Tegernsee or Achensee from Munich as day trip? No car though

Tegernsee is served by the BOB train from Munich and is a lovely town. If I had a long day and no car, I would pack a lunch/snack, head to Tegernsee wander through the town, catch the bus to the Wallberg Cable car and take that to the top of the mountain, and either hike back down or hike around and take the cable car back down, snacking on what you brought or stopping at one of the gasthouses along the way.. Head back into town and soak away the hike at the Monte Mare Spa (If you are not shy or bothered by mixed nudity) then finish up with an excellent meal and some beer at Braustuberl Tegernsee, taking a late train back into Munich.

Achensee I do not have any experience with.

Tegernsee hands down. Much more accessible via BOB train than Achensee. Just do a search for Tegernsee on this forum to find suggestions on what to do there.

DJ

Thank you, will look into the travel options. Is Tegernsee as beautiful as Achensee?

Thank you, will look into the travel options. Is Tegernsee as beautiful as Achensee?

The Tegernsee is a bit smaller but in beauty it competes with the Achensee easily.
Have a look into the church of the former abbey (one of the historical most important ones in Bavaria, whose possessions stretched as far as to lake Garda in northen Italy), do a boat trip on the lake or hike in the mountains. For lunch I'd recommend the above mentioned Bräustüberl in the abbey. Besides the tour to the Wallberg mentioned above there are two other easy tours which offer amazing views on the lake and the Tyrol mountains: 1. Neureuth, the tour starts right from the Tegernsee station (get a map in the snack bar of the station), 2. Hirschberg, the tour starts in Point near Kreuth (accessible by bus). Both have summit huts that offer simple meals. Or take a bus to the Suttenbahn that brings you up to the Stümpfling mountain. From there you hike town (or take the cable car) to lake Spitzingsee where you can catch a bus / train connection back to Munich via lake Schliersse.

Tegernsee is lovely. Be warned that the trains between Munich and Tegernsee can get quite crowded on sunny weekends, as the Munich citizens know how pleasant and convenient to get to it is as well.

Also, to avoid confusion, "Tegernsee" is the name of both the lake as a whole and one of the individual towns on it.

Ammersee is an easy day-trip from Munich. Take S8 southwestbound to the end of the line at Herrsching, walk a couple hundred meters to the lakefront. Take a paddle-wheel ship across Ammersee to Dießen, and/or walk 5 km up a forested trail to Andechs Monastery.

Ammersee is an easy day-trip from Munich. Take S8 southwestbound to the end of the line at Herrsching, walk a couple hundred meters to the lakefront. Take a paddle-wheel ship across Ammersee to Dießen, and/or walk 5 km up a forested trail to Andechs Monastery.

You could do that as a round trip as well. First take the train to Dießen (direction Buchloe, transfer at Geltendorf), visit the baroque Marienmünster, take the boat across the Ammersee to Herrsching and hike up to the Andechs monastery (or take the bus, buses to the abbey and back to Herrsching are infrequent - check the timetables). You could even fit in Landsberg am Lech in the late afternoon: same train from Munich, in Kaufering (one station past Geltendorf) transfer to the Landsberg shuttle.

Thank you all so much for the detailed responses. As of now, probably we will go to Tegernsee, take the boat, have lunch at Bräustüberl and then take the cable up to Wallberg and hike down (my kids would not probably want to hike up, but if they do, we will be glad to do the reverse). Much appreciated.