Ruhpolding: Winter Sports, Biathlon and Culture
Accommodation in Ruhpolding
Winter sports on Unternberg and at the Chiemgau Arena
In winter, the Unternberg ski area offers opportunities for skiers, snowboarders and ski tourers. When planning your winter trip, the selection by sport provides a helpful starting point.
Blick vom Streicher, einem Berg an der Grenze zwischen Ruhpolding und Inzell, in Richtung Chiemsee.
Photo: Rudolf Pohl via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The Chiemgau Arena in Ruhpolding hosts World Championships and World Cup events. It offers biathlon taster shooting sessions for visitors. Guided tours of the arena give you insights into biathlon, the competition venues and the history of the World Cup in Ruhpolding. The information about the arena varies by context: World Championships and World Cup events define its role as a venue; taster shooting is an activity on offer, and the tours share knowledge about the sport, competition venues and World Cup history.
Unternberg in summer
In summer, Unternberg is well suited to families, hikers and mountain bikers. Take the chairlift to the summit, where you can enjoy views of Ruhpolding and the entire Chiemgau Alpine foothills. The seasonal comparison is specific: winter activities for skiers, snowboarders and ski tourers are set against summer activities for families, hikers and mountain bikers. The viewpoint connects two scales in a single panorama: Ruhpolding as a town and the Chiemgau Alpine foothills as a wider landscape.
Museums, gallery and churches
Ruhpolding’s cultural offerings range from crafts and collections to insights into ways of life and art. In the Brander Tal valley you will find the Glockenschmiede Ruhpolding, a blacksmithing museum. The local history museum is housed in the rooms of a former ducal hunting lodge. The Schnauferlstall houses a collection of numerous motorcycles dating from 1922 onwards, as well as engines and other rarities. The Holzknecht Museum offers insights into the lives of the woodcutters of Ruhpolding. The themes therefore range from blacksmithing and vehicle collections to the lives of the woodcutters; the local history museum also benefits from its historic building setting.
Galerie Kaysser represents around 17 international artists and presents solo, tandem and group exhibitions. This means the cultural offering includes not only museums but also a gallery that represents artists and features a variety of exhibition formats. Ruhpolding’s historic churches and spiritual sites include St. Georg, St. Valentin and Maria Schnee.
The wider region: Traunstein
Lake Chiemsee and Lake Waginger See are located in the Traunstein district. The Chiemgau Alps are home to more than 170 alpine pastures and peaks reaching up to 2,000 metres. The Seeoner Seen lakes are listed as a nature reserve in the district, while Lake Waginger See and Lake Tachinger See are designated as a landscape conservation area. These protected areas help preserve biodiversity, safeguard rare habitats and protect the natural and cultural landscape.
The town of Traunstein also has its own historical significance: the surviving saltworks houses and the saltworks chapel offer insights into Traunstein’s salt history; the saltworks chapel is the largest chapel in Germany.
Discover more destinations: Grassau, Unterwössen, Reit Im Winkl, Siegsdorf, Inzell, Bergen, Marquartstein, Grabenstätt
To the regional travel overview: Traunstein.
