Berchtesgaden is my favourite place in Germany. It's famous for the Königsee but it's really great for other hikes, and for being the cutest, cuckoo-clock town ever. 

It's essentially a town made up of two main streets, surrounded by mountains. Aside from pure escapism, it also has about 8 restaurants, two main streets, a great swimming pool and about one train an hour. Oh! And a great Hostel with a weird check-in (you check in at the Burger King counter).

I could spend a long time talking about how much I love it as a town, but I'm actually here to write about some hikes so ... here's some places I hiked:

 
Wimbachbrücke to Hintersee

Wimbachbrücke to Wimbachschloss

Ramsau to Hintersee (via Soleleitungsweg)

This was one of the first ever hikes I did in Berchtesgaden, after the classic Königsee to Röthbachfall and I won't lie - it has a savage start. It's steep.

You can choose to pass through the Wimbachklamm or not (I would) and then just follow the signposted route to Hintersee. 

This is the point where you go uphill for what feels like an age, but is actually probably only about 30 mins to an hour. 

Following the path will eventually take you to an amazing viewpoint of the Hintersee. It's breathtaking.

Eventually you'll descend to Hintersee where you can swim and relax. If you're brave, you can follow the Malerweg back to Ramsau, or just be like me and wait an hour for the bus back. 

This is a great, easy walk. It's a very gentle, uphill slope all the way to the Wimbachschloss hut. 

I would start through the Wimbachklamm (just because I like it) and then, once you exit the gorge, just keep following the path straight. Pretty soon after the gorge, you'll find the path goes quieter, and you'll have stunning views of the mountains, and also of the river bed, and the trickle of the river. It's pretty stunning how small the river is here compared to the crashing gorge a few metres away. 

There's not much to say apart from follow the path and enjoy the views. Once you get past the small rest hut, you'll be about a 40 minute uphill walk to the Wimbachschloss. The woods here are quiet, and you'll meet a lot of other walkers but it's a very relaxed trail. 

And of course at the top, after you've enjoyed the view and food, you can either keep going up, or just come back down the same route. Essentially an easy, lovely, friendly walk. 

The typical way to get from Ramsau to the Hintersee is using the Malerweg, which is a lovely, gentle walk through the Zauberwald (the 'magic forest' in English which is just so cute). But, for something a little more sweaty, I'd highly recommend going via the Soleleitungsweg.

You'll start at the bus stop Engedey and proceed up the hill towards the Soldenköpfl hut. This first part is a lovely steep start to the walk, but it gets the hard bit out of the way, because the rest of walk is a stunning trip around the top of these hills which gives a great view over the town. 

After Soldenköpfl you just keep going, remembering to take the Soleleitungsweg route. My favourite part was not long after the hut, where you're greeted by this view:

If you follow the path, you can head towards the Hindenburglinde which is another hut/rest spot. Here you can choose to head back to Ramsau, or to keep going to the Hintersee. Since it was pretty early, and my legs weren't too tired yet, I decided to follow a different route to the Hintersee. 

If you follow the route, you'll walk through some villages, and if you can, follow the route to the Marienkapelle (I'm not 100% sure on the name, but definitely a Kapelle of some kind). This is basically a little chapel built into a cave on the side of the cliff wall. It's one of the more unusual chapels I've seen, but this region of Germany is full of unusual religious spots if you keep your eyes peeled. Also: more great views of the Hintersee.

Once you reach the Hintersee, it's the perfect place to end the walk. In my case, this meant put up my hammock in the trees and hang out reading for a while. If you don't have a hammock, buy one ASAP. Every time I lie in it I think about how it's the best 10€ I've ever spent and that if it ever breaks I will be devastated, since I'm not sure where my nearest Decathlon is in the UK.

Overall - I loved this walk. It was such a surprising find to see that the Soleleitungsweg had such spectacular views for relatively little effort. Here's a picture of me, hammock-ing: