Nice suburban towns to home base throughout Germany

Yes -- a couple of years ago my wife and I home-based at Dießen am Ammersee, a lakeside village southwest of Munich, and I've been back twice since. Dießen is a popular destination for German weekenders, but it's not on the international tourist grid at all. It is known for its sailing schools and a popular annual pottery market.

Take S8 southwest from Munich to the end of the line at Herrsching. Then walk a couple hundred meters to the lakefront and take one of the stately paddlewheel ships across the lake to Dießen. Walk through town up to the ornate baroque-rococo Marienmünster Abbey (1729).

Herrsching itself is a nice town, and more easily accessible by S-Bahn. There are several nice hotels and restaurants in both Herrsching and Dießen.

From Herrsching you can take a taxi or local bus, or walk three miles up a forested trail, to Kloster Andechs, where Benedictine monks have been brewing great beer since the 15th Century.

Photos here.

Jeff, thanks for your post. This is exactly the kind of travel experience that interests me, a beautiful area with nice things to see, but not part of the "bucket list" and where most tourists are from the local region or country.

Rob, we spent a week in Schliersee. It is a small town on a lake, south of Munich. We had a car to do day trips. The two days we went to Munich we took the train. I can give you more information at a meeting. Will you be there Saturday?

Schliersee is on the Bayerische Oberlandbahn (BOB), a rail network south of Munich that extends in three branches from Holzkirchen to Bad Tölz, Tegernsee, and Bayrischzell, so it's possible to go all over that area by train.

From Schliersee, an interesting trip would be to go by train to Bayrischzell and then take the bus (Wendelstein Ringlinie) over the mountains, through Tatzlwurm, to Brannenburg, on the Inn. Just before Brannenburg, the bus stops at the Talstation (valley station) of the Wendelstein Zahnradbahn (cog railroad). Take the cog train to the top of the Wendelstein, then come down the other side on the cable car. The cable car station is just a few hundred feet from the Osterhofen station and the train back to Schliersee.

Dießen is a sweet place and a good pick, Jeff.

Iphofen is an old-world wine town with lots of art galeries on the train line between Würzburg (25 minutes away) and Nuremberg (50 minutes.) Bad Windsheim (home of the excellent Freilandmuseum) is also just 50 minutes from Iphofen.

IPHOFEN PHOTOS
IPHOFEN BROCHURE

FREILANDMUSEUM

"Has anyone tried this approach"

Thirty years ago, on a business trip to Germany, the company put me up in a small hotel in a quiet suburban town in the outskirts of Munich, about 20 minutes from Marienplatz. I liked it so much I returned there five times for 14 nights. Unfortunately, three years ago it was sold and turned into apartments. So I can't recommend that hotel, but your idea is good.

How many minutes away do you want to be? Schliersee and Dießen are both about an hour away. Another place, about the same distance away, would be Landsberg am Lech. It's a nice, quiet town on the river Lech. I stayed here once, at Augsburger Hof. It was nice enough and the price was good.

Another place is Freising, which is close to the Munich airport. It's about 45 minutes from downtown by the S-Bahn, but several regonal trains go through each hour and only take half an hour. Because of it's proximity to the airport, there are a lot of places to stay. Here is the list. Freising is the home of Weihenstephan, the oldest brewery in the world. Take a bus up from town and relax in the shade in their Biergarten, enjoying a brew.

Excellent ideas everyone thank you. I figure about an hour away from a main city works in this scenario.

I really enjoyed Dachau (the town, not the KZ). It seems like a nice suburban place to stay and just a short S-Bahn ride from Munich!

Bad Homburg is very nice, but I wouldn't describe it as a "small to medium sized town". More like a small city. I don't think you'd find a hotel here any more quiet or relaxing than one located in one of Frankfurt's pleasant residential neighborhoods.

Near Munich, I would recommend Erding, but if you're going to stay here, you may as well lodge in Therme Erding's Hotel Victory. The location is not very convenient to either the center of town nor the main Sbahn station, but there's another one (Alt Erding, I think) located about a 10 minute walk away.

I have lived for 32 years in the usa but I am native German. If you like to stay at a nice town near Frankfurt try Fulda. Its the most beautiful town with the oldest church in Germany and has surroundings mountains We visit my home town often but stay on the outskirts of town renting a small apartment on a farm. I am enclosing links ..have fun! https://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g187338-Fulda_Hesse-Vacations.html and here is a link to the farm http://www.rhoener-bauernhofcafe.de/

We liked Hotel "Zur Post", Hauptstr. 7, 85737 Ismaning , near Munich, pleasantly modern rooms,a good breakfast . It's in a small town but convenient and has an underground parking garage. Would stay there again, even if only going to Munich for a day. Very cute at Christmas.