Ruhpolding: Biathlon, Mountain Views and Culture

Biathlon at the Chiemgau Arena

The Chiemgau Arena in Ruhpolding hosts world championships and World Cup events. Biathlon here is about more than competition: the arena also offers biathlon guest shooting. Guided tours give visitors insights into the sport of biathlon, the competition venues and the history of the World Cup in Ruhpolding. This gives you two different ways to explore: guest shooting focuses on the sport itself, while the tours cover competition venues and history. For travellers with a particular interest in biathlon, this theme offers a concrete starting point when choosing activities for their trip.

Unternberg: Mountain Views and Seasonal Activities

The activities described at Unternberg vary with the seasons. Take the chairlift to the summit, where you can look out over Ruhpolding and the entire Chiemgau foothills. In summer, Unternberg is ideal for families, hikers and mountain bikers. In winter, the ski area at Unternberg offers opportunities for skiers, snowboarders and ski tourers. This distinction is useful when planning a trip: in summer, the mountain combines hiking and mountain biking; in winter, it offers various types of skiing. If you’re looking for accommodation, you can use these seasonal interests to guide your holiday planning without trying to combine every activity into a single itinerary.

Museums, Art and Historic Churches

Ruhpolding’s cultural attractions appeal to a range of interests. Located in Brander Tal, the Glockenschmiede Ruhpolding is a hammer mill museum. The local history museum is housed in the rooms of a former ducal hunting lodge—a link between the building’s past use and its present-day function as a museum. At the Holzknecht Museum, visitors can learn about the lives of the woodcutters in Ruhpolding.

The Schnauferlstall features a different collection: it houses numerous motorcycles dating from 1922 onwards, engines and other rarities. Galerie Kaysser represents around 17 international artists and presents solo, tandem and group exhibitions. Alongside museum collections, art and changing exhibition formats are also among the attractions. When choosing cultural sites, you can use these differences as a guide: the hammer mill, the lives of the woodcutters, motorcycles and engines, or contemporary artists each offer a distinct focus.

Ruhpolding’s historic churches and spiritual sites include St. Georg, St. Valentin and Maria Schnee. Together with the museums and gallery, they offer further ways to shape a stay that is not focused solely on sport or mountain activities. This lets you combine cultural interests with your choice of activities without treating the different places and themes as interchangeable.

The wider setting: Traunstein

The wider destination of Traunstein includes Lake Chiemsee and Lake Waginger in the district of Traunstein. In the Chiemgau Alps, there are more than 170 alpine pastures and peaks reaching up to 2,000 metres. The Seeoner Seen are listed as a nature reserve in the district, while Lake Waginger and Lake Tachinger are designated as a landscape conservation area. Traunstein’s salt-making history can also be explored at specific sites: surviving saltworks buildings and the saltworks chapel offer insights into this history; the saltworks chapel is the largest chapel in Germany. The historic city walk in Traunstein passes the Kulturforum Klosterkirche and then continues to the saltworks chapel, the saltworks buildings and the Salinenpark, established in 2019. These details broaden the picture of the wider destination of Traunstein.

Discover more destinations

Discover more destinations: Trostberg An Der Alz, Marquartstein, Chieming, Siegsdorf, Grabenstätt, Obing, Surberg, Schleching.

Go to the overview of the wider destination: Traunstein.