The Allgäu has it good: plenty of mountains, neither a big city nearby nor a motorway through the middle. If you want to continue south via Sonthofen, you'll have to capitulate by the time you reach the turning point at Baad, the last village in the Kleinwalsertal, where the 2,500 metre high Widderstein blocks the valley. The route to Austria only goes round the outside.
Winter is particularly popular with tourists. Because the snow often comes from the north-west, the peaks of the Allgäu mountains are the first to comb the white out of the clouds. The snow usually falls earlier and lasts longer than in the rest of Bavaria, so there are plenty of lifts whirring around Oberstdorf and in the Kleinwalser and Tannheimer valleys.
After the melt, the Oberallgäu belongs to cyclists again. They may not get into thin air due to the lack of really high passes - the Riedberg Pass with its 1,420 metres is the maximum - but they are guaranteed to work up a sweat. The locals tend to do their first laps of the year in the hills. There, where a village is hidden behind, next to and at the foot of every sparsely wooded hill and large farms stand on top of the hilltops.
You can find these routes in the free PDF download:
TOUR 1: Lakes tour
Sonthofen - Burgberg - Ottacker - Moosbach - Bodelsberg - Hasenmahd - Oy-Mittelberg - Wertach - Königssträßchen - Sonthofen
TOUR 2: Steep curve
Sonthofen - Immenstadt - Missen - Sibratshofen - Harbatshofen - Oberstaufen - Hittisau - Sibratsgfäll - Rohrmoos - Obermaiselstein - Ofterschwang - Sonthofen
Downloads:
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