Experience Bad Kötzting

Spa Park and Hiking Trails

Bad Kötzting Spa Park is the largest park in the Upper Palatinate. The starting point for Bad Kötzting’s hiking trails is the Ludwigstraße car park by the spa park. Information and orientation boards there provide details about hiking and themed trails. The car park therefore serves a clear orientation purpose: it marks the starting point for the trails, while the boards give an overview of the hiking and themed trails.

If you want to explore Bad Kötzting by following its trails, this is a specific place to start planning. The spa park itself should not be confused with a hiking trail: it is the named park, while the Ludwigstraße car park is the starting point for the trails. The information on site relates to hiking and themed trails, helping you get your bearings before choosing one of these options.

The Whitsun Ride: Procession and History

The Kötzting Whitsun Ride is one of Europe’s largest mounted rogation processions. It dates back to a vow made in 1412. Every year on Whit Monday, around 700 riders on decorated horses and wearing traditional costumes ride in prayer through the Zellertal valley to Steinbühl. The procession thus combines a fixed date in the annual calendar with a long religious tradition. In 2015, the Whitsun Ride was included in the Bavarian State Directory of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The Whitsun Ride Museum, located in Bad Kötzting’s fortified church complex, offers another perspective on this tradition. The late medieval fortified complex comprises a cemetery, church and castle. Historical objects and an extensive collection of materials document the nearly 600-year history of the horse pilgrimage, as well as the symbolic Whitsun wedding that follows it. The Whitsun Ride is the annual procession; the museum focuses on its history and the Whitsun wedding associated with it. The annual event and its historical context therefore offer different points of interest for planning a trip.

AQACUR Water Park and Exhibitions

The AQACUR water park in Bad Kötzting has a 25-metre sports pool. It also offers a sauna area with vitality, steam, Finnish, herbal, banya log cabin and crystal saunas. Facilities also include a brine steam bath, graduation tower, whirlpool, refreshing and foot baths, ice fountain, sauna garden, relaxation rooms and an open fireplace. The sports pool puts the focus on swimming, while the sauna area is more broadly arranged, with various types of sauna and relaxation areas. These can therefore be seen as distinct features of the water park.

The exhibitions also cover different subjects. “Fascination Universe” spans two floors and takes visitors on a journey through the universe with large-format images, films and exhibits. “Satellite Geodesy and Navigation” focuses on the development of satellite navigation systems, from the American NNSS of the 1960s through GPS to the European GALILEO. One exhibition opens up a view of the universe; the other traces the development of satellite navigation. A broad subject about space and a specific technological development are thus presented side by side.

Theatre in the Bavarian Dialect

The Bad Kötzting Forest Festival adapts literary classics into Bavarian dialect, bringing them to a broad audience. This format combines well-known literary works with a regional form of speech. Individual productions and dates vary by season; check the current programme before your trip if you have a particular performance in mind.

Discover more destinations: Roding, Weiding, Waldmünchen, Furth im Wald, Arnschwang, Eschlkam, Grafenwiesen, Rimbach.

For the wider travel overview: Cham.