Experience the best of Berchtesgaden

Berchtesgaden lies in a high valley of the Bavarian Alps, ringed by the peaks of the Berchtesgaden National Park, Germany's only alpine national park. Its wealth came from salt, mined here since the Middle Ages, and visitors can still ride a miners' train into the salt mine and cross an underground lake on a raft. The old town centres on a former monastery, later a royal palace of the Bavarian Wittelsbach family.

The Königssee, nearly eight kilometres long between sheer rock walls, is crossed by electric boats to the red-domed pilgrimage chapel of St Bartholomä, where the boatman plays a trumpet to bring out the echo from the cliffs. The Watzmann, at 2,713 metres, towers above. On the Obersalzberg, a documentation centre explains the area's Nazi history, and the Kehlstein summit house is reached by a lift cut through the rock.

Smoked char from the Königssee, roast pork with dumplings and Kaiserschmarrn, a torn, sugared pancake with plum compote, are local favourites. Woodcarvers here have made toys for centuries. Summer is for hiking, and snow arrives in winter.