Garmisch Partenkirchen

Garmisch-Partenkirchen is really two conjoined towns, Bavarian and traditional, under the north face of Germany's highest mountain, the Zugspitze. It hosted the 1936 Winter Olympics and the New Year's Day ski jump on the Große Olympiaschanze is still one of the biggest events on the international jumping calendar. Skiing spans two ticket zones: the Zugspitze glacier itself at 2,720 m for reliable early and late season, and the wider Garmisch-Classic area on the Kandahar which hosts World Cup downhills each January. The village is prettier than most and only 90 minutes by train from Munich, which makes it an unusually convenient European city-and-ski combination.