The 'Bavarian Caribbean', the new victim of mass tourism
Eibsee, a turquoise lake in the German Alps known as the "Bavarian Caribbean," has become a mass tourist destination. Visitors now need to be patient in traffic jams, on buses, and when parking.
It's ten o'clock on a Monday morning, and at the Grainau train station, about 30 people are waiting for the bus that will take them to the lake. The last one is already full, and one group has to wait for the next one.
Only one road leads to Eibsee and there are only two parking lots for the cable car to Zugspitze, Germany's highest peak, so available spaces are scarce.
The result: a huge traffic jam in the last few kilometers.
With its crystal-clear waters, islets, dense fir forests and cloud-covered peaks, the "Bavarian Caribbean," as the tourist office calls it, has become popular on social media in recent months.
Photos and videos taken in its idyllic surroundings generate millions of views.
An enthusiasm comparable to that generated by the medieval Austrian town of Hallstatt or the French town of Annecy, known as the "Venice of the Alps." Both were impacted by "overtourism," a phenomenon of saturation caused by enthusiastic travelers who popularize certain destinations.
“We didn’t think there would be so many people, but it’s really beautiful,” says Clément, a French tourist from Marseille visiting Bavaria for the first time.
“The color of the water is stunning: so clear and transparent, something that doesn’t usually happen in lakes,” adds her friend Marion.
After walking the 7.5 kilometers around the lake with their son in tow, they will both return to their accommodation in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the large winter sports resort neighboring Grainau.
Almost ten times smaller, Grainau has seen around 620,000 overnight stays per year since the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Deputy Mayor Christian Andrä.
This represents a daily average of 1,700 overnight stays for a town of 3,600 inhabitants. The town does not have a total estimate of visitors, including those who do not stay overnight.
Andrä compares this “form of overtourism” to a “big event,” such as “a football match in Munich” or a “trip to Oktoberfest,” the traditional beer festival.
Grainau experiences the rush to the subway at the end of a match "in a lessened way," says the deputy mayor, explaining that some visitors "ignore the signs" indicating that the parking lots are full, so "in the end they have to turn around and worsen traffic."
Andrä opposes a barrier system, which he believes would cause the same congestion, and so he urges drivers to “show responsibility.”
After driving in for the day, it took Max and Yan almost an hour and a half to get to the lake.
“I really wanted to come here” for the second time, explains Max, 27, a resident of Stuttgart (southwest).
Yan, who lives in Paderborn (center), thinks there are “too many people”, but highlights that the lake is “easily” accessible from Munich and that it is “a fantastic place to spend the day”.
In addition to the heavy traffic, Grainau has to deal with a “certain overload” in waste collection, which requires garbage removal “almost daily,” emphasizes the deputy mayor.
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