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Hopping the border from Germany to Austria

Posted by (West Allis, WI) on

Hi! My friends and I are traveling to Germany at the end of next week! We're just getting the details finished and one of them is hopping the border for the day from Germany to Austria. We're visiting Mt. Zugspitze and we thought it would be fun to go to the Austrian side because they have a cable car instead of a train. We rented a car and will have to drive to that.

I saw a previous post saying that border hopping is just like state hopping in the US, but it was written in 2008 and things could have easily changed in almost 10 years since. Any information would be fantastic. Thanks

Posted by
5513 posts

It is still like crossing a state border in the US. There will be a sign. On the major highway between Salzburg and Munich there has been tighter border controls recently and sporadically, but not in the area you are visiting. Regardless, it is advisable when crossing borders to have your passport on you.

Posted by
21226 posts

But only if you are using a motorway, which should be a non-issue around the Zugspitze. If you wander down toward Innsbruck, there are motorways that require a vignette.

Posted by
19287 posts

There are cable cars to the top of the Zugspitze from both the Austrian side (Ehrwald) and the German side (Eibsee). There is also a cog train from the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Bahnhof on the German side; it stops at the Eibsee Talstation (valley station).

Posted by
21226 posts

The Eibsee cable car is shut down for a major rebuild until December.

Posted by
526 posts

Hi all; we're ending four coach tour in Munich and plan on driving to Mt. Zugspitze & back same day. How much time does it take the cable car to go up? We'd stay long enough to take photos and come back down; drive to Fussen then back to Munich. Is this doable?
Thanks,
Jean

Posted by
21226 posts

10 minutes on a 16 or 17 minute interval. The cabin capacity is 100. That means when you think its full, its only half full.

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