Wolfratshausen brings its city history and rafting traditions to life in different ways: in the museum, on a tour of the historic town centre and along themed trails. There are also the St John’s Day raft procession and seasonal passenger raft rides. When planning, it is worth distinguishing between these activities: the museum and town tour have different focuses from outdoor trails, while raft rides are tied to a season and the procession to a recurring date.
Museum and historic town centre
The Wolfratshausen Museum presents the eventful history of this rafting town in nine rooms covering almost 400 square metres. The permanent exhibitions include a tactile station with a relief picture frame by Hermann Neuhaus, a town model and a large timeline. Media stations explore famous and former Wolfratshausen residents, as well as the perspectives of current residents. Spatial views and personal perspectives thus meet different forms of presenting history. Check the official museum website for current visitor arrangements.
The tour of the historic town centre takes in buildings such as the Humpelbräu and the craftsmen’s houses; signs on the buildings explain their history. Notable examples include the Catholic parish church of St Andrew: it was built in 1484 and rebuilt after a fire in 1626. The tour therefore brings together different types of buildings, without any one building having to represent the town’s entire history.
Another cultural feature is the small Japanese garden. The citizens of Iruma, Wolfratshausen’s Japanese twin town, gave it to Wolfratshausen to mark the town’s 1,000th anniversary as a sign of friendship. This gift adds a different story to the historic buildings: it recalls the connection between the two towns and the occasion on which the garden was donated.
Walks with different themes
The panoramic circular trail leads from historic properties in the old town into the mountain forest. The “Chapels and Churches” walk has a different focus: it leads to the wooded slope of Mount Calvary, where there is an 18th-century Stations of the Cross. Visitors can learn about Wolfratshausen and rafting along the Rafting Trail. Which route fits your plans also depends on whether you want to focus on city history, religious heritage or the historic craft of rafting.
In the wider Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen travel region, the MeinBankerl Trail starts in Wolfratshausen’s old town and leads to filming locations from the series “Hubert und/ohne Staller”. The longer route is about six kilometres long; a shorter version covers about four kilometres.
Rafting on the water and in the events calendar
Wolfratshausen holds its St John’s Day raft procession every three years in honour of St John of Nepomuk, patron saint of bridges. If you would like to see the procession, check the current dates in advance. Passenger raft rides depart from Wolfratshausen-Weidach and travel along the Loisach and Isar rivers to Munich. They are listed as operating daily from 1 May to mid-September. Before planning, check whether they are currently running and whether bookings are available.
Rafting is not the only water-related feature at the Kastenmühl weir: the fish ladder’s special design allows fish to reach their spawning grounds.
When your trip goes beyond a walk
Wolfratshausen is the starting point for a multi-day cycling loop that follows the Loisach upstream, goes around the Zugspitze and returns to the rafting town along the Isar downstream. This makes the route quite different from walks through the town centre or mountain forest: it is designed as a multi-day loop. Check current route conditions before setting out.
Discover more destinations: Sankt Heinrich, Wackersberg, Kochel Am See, Geretsried, MĂĽnsing, Sachsenkam, Benediktbeuern, Bad Heilbrunn.
Back to the main travel overview: Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen.
