Elchingen: Monastery History, Views and Trails

Monastery History on Display

The exhibition depot at Klostersteige 13 is open to visitors on the first Friday of every month from 2 to 4 p.m. On display are paintings, sculptures, liturgical vestments and a model of the monastery dating from 1793. Before your visit, check the municipality’s latest announcements so you can take the regular opening hours into account in your plans.

You can also discover the treasures of the former Elchingen Monastery: guided tours in Oberelchingen are available by prior appointment. If you’d like to include this visit, confirm the current arrangements in advance. That way, you can plan it specifically alongside the other cultural or nature-related attractions that interest you.

Views and Trails for Different Day Plans

Next to the Oberelchingen Monastery Garden is a viewing platform with an orientation board. From here, the panoramic view extends across the Ulmer Winkel landscape; on clear days, you can also see the Alps. The view therefore depends on visibility, while the platform and its far-reaching panorama make it a distinctive landscape landmark in the municipality.

The Panoramic Heights Trail is a six-kilometre loop. Along the way, there are unobstructed views of the Danube Valley, the Alpine foothills and the Oberelchingen Monastery Church. The loop and its several vantage points make this a way to enjoy the landscape and views of the monastery on a single outing.

For a longer route, choose the Danube-Alb Tour around Elchingen: the shorter loop is 10.6 kilometres long, while the longer option measures 15 kilometres. The route passes through Danube floodplain forest, past towering trees and hidden lakes, before climbing steeply to the escarpment of the Swabian Alb. Along the way, there are views of the Danube Valley and, on clear days, as far as the Alps.

If you’d rather decide based mainly on distance, you can compare the six-kilometre Panoramic Heights Trail with the two options on the Danube-Alb Tour.

More Activities in the Municipality

The Elchingen indoor swimming pool offers swimming and aqua jogging courses for a fee. Course offerings may change, so check the operator’s latest information if a course is important to your plans.

Additional Attractions in the Wider Neu-Ulm Travel Destination

The wider Neu-Ulm travel destination also has its own cultural attractions. The Edwin Scharff Museum at Petrusplatz in the heart of Neu-Ulm brings together an art museum and a children’s museum under one roof. The children’s museum invites young and old alike to explore hands-on through its experiment and activity stations. It’s a specific option for anyone who would like to include art and shared discovery in their trip, as well as Elchingen’s trails.

The Museum of Garden Culture grounds are home to more than twenty themed gardens, including the insect garden, expanded in 2025, and the “Medicinal Plants of the World” garden. The museum also includes an exhibition, a library, an aroma workshop and indoor and outdoor activity spaces. The gardens offer a different focus from Elchingen’s scenic walks and monastery attractions.

For nature watching, the Plessenteich bird sanctuary is located in the Gerlenhofen district of Neu-Ulm. Two hundred different bird species have already been spotted there. A viewing tower offers views of resting or nesting birds throughout the year. Which birds you can see from the tower depends on which ones are resting or nesting there at the time.

When choosing a holiday apartment in Elchingen, you can first decide whether to focus on the municipality’s monastery attractions and trails or to include additional destinations in the wider Neu-Ulm travel area.

Discover More Destinations

Discover more destinations: Buch, Vöhringen, Weißenhorn, Neu-Ulm, Roggenburg, Senden, Illertissen, Altenstadt.

Back to the main travel overview: Neu-Ulm.