Question about transportation to Zugspitze

You have three possible approaches.

1.Cog Wheel train from Garmisch Partenkirchen. Starts next to the main train station.
2. Bus to Lake Eibsee and then up the tram from there (Seibahn Zugspitze)
3. Drive to Ehrwald, Austria and take the tram from there (Zugspizbahn)

Carol,
Thanks for the information. The bus will probably be our best option.
Vanessa

how do we get to the tram station to go up to Zugspitze

Tram station? [Edit: I guess you mean a cable car, Seilbahn, station.]

There is the Zugspitzbahn train that starts next to the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Bahnhof. It goes part of the way on the rack to the back side of Zugspitze. From there you can go by lift (gondola?) to the summit, or you can get off the train at Eibsee and take the cable car to the German side of the summit.

From Füssen, you can get to the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Bahnhof by bus (1 or 2 changes) via Echelsbacherbrücke and Oberammergau, or you can take a bus to Reutte and then a train to Erwald, Austria and take an Austrian cable car to the Austria side of Zugspitze summit.

I’ve been to the area 3 times in the past and it’s always been too
cloudy to go up.

This might be a situation where a rental car would be imperative. Looking at the schedules for public transportation, it looks like the earliest you could get to either Talstation (cable car base station) either by bus and train via Reutte and Ehrwald to the Tiroler (Austrian) Zugspitzebahn Talstation or direct bus to Garmish-Partenkirchen Bahnhof and train to Eibsee is 11:45. Even in the summer, the Zugspitze often clouds up in the afternoon, so getting there that late might doom your plans. Even with a rental car, it would take about an hour on good roads to get to one of the stations. And, depending on exact dates, the cable cars could be closed for pre-season maintenance or packed with skiers.