Bavaria, Germany

Bavaria is the biggest state in the country and the one that has successfully exported its own image to the rest of the world as the definition of Germany — lederhosen, beer gardens, castles and mountains — which the rest of Germany finds funny and Bavaria finds entirely correct. Munich is the capital with the beer halls and the money, Nuremberg is the northern city with the medieval walls and the Christmas market that is the biggest in Europe, Neuschwanstein is the fairytale castle that Disney copied, Bamberg is the UNESCO town with the smoked beer, and the Alps run along the southern edge with the skiing and the lake district.

Bavaria is culturally Catholic and conservative, genuinely more traditional than the north, and the beer culture is not a performance — the beer garden is a real social institution with a legal tradition of bringing your own food. Franconia in the north of the state is genuinely different and will tell you so.

Expect real beer-garden social energy, genuine Alpine content, and a state that considers itself the actual Germany and is not wrong about the postcards.

Nearby: Munich Stuttgart Frankfurt Baden-Württemberg