A little over a year ago I had the great pleasure of visiting the Baumwipfelpfad Steigerwald in Bavaria with a dear friend of mine. You may be asking, “The Baumwipfelp… uh, what?” Well, “Baumwipfelpfad” is German for treetop path and “Steigerwald” is simply a region of Germany, which includes the Steigerwald Nature Park. But the term ‘treetop path’ doesn’t fully describe just how awesome this attraction truly is.
Visiting the Baumwipfelpfad Steigerwald.
The Baumwipfelpfad Steigerwald is located in Ebrach, which is in between the better known cities of Bamberg and Würzburg. There is a bus station nearby, but the best and easiest mode of transportation would likely be by car. You will need to park a bit down the road from the entrance, near the restaurant and gift shop. Visiting is not a cheap experience; tickets are nine euros for an adult and six euros for children. However, there are options for family prices, group prices, and annual tickets on the Baumwipfelpfad Steigerwald website.
The wooden pathway starts once you’ve passed through the entrance gate, and it’s immediately exciting. It is nearly three quarters of a mile (1.15 kilometers) long with some sections rising quite high above the landscape. You will have a great perspective of the local flora and fauna.
There are also play areas, information boards, and interactive games available if you download the phone app. When I visited everything was in German and my friend helped me understand what was going on. I made use of a few of the play areas as we made our way through the path.
Towards the end you’ll find the main attraction – the incredible wooden tower that is approximately 135 feet (41 meters) tall.
I was so excited when we finally reached the tower. I had seen pictures of it, but you really can’t get a feel for just how huge it is until you are standing in front of it.
And good news – the entire path and the observation tower are wheelchair and stroller friendly – the grade only goes up to six percent on the circular stairway.
We took the first few loops and then stopped on an interior platform, where there were several benches and a tree growing up through the structure.
As we continued upwards along the path, each loop brought something new into our field of vision. It was so thrilling and I was torn between stopping every few minutes to take it in and booking it to the top to get the best view. Fortunately it wasn’t a very long journey to the top (or at least it didn’t feel like it).
The weather was pretty nice – a bit windy but sunny and not too cold. We could see a great deal of the forest in the distance, although my friend told me that we could have seen much further – even to Würzburg – on the clearest of days.
We took in the views all over again as we headed back down the tower. The walk was over shortly afterwards and we headed to the restaurant for a lunch. In total we spent about an hour on the treetop path, although we certainly could have lingered much longer. It was a wonderful experience that I would love to repeat and would recommend for anyone visiting Bavaria.
The Baumwipfelpfad Steigerwald holds events throughout the year, such as nighttime walks and their upcoming Christmas Markets. These events are easy to keep track of on their Facebook page (listed below).
Website: http://www.baumwipfelpfad-ebrach.de/
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Baumwipfelpfad.Steigerwald/
Address: Radstein 2, 96157 Ebrach, Germany – https://goo.gl/maps/Qxz3KTWdJAN2
Hours: April – October 9am to 6pm, November – March 10am to 4pm, last entry one hour before closing time.
Would you like to visit the Baumwipfelpfad Steigerwald? Or have you visited a similar treetop path? Please share in the comments!
Visiting the Baumwipfelpfad Steigerwald – an Incredible Treetop Path in Bavaria, #Germany. Share on X
This post is linked up with The Weekly Postcard and Faraway Files:
I've never seen anything like the treetop path, I would love to try it. Nice post.
Thanks so much! I’m sure you’d love it. 🙂
our kids would love this one!! we went to a treetop path not far from this one.
#TheWeeklyPostcard
The Germans do love their treetop paths! Thanks for commenting. 🙂
I had not heard of Baumwipfelpfad before but it looks like a really neat place. Your pictures turned out fabulous. It kind of reminds me of Capliano (sp?) outside of Whistler, but much bigger. I pinned for future reference, thanks for sharing on #TheWeeklyPostcard.
Thanks so much! I thought my pictures weren’t very good (this was before I upgraded to my DSLR) so that really means a lot to me! 🙂
I haven't heard of this beautiful region in Germany. It seems a nature lovers' paradise and quite an unusual place. I'd love to walk those 1.5 km of wooden pathways. #TheWeeklyPostcard
It is really a lovely region. Thanks for your comment!
This looks stunning, I’ve added it to my list of things to see when I eventually make it to Bavaria. #Theweeklypostcard
Thanks Annabel! Hope you get to see Bavaria soon! 🙂
Amazing! I had never heard of this. We are planning to visit Nuremberg next year, so this will go on our possible itinerary plans!
Thanks! I hope you have a great trip to Germany next year. 🙂
That's an impressive tower! We hadn't heard of the baumwipfythingymacallit 😉 but are certainly adding it to the Bavarian "To Do" list! We'll be sure to write it down…because we'll never remember how to spell that! Thanks for sharing on #TheWeeklyPostcard.
Haha, thanks so much Rob!
I never knew this existed! Fabulous! I remember climbing something similar in Freiburg, in the Black Forest in Germany.
#FarawayFiles
I’d love to visit one in the Black Forest, that’d be cool!
That looks like a really cool place!
We visited a much smaller version of this in Kew Gardens and thought it was so cool! I had no idea that this one in Germany existed! Thank you for sharing on #farawayfiles
I wouldn’t mind if they started building them everywhere! Thanks for reading! 🙂
This looks incredible! I always like to get up high when I'm visiting new places, but usually thats in a city. I love how you can walk through the tree tops! #farawayfiles
I’m glad you like it so much! I feel the same way. 🙂
Ok. I've seen lots of pictures of this and know that I would be drawn to explore it, but as someone who experiences pretty intense fear of heights – do you think it would trigger it up top or are the railings pretty safe feeling? What a beautiful day for you to explore the forest – thanks for sharing with #FarawayFiles, Erin
The railings are pretty safe and high, and the path is also really wide so you can stay in the middle. I think the walking platforms, which do get pretty high off the ground, would be okay but you might not be able to make it to the top of the tower. I definitely felt like I was observing on a platform, not hanging off the side of a structure. You can get a great view at about 2/3s of the way up, if you felt like you couldn’t make it any further. But just based on my friends that I know who have a fear of heights – they probably would not have made it to the very top.