Riessersee Hotel: Cozy lakeside hotel for small weddings near Zugspitze

The lake came first. An ancestor of the owning family dammed a mountain spring here in 1886, and the water has stayed in private hands ever since. Their 1892 Landhaus still stands on the hill above the hotel. Skaters from Munich and Berlin trained on the ice from 1902, and the SC Riessersee sports club was founded inside the hotel in 1920. At the 1936 Winter Olympics the speed skating and ice hockey took place on this water. The bobsleigh run that made the lake famous is now a protected monument, a short walk along the shore. Its old sleds are kept in the little Bobschuppen museum.

You're 785 meters up on the south side of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, at the end of a private road that climbs out of town. The lake sits in a bowl of forest with the Kramer ridge to the north and the Wetterstein filling the south. Town is a 20-minute walk downhill, or a few minutes by car, and Munich Airport is under two hours by road. On our list of where to get married in Germany, this is the lake-and-mountain option in the Zugspitze region.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen's painted Ludwigstraße is 4.5 km away, the Partnach Gorge about 9 km. The turquoise Eibsee and the Zugspitze cable car sit 11 km down the valley, so Germany's highest summit is an easy morning for your guests. Ettal Abbey is 20 km, King Ludwig's Linderhof Palace 30 km, and Neuschwanstein just over an hour. Innsbruck makes a day trip at 59 km, and Munich is 94 km up the autobahn. Couples on our all-inclusive Germany wedding packages usually add a day on either side for exactly this.

The spa runs to about 1,000 square meters and opens at 7 am. Inside: an indoor pool, a whirlpool, Finnish and bio saunas, a steam bath and a Technogym fitness room. The lake is a swimming lake. Hotel guests pay a token entry at the lido on the far shore, and can rent pedal boats or paddleboards there. Bikes and e-bikes are hired at reception, hiking poles are lent for free, and a billiard room hangs SC Riessersee hockey jerseys above its two tables. In winter the lake freezes and locals skate it, as they have for over a century.

Munich Airport is 144 km away by road, Innsbruck 54 km and Memmingen 142 km. The route we recommend: fly into Munich, take the regional train to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and cover the last 4 km by taxi. Parking outside the hotel is free, there's an underground garage for a fee, and six e-chargers stand in the car park. The ceremony meadow is a short, steep walk above the hotel, so the two of you ride up in the hotel's electric golf cart. Our German wedding planner books the station transfers and lines up that cart for the right minute.

The main house has lifts. The lakeside path is flat gravel, so the shore and the Seehaus terrace are easy with wheels or a stroller. The Seehaus itself has no elevator, so its suites are up a flight of stairs. The ceremony meadow is reached by a short, steep path; the golf cart takes anyone who'd rather not climb it. Tell us about specific needs before rooms are chosen, since not every corner of the hotel is step-free.

There are 163 rooms across two buildings. The main house holds 154, many of them two-level maisonettes with balconies and box-spring beds. The Seehaus on the shore is the one to book for the wedding party. Its nine suites are named after the surrounding peaks: four face the meadow, three the lake, and two family suites sleep four. Two self-catering apartments beside it sleep seven and eight, with their own garden and lake terrace. Guests check in from 3 pm and out by 11 am, and the hotel holds a room block that your guests book themselves. For a destination wedding in Germany, that puts everyone under one roof, a short walk from the ceremony.

The Hochzeitswiese is a sloping meadow above the hotel. You face down the lake to the Alpspitze, Zugspitze and Waxenstein while you say your vows. It's available from May to October, between 11 am and 6 pm, for up to 80 guests. White-covered benches and an altar table are set up for you. Speakers and microphones aren't allowed up there, so ceremonies are spoken, with an acoustic guitar or violin if you like. This is a symbolic ceremony. The legal part happens at the registry office in town, or once a month up on the Zugspitze, and our planner arranges it. If it rains, the ceremony moves indoors, decided three hours ahead.

Drinks after the ceremony are served on the Seehaus terrace, right at the water, with the Wetterstein across the lake. Prosecco, Hugo and Aperol Spritz are the house openers, with canapés and pretzels, and the pastry chefs bake the afternoon cakes. In the cooler months two fire bowls are lit at the terrace edge. There's a wooden swing at the rail for photos. If the weather turns, the reception moves into the bar and fireplace lounge in the main house.

Dinner is in the Seehaus, and the room depends on your numbers. The Seerestaurant seats 80 behind a wall of glass onto the lake, with beams overhead and hexagonal terracotta underfoot. The Kaminzimmer takes 40 around a white tiled stove, snug and low-lit, and the Jagdstüberl is a wood-panelled hunting room for 18. Book all three and the terrace, and the whole lake house closes to the public for your day. Back in the main house, the Galerie seats 30, with a small staircase up to a mezzanine for 20 more.

Everything comes from the hotel's own kitchen. From 20 guests you build a set menu: one starter, one main and one dessert for the whole table. Vegetarian, vegan and allergy alternatives are available. Smaller groups order à la carte in the Seehaus. Buffets start at 45 guests. The cooking is Bavarian with a lighter hand: rösti with marinated salmon, braised ox cheek with herb spaetzle, Kaiserschmarrn with plum compote. Drinks are charged as poured, and you can't bring your own. The wedding cake can come from an outside baker for a small plate fee, or from the pastry chefs in-house. A midnight snack of potato soup or chili rounds off the night.

Dancing happens in the Seehaus, where the tables are cleared for a dance floor. A live band or DJ means booking all nine Seehaus suites for two nights, since the music carries to the hotel rooms 100 meters away. The volume drops at 11:30 pm and the last round is poured at 1 am. Without a band, the evening winds down at 10 pm and the hotel bar in the main house takes over until midnight, with the billiard room next door. Fireworks, sky lanterns and floating candles are out, for the forest and the fish. The hotel suggests a laser show instead, and drones are fine over the grounds.

Dogs are welcome, at a small daily charge, up to two per room. They can join you in the Seehaus restaurant and in the Galerie, and they stay out of the main-house buffet restaurant for hygiene reasons. Cats and other pets can't be accommodated.

The hotel is GreenSign certified, with an audit score above 80 percent in 2025. Skip your room clean and they plant a tree; guests waived more than 5,000 cleans in 2025. Breakfast cheese comes from the Ettal dairy, bread from a local bakery, and the kitchen leans on regional and seasonal produce. Six e-chargers wait in the car park, bikes and e-bikes are for hire, and confetti is banned because the meadows feed grazing cows.