Kloster Andechs

The reception staff behind the Wallfahrtskirche were very helpful. I was able to obtain some Klein Geld for the Wohnmobilstellplatz here. They could however not explain why the Chapel of Sorrows and Carl Orff shrine were locked shut! Said it never closes! At least 20 people were disappointed.

This place is known for its very drinkable beer and views over the surrounding countryside. I had a Schweinshaxe (crispy pork leg) and struggled to eat it with the potato salad and the red cabbage.

Its a whole experience even getting here, including an hour or so hike, but so very worth it. Our hike was beautiful, fall colors everywhere. The pilgrimage church is stunning, the scenery in the Bavarian hills is breathtaking, and the beer is some of the best we had in Germany. If you're staying in Munich or the surrounding area, you should go.

Spirit, Suds, and Scenery If you are looking for the quintessential Bavarian experience, Kloster Andechs is the undisputed "Holy Mountain." Located just a short trip from Munich, this Benedictine monastery is much more than a religious site; it is a cultural landmark that perfectly balances spiritual history with world-class brewing. The Journey and the View The experience begins long before you take your first sip of beer. Whether you drive or take the scenic 5km hike from the Herrsching S-Bahn station, the ascent to the monastery offers breathtaking vistas. On a clear day, the panoramic views of Lake Ammersee and the distant Alps are worth the trip alone. The Church and Culture The pilgrimage church is a Rococo jewel. The interior is a stunning explosion of gold and light, featuring magnificent frescoes and the final resting place of composer Carl Orff. It’s a peaceful, awe-inspiring space that provides a moment of quiet reflection before heading to the livelier parts of the grounds. The Legendary Gastronomy Of course, many visitors come for the liquid gold. The Andechs Doppelbock Dunkel is legendary for a reason—rich, malty, and brewed by the monks themselves. * The Food: Don’t miss the massive pork knuckles (Schweinshaxe) or the legendary Obatzda cheese. * The Atmosphere: The Bräustüberl (beer hall) and the expansive terrace offer an authentic, communal atmosphere where locals and tourists sit side-by-side. Whether you are a history buff, a hiker, or a beer connoisseur, Kloster Andechs is a five-star destination that embodies the soul of Bavaria.

Great place to have a quick look around and then enjoy beer and food whilst soaking up the amazing views. Easy to get too and well worth a visit.

A beautiful spot with rich history, stunning Baroque architecture, and amazing views. The on-site brewery offers traditional Bavarian beers, best enjoyed in the beer garden with authentic local food. The scenic hike from Herrsching adds to the experience. A perfect mix of culture, history, and relaxation

Great beer and huge pretzels for the budget minded. Pork knuckles (Haxen) for the big appetite. The church is impressive. They also have virtual tours for enjoyment and historic viewd.

Excellent restaurant (however a bit overcrowded). Beautiful churchyard. Alpes are seen on a sunny day.

2 trains and a bus, and I found some amazing Pork Kunckle!!! Large venue with lots of seating

A friend told us about this place, so we had to try it! You park at the base of the hill with free parking. There are many spaces, so you won't have any problems. You walk uphill about 5 minutes until you reach the beautiful restaurant and church. The uphill walk can be a hard one, so we saw many people with hiking poles! The restaurant has ample seating for indoors and outside. Some areas outside are covered. The service is self serve, so you can buy first and then go and sit down. We got a pretzel, pork knuckle and beer. All were good. It seemed that the pork knuckle is the thing to get here. It was about 17 euros for the food. They even had lice music playing! Make sure to walk around and take in the history. You can visit the church which is stunning!

Heaven on earth for any semi-conscious beer lover! Throw in excellent fare and a wonderful view of a bucolic countryside, and how could you go wrong? If I had 60 days left on earth, Andechs would be on my "must visit" list. Enough said. Prosit!

If you want to find great restaurants, please go here. You would spend wonderful time with nice grilled pork.

While visiting Bavaria, we stopped here after learning about a Monastery that still brews beer and is open to the public. We got there around 11:30 and the place was empty. From the biergarten, the view is absolutely breathtaking. We sat outside and I ordered goose and a half liter of beer and enjoyed my time there. The food was impressively good but of course, very heavy. My husband said the schweinshaxe he had there was the best of the trip. By the time we were finished eating, the place had become bumping. Lots of tour groups and high school field trips. It was pretty to walk around the monastery property. Definitely worth a stop if you have a car but not sure if it's worth taking public transportation from Munich if you don't. It's a fun place to kill a few hours especially on a beautiful sunny day.

Yeah it's a monastery that brews beer. An automatic 5-star. My wife and I stopped here on a road trip between Munich and Innsbruck. Some random tips: - It took us a while to figure out that there was a parking lot at the base of the monastery - Check ahead for tours - and even so they only do tours for large groups. This was a big bummer for us - The cafeteria and beer hall serve their function - the primary eating areas are outside, and you'll get beautiful views of the surrounding farmland - The menu looked like traditional Bavarian - I had some veal sausages and some delicious lager If you're a tourist to the area and love booze, history, and food - it's hard not to have a good time here.

I have to give this five stars. The location is marvelous, albeit better reached by auto. The Kloster, while beautiful on the outside, stunningly captures the essence of the time it was built on the inside. The bier hall is large and accommodating as is the patio area with its great views of the countryside. The food is quite good and most reasonably priced. But the bier... the bier is considered by many to be the best bier in Bavaria. I must agree. Reason enough to visit and stay awhile.

Whenever I hear that someone is traveling to Munich it takes about two seconds for me to say "You should visit Andechs!" About 45 minutes from Munich on the S-Bahn, and a short hike up the road (or there's a shuttle bus every so often), the Andechs Monastery Brewery is a true hidden gem. (Seriously, it's hidden in a forest! But more about that later). Traveling with a group of hostelers from many nations, we shared a table in the Rathskellar with a German family that had brought a whole tablecloth and food spread (allowed), the kids, and a dog! Language was a tiny barrier, but among the convivial confines of Andechs, we were like old chums! The beer at Andechs is great- and in fact, I had it stateside too, a while back, as the Joseph Huber brewing company had a short exclusive with them. Men in lederhosen tap the beer, and there are sausages and big pretezels to buy too. Be careful not to miss the last bus down to the S-Bahn as my group did. We then chose to drunkenly walk the forest path and soon could not see our hands in front of our faces. It got to be truly Hansel und Gretel out there, when our path at one point was blocked by a huge boulder! Lost in the forest! At night! In Germany! We eventually found the road, but at that point we just flagged a local down, who generously gave us a ride to the S-Bahn. No trip to Munich is complete without a visit to Andechs!

This would have to be one of my favourite Bavarian restaurants and biergarten's. The location is excellent, the beer is excellent and the food here is one of the best I have had. The pork knuckle and the Obatzda here are to die for :-)) Take the walk from Herrsching Bahnhof up the hill to Andechs and enjoy a wonderful afternoon at the Kloster and of course the restaurant. The Fußweg to Andechs starts directly opposite the station. There are multiple paths that take you up there, some harder than others. You can also drive straight up to the Kloster in case walking is not your thing. I feel less guilty about gorging on food at this place if I have walked an hour before and after the meal ;-)) It's mostly self service at the restaurant. If you get there after 12pm be prepared to wait a while in line to get food, specially on a sunny Sunday. The Obatzda here is creamy and delicious, as is the Frischkase with herbs. The big pretzels are nice and chewy. The pork knuckle is the best by far and it's chewy, crunchy and delicious. They have a few beers they brew on site and often they have seasonal beers so look at the boards to see what else might be on offer. Their beers are excellent. I love the dobblebock here and, it's creamy and nice. Prices are reasonable and the service is pretty quick considering the amount of people they serve on a weekend. I love going here and always take visitors here. It's a wonderful place to spend a day.

Like the concept and experience. Beer is good, food is acceptable bar staples. Prices were reasonable. Staff is somewhat mechanical and indifferent to customers. Beer hall closes rather early 8 pm and public transport options are available but run infrequently. If in area, worth checking out, but I am not sure I would go out of my way to try, given all the great alternative options in region.

A restaurant to do if you are in that area! You will find traditional bavarian food (wiener schnitzel:-) ).

Andechs is one of my favorite places in Germany, and now that I'm here for the last time (one never knows though: I've found myself more than once at places I thought I would never see again) I'm doing the round of my favorites. To get here, I take the bus from Herrsching and on a day like today - Easter - I avoid the monastery, although it is certainly worth a visit - preferably when it is snowing and no tourists are around. This is a veeeery popular destination but if you stay away from the (reasonably priced but limited and noisy) beergarden, you can enjoy one of my favorite and idyllic landscapes, certainly in spring: green undulating hills full of dandelions and the inimitable smell of spring. If high mountains are your thing: this is not your place. But you still may enjoy the relatively easy descent throught the Kien valley back to Herrsching. I've done it number of times - also in winter and it is always a pleasure..

Schweinshanxe, Sour Kraut and a Augustines Edelstoff is what we ordered. It was all delicious!!! Tremendous flavor and a beautiful experience. It was so relaxing to be pulled out of the city and enjoy a wonderful meal. The monastery was closed when we visited but the kitchen was open! I will definitely be back again!

Just read Evan's review. If you love beer and authentic local experiences-do not miss this. We spent time in Bamberg visiting many brewpubs but this was a top fav. We sat with locals, had great beer (fresh fresh fresh) and great simple food. Don't be intimidated by the logistics, it's not as difficult as it might seem once your boots hit the ground! I am not a huge drinker of beers but the apfelweiss knocked my socks off!!

Wonderful experience. The Schweinshaxe was great, the beer was great, the atmosphere in the beer hall was great, even the drive up to the monastery was great. We really enjoyed the authentic experience!

We had quite the experience getting to and from Andech's Monastery. We went on the recommendation of my travel hero, Rick Steves. Apparently we did not research carefully enough, but the time we took the S-Bahn all the way to Andechs, it was late afternoon and we caught the very last shuttle. Oh well, we had just traveled on train 45 minutes from downtown Munich, we would worry about our return trip later. We originally went to the biergarten at the bottom of the hill, which was closing when we arrived. We were feeling very disappointed about traveling so far, at pretty significant expense on train. We gulped our liters quickly so as to not be an inconvenience to the employees trying to close up shop. We noticed that there were still people coming from the top of the monastery, so we traveled uphill a bit. THIS was what Rick was raving about. The view of the German farm countryside was absolutely beautiful. The beer, fresh out of oak barrels, was the second-best I had in Munich (the best being Ayinger). And the soft pretzel was the best I've ever had anywhere. Hot (which is unusual for Germany, in my experience), soft, salty, and filling. It was our dinner for the entire evening. We still had to deal with the matter of getting back to the train station...it was about a 5 km walk downhill on a narrow, curvy road, and it was almost dusk. I would rather not walk. We tracked down a young German woman with a cell phone. She tried to call us a cab, but the earliest they could make it was 45 minutes. She offered to give us a ride to the train station. Hitchhiking through the German countryside...check that one off the bucket list! Thanks to the Andech's lager, we didn't much care about the supposed dangers, and just appreciated the Bavarian hospitality. I highly recommend making the trip out to Andechs if you are in Munich for at least 3 days, as it does take at least half a day. Eat a pretzel for me!

Everyone should make the hike from the Herrsching S-Bahn station (follow the 'Fußweg nach Andechs' signs). It's about 3k or so: first through the town and then through the forest overlooking the beautiful Ammersee. Right before you reach the Klosterbrauerei, the canopy opens and the trail empties into a picturesque meadow with an amazing view of the steeple. By the time I made it up there, I was famished. I blew through helpings of potato salad, sauerkraut, and two portions of the Schweinshaxe. The beer brewed there is the best I've had anywhere. Drawn directly from oak barrels, the Spezial Hell and Doppelbock Dunkel were religious experiences in their own right. How I made it down to the train station afterwards, I'll never know.

First, the brewery is far from Munich. It's at least a 45 minute journey. Second, don't make the mistake we did by hiking to the brewery from the train station. We were told by the regulars in our group that we needed to make the hike for the experience. Um, no we didn't. It took nearly an hour with our large group and hiking up the hills and through the forest in my flats ripped the backs of my heels up to the point where they were bleeding. I wouldn't say that the hike was strenuous, it was just long and due to it, I was forced to wear bandages around the backs of my ankles for our remaining days in Munich. Not pleasant. So, take the bus or a taxi. The brewery itself was quite nice. Our group was the only group in the entire place who were dressed in traditional garb, everyone else was in street clothes which I found super strange. The food was OK. The pork knuckle is sold by the kilo and is only sold as an entire pork knuckle. So, if you are one person, you are going to get a whole pork knuckle and it's huge. I shared one with my husband and we still had about 1/4 left. I really disliked the cabbage side that we ordered to accompany said pork knuckle but the potato salad was tasty. Then we made the brilliant decision to take the bus back to the train station several hours later. The bus stops running at about 7pm, so mind the time!

Pretty cool! A brewery and a monastery combined! We arrive just after noon and it was busy, BUT we still got out news and food fast! Overall a good experience and that typical beer garden ambiance was achieved.

We visited Kloster Andechs on a cold snowy day (actually the last day of 2014!) and after a short walk we came here to have a glass of beer. The Bierstube was totally crowded so we had to sit in the opposite Cafeteria which was okay as they're fine with you bringing the beers from the main Restaurant. Too bad they didn't have any non-alcoholic beer on tap but the radler was a good option in the end. We were a bit hungry and tried their Apfelstrudel which was absolutely amazing! The best one I had in my whole life!

Fantastic beer and amazing place. We've tried one of the restaurants and the typical Bavarian food is delicious. You will also find a cafe with sweets. The old church has impressive frescos and the images are astonishing. I would definitely recommend.

The best Schweinshaxe in Bavaria! :) We were so lucky to stand in the line and became the last customer to have the last piece!

Delicious food and beer overlooking the beautiful countryside. Not high-end fine dining, but hearty and well-prepared food available from a few different counters and eaten on their airy and comfortable outside dining balcony. Well worth the trip out of Munich to experience.

I've been there twice and considering how much I like their beer, their food, the view and the hike there from Herrsching, I cannot really give anything but a fiver. You cannot beat a cold Spezial Hell after making it up the hill to the Bräustüberl. And their cheese. And the sausages. And the schweinhaxe. And the Ausgezogne. The list goes on. Hey I want to go back there soon.

Very average Bavarian food and beer that you can easily get in downtown Munich. Yes, the view is spectacular, but you can get it for free at the terrace.

Totally agree with positive comments from other reviews... Would just add that for those with kids, there is also a nice playground, and they offer a decent kids meal upstairs. All around a fun, friendly place with beautiful views and excellent beer. Their dunkel was our favorite beer in Munich.

Wonderful atomsphere and decent Weißbier (although most come for the Doppelbock Dunkel). A nice place to take out-of-town friends to. On a clear day, a dip in the Ammersee with the views of the Alps is a must.

Amazing beer garden with typical Bavarian fare. The beer is not the best in Bavaria but it's good and the setting more than makes up for the beer.

Haxen taste fantastic and the beer brings joy! Wonderful day trip from Munich.

Get in, get out, get drunk Wait in long lines for food, then go wait in another line for your beer. Luckily things move quickly, but it can be a little annoying. Check out the ceilings in the main building with the names and dates of all the heads of the place goes back quite a ways. Since it is the birthplace of beer you have to check it out if you are a beer enthusiast. Get the dark beer if you want to get a taste of something similar to the original beer brewed here for monks during fasting back in the good ol' days. Get a lighter beer if you wanna stay a while and have a good time as the dark beer will knock you on your butt if you're not careful. Sit outside if the weather permits where you can get served rather than waiting in line. Make sure to check out the souvenir stands for packs of beer or locally made liquor to take home. Tip - get the big pretzel with your beer for something to munch on, it is delicious.