Oberstaufen--good base for day trips? things to do?

Before you assume you need a car, look into other, less expensive possibilities. There are trains from Munich to Oberstaufen. You can get there using a €29 Bayern-Ticket and regional trains. When I stayed in the nearby Illertal (Fischen), I got a one week pass for all the buses and trains in the entire Oberallgäu and it included Oberstaufen, so I expect you can get it in Oberstaufen. With it you can go up to Oberstdorf and the KleinWalsertal for great hiking. For a small fee, I got an "Anschluß ticket" which added travel to Fuessen (actually to Garmisch-Partenkirchen). Not included with the Oberallgäu Pass, is Lindau and the Bodensee, but you can get there with a Bayern-Ticket. Yes, I found it (www.oberallgaeu.org:85/filer/186/2011/1/24/pnv_flyer_2009_neu.pdf). The "Urlaubskarte" includes Oberstaufen and provides unlimited use of the trains and buses (map on page 2) for €17/P for a week. It allows you to travel from Immenstadt up to Oberstdorf and up into the Kleinwalsertal (Austria).

thank you so much. This is our 1st trip to Germany--so the detailed knowledge of the train passes is appreciated. We will probably get a car, as there are 5 of us--but it is good to know that we could get by without a car, as well.

I've never been to Oberstaufen, but I can visualize exactly where it is, right at the foot of the Allgäuer Alps. 1.5 hours by car to the castles at Füssen/Schwangau seems about right. As Lee mentioned, nearby Lindau on the Bodensee is well worth the trip. I would argue, however, that if hiking is one of your goals, a car would be a very good investment. In my experience throughout Germany, many of the trail heads are often very inconvenient to reach via public transportation. Note, however, that if you drive into nearby Austria or Switzerland, you will need to purchase a vignette sticker. When you arrive in Germany, a good resource for recommended hikes is the Rother Wanderfürher series of guidebooks. Even if you don't know a word of German, the maps are pretty self-explanatory. You can usually find them in any bookstore or tourist shop.

After reviewing the Oberallgäu brochure, I see that they have now added an Anschlusskarte to Lindau for €3,50/P. They didn't have that when I was there, so we had to use a Bayern-Ticket to get to Lindau for the day. Oberstaufen is the end of the Urlaubskarte area on the way to Lindau, but for another €3,50 you can extend the area to Lindau for a day. Also, for €3,50 you can extend the area from Oy-Mittelberg/Maria Rain, where you can get to with just the Urlaubskarte to Füssen/Hohenschwangau. Any of the Kleinwalsertal tourist information offices have maps of hiking trails in the valley. We picked up one at the Mittelberg office and followed one of the hiking trails to Baad for lunch. Yes, if you were specifically looking for a hiking trail that wasn't accessible by public transportation, you could probably find one, but there are so many trails in the Oberallgäu that are accessible, that you could hike all summer without needing a car. The Kleinwalsertal is a narrow valley and a four/hr bus connects the little towns, and ski lifts, in the valley. Hiking trails emanate from the towns and from the tops of the lifts.

Elaine, while I wouldn't consider Oberstaufen to be the nicest or most authentic of those Alpine villages (it's actually not even in the Alps, just near them) I think it makes for a good base to explore the area. You can also wander through the town on Google Streetview. Apart from the cities Oberstaufen is one of the few small towns and villages that are on there in Germany.