Chiemgau
Alpine foothills, just before the border.
The Chiemgau is the stretch of Bavaria between Munich and Salzburg that most people cross on the motorway without stopping. A mistake.
South of the Chiemsee the mountains rise — the Kampenwand, the Hochgern, the Hochplatte — not high enough to intimidate, but high enough that you reach another world up top. In between, alpine pastures where cheese is still made in summer, villages with onion-domed churches and farmhouses that have stood for centuries.
The lake is large and calm, the Fraueninsel an hour and a century away from Munich. Whoever comes here isn't after spectacle. They want a place that works: mountains in the morning, water in the afternoon, an inn in the evening.
The Chiemgau is the landscape Bavaria promises and rarely delivers this quietly.
The Chiemgau is our answer to the question of a weekend out of Munich that doesn't lead to Garmisch. The Agrªd Chalets in Aschau are the house for it: wood, stone, quiet, with the Kampenwand right outside the door. No spa programme, no activity schedule. You go out, and then you come back. Come midweek if you can. On Saturdays the Chiemgau belongs to Munich.
