the comfort and luxury at the hotel level, the charm of the down-to-earth farm is retained. Children can experience the active dairy farm up close and spend the night in the animal house on the hayloft with rabbits, goats and ponies, grill and play in the spacious garden. A natural path leads from the farm to Lake Chiemsee, which is only 800 meters away.
Link'n Alm: digital detox and the charm of yesteryear in the Bavarian Forest
Well, the "n" with the dork apostrophe is forgiven. Otherwise there is only good news to report from the Link'n Alm in Riedelsbach in the Bavarian Forest: 1000 meters above sea level, no noise, endless space, pristine nature. There is four-star comfort in the mountain pasture built in 1816 on the southern slope of the Dreisessel, but no entertainment program, no fast internet access, no restaurant, no supermarket in the immediate vicinity.
The self-catering house with space for a maximum of ten people has a living room, a kitchen, two bedrooms, shower and two toilets as well as another six beds and a four-poster room under the roof. Lovingly restored furniture from yesteryear make up the charm of the simple yet elegantly furnished house. This gem as well as three other log cabins and the new mountain chalet belong to the Mössthaler family adventure courtyard just a few minutes away.
Allgäu tree house hotel: Spend the night between cows and beeches
Norbert Bechteler has a wife, three sons, 80 cows – and six tree houses. Four of them hang on thumb-thick steel cables in the middle of mighty beech trees. Two stand, like oversized Easter eggs, on steel poles in the middle of the meadow. The Bechtelers call “country eggs” the latest attraction near their five-star holiday farm in Betzigau in the Allgäu region.
The secluded location is the best prerequisite for a deeply relaxed holiday for two or with the family in the middle of nature – but with all the luxury and loving breakfast service. It feels strange at first, but then you quickly get used to the pleasantly gentle rocking.
On two floors, the tree houses offer up to four guests a lot of comfort away from the hectic everyday life. The two outside shingled eggs called "maple" and "oak" are three-story: From the terrace you enter the living and dining room. You climb up steep wooden stairs into the cozy bedrooms. And from the double bed of the luxury dome you can even count the stars at night over the Kemptner forest.
Berghof Walser: hiking and relaxing in the Pfaffenwinkel in Upper Bavaria
In the middle of the idyll of the Upper Bavarian Alpine Foreland, the Berghof Walser in Pfaffenwinkel is waiting for those looking for relaxation and active holidaymakers. The hillside location rewards the guests with an unobstructed mountain view and makes them want to go hiking and cycling.
Cozy natures can be instructed by the hosts in the art of cheese making their own mozzarella from fresh cow's milk and herbs. The Pfaffenwinkel also has a lot to offer culturally: the Benediktbeuren monastery, the Wies church and the Bavarian royal palaces are ideal destinations for a day trip.
Simmernhof in Mossendorf: collecting mussels at the Naab
All men on board, leash off and just don't capsize! The wooden boat glides gently into the calmly flowing Upper Palatinate Naab. Such excursions on the water for the whole family are the highlights of a vacation at the Simmernhof. You can opt for a picnic trip on one of the islands in the river, or go for a seashell search at the Naab bathing spots in the shallow water and let yourself float in the water.
If you don't like the wet element, you can cycle to the medieval old town of Regensburg, or cast your rod along the twelve-kilometer fish-water route around Burglengenfeld. The Weiherer host family sends newcomers among the Petri disciples to the “Wallerstube” section of the river, where allegedly a particularly large number of catfish, pike and carp frolic.
Wildberghof: Relax on a former castle in the Steigerwald
The best cul-de-sac in the Franconian Steigerwald is a narrow dirt road – too narrow to overtake, too beautiful to want to leave: it leads to the Wildberghof, built on the foundations of a castle from 1393. The farm sits enthroned on a wooded hill in the Close to the village of Ulsenheim between Würzburg and Ansbach and is a perfect place to slow down.
You can watch the hares hopping through the former castle courtyard. Watch owls and songbirds nesting at the fountain. Try in-house Franconian wines. The Wildberghof operates near-natural viticulture, which produces very special wines. Each vine gets almost twice as much space as on ordinary vineyards. That means less yield for the winegrower family, but more light for the grapes and therefore better quality. Müller-Thurgau and Silvaner enjoy their guests best under the large linden tree in the castle courtyard, in the whirlpool on the terraces of the modern holiday homes
Frongahof: Herbal vacation in the Bavarian Forest
Fine forest and meadow herbs grow there along the way. If you take a closer look, even supposed weeds turn out to be tasty and healthy. Host and herbalist Birgit Eckerl from Frongahof in Waldkirchen in the Bavarian Forest knows all of them and goes on a herb excursion with her guests. The treasures of nature are then prepared together: ribwort, greed and garlic rock spreads are used to make spreads and wild herb vinegar.
The guests also make fragrant rose jams, herbal soaps, oils and nurturing marigold ointments. The host is also an expert for real plant substance printing and lets her holiday makers decorate herbal sachets with traditional technology. The Eckerl family is deeply rooted in the region and has been managing the farm in a biologically sustainable manner for a long time.
Thomahof: Time out in a small Chiemgau village
Guests of the Thomahof in the Rupertiwinkel experience how it is on a real farm. The busy farmer Evi Reiter turns almost everything that occurs in nature into delicacies. People sniff, feel, examine, look, marvel and of course try. You can help with the herb harvest or get to know the wild plants around the farm on a hike.
The many delicacies that Evi makes from herbs and fruits can be tasted at breakfast or brought back to loved ones at home from the farm shop: herb cheese, wild herb spreads, herb salt, vinegars, wild herb liqueurs, and, and, and …
Hierlhof: Allgäu idyll with lake view
Waking up in the morning from the birds, hearing the clattering of the pots in the kitchen, the rustling of the nearby stream, the mooing of the cows … This is how a holiday at the Hierlhof on the Alpsee near Immenstadt in the Allgäu goes. Doing simple things, holding an ax, a hammer, a saw or a scythe, putting horses in front of a car, harvesting apples, cooking jam – all this brings back the serenity that is increasingly lost in the hustle and bustle of the big city.
But you don't have to do without comfort at the Hierlhof. It started with simple “guest rooms” with shared showers in the 1950s, when the first rooms were rented out in the private home of the hosts. Tempi passati. Since 2015, ten cozy rooms, five spacious apartments and a luxurious chalet have been waiting on the courtyard for vacationers who want to recover from the Corona crisis.
All accommodations can be booked via the portal www.bauernhof-urlaub.com, the "Alpin Chalets" via www.allgaeu-top-hotels.de.