Jagdhof, Röhrnbach – Bavaria's largest spa world, two MICHELIN Keys

South of the Bavarian Forest National Park, where the German, Czech and Austrian borders converge, the Wellness & Sport Hotel Jagdhof has turned a quiet corner of Röhrnbach into one of Bavaria's most complete retreats for rest and exertion in equal measure. The house is run by the Ritzinger family, who built its reputation on an unusually large wellness landscape of pools, saunas and treatment rooms set beside a natural bathing lake, with granite quarried from the surrounding hills worked into the newest pools. The MICHELIN Guide gives it Two MICHELIN Keys, and Falstaff's 2026 SPA Guide names it Germany's best adults-only spa hotel. What separates the Jagdhof from the region's many wellness addresses is its parallel seriousness about sport: a dedicated fitness world with an altitude-training chamber sits alongside eleven themed saunas and five dining rooms serving a seven-course menu each evening, behind 105 rooms and suites, several with private saunas or rooftop infinity pools of their own.

01The house

The Jagdhof was awarded its fifth star in May 2015, becoming the first five-star hotel in the Bavarian Forest, a status the family-run property has kept ever since under the Ritzingers, who describe themselves simply as its hosts. It keeps a deliberately adult register: children aged twelve and older are allowed, and check-in runs from 15:00, with check-out at 11:00.

A current rebuilding has added a textile-free Sky pool landscape cut from solid granite quarried in the Bavarian Forest, together with a new event sauna, set beside the original 1,380 square-metre sport and fitness world and the house's established indoor pool, nude-friendly outdoor pool, outdoor whirlpool, saline pool, relaxation rooms, eleven themed saunas and Lady Spa. Sport and spa run side by side here rather than one serving the other.

02Rooms and suites

All 105 rooms are non-smoking and air-conditioned. The simplest is the 25 square-metre Doppelzimmer Classic; the largest is the roughly 230 square-metre Rooftop-Pool-Suite, whose 140 square-metre roof terrace carries its own infinity pool, whirlpool and sauna. The newer Luxury-Suites run to private Finnish saunas, covered whirlpools or, in two cases, a private outdoor infinity pool, furnished in leather and solid wood with Bang & Olufsen sound systems built into the wall. Some rooms add a separate bath and shower and their own whirlpool, and many look out over the lake.

Insider tip

Adults preferred from age 12; book spa days or dinner at the Restaurant-Stuben ahead.

03Where to eat and drink

Dinner runs across five separate dining rooms, together billed as the Restaurant-Stuben, where the kitchen works what it calls a crossover between Bavarian tradition and modern technique, drawing on a network of regional, ecologically run farms for its produce. The evening menu runs to seven courses, rebuilt with the seasons, taking in dishes such as a veal duet and a banana-split dessert alongside lighter buffets at breakfast and in the afternoon. The wine cellar has earned its keep: it won the German Wine List Award in 2024, scored 95 of 100 points from Falstaff Travel, and took first place in Vinum magazine's Casual Fine Dining category. A bar and vaulted wine cellar with a serious range of vintages sit beside the dining rooms.

04Spa, pool and wellbeing

The numbers explain the MICHELIN Keys: the wellness and water world now covers 7,700 square metres across ten pools of different temperatures, from a 20-metre indoor pool kept at 32°C to a 25-metre outdoor infinity pool heated year-round, plus a 750 square-metre natural bathing lake filtered biologically in the garden. The wellbeing area is genuinely unusual for Germany, running from fitness classes and a steam room to a female-only spa space and treatments from traditional massage to the latest cosmetic procedures.

The newest addition is the Sky pool landscape, built from solid Bavarian Forest granite: a 125 square-metre infinity pool at 32°C and, beside it, a 25 square-metre saline pool at 36°C, plus a granite cold-and-ice plunge running from 16°C down to between 1°C and 3°C under a machine that lays real snow. Eleven themed saunas and what is billed as Bavaria's largest hotel spa landscape surround the garden, and the Beauty Schlössl offers more than seventy individual treatments, including JetPeel facials and Matrix Rhythm therapy.

Falstaff's 2026 SPA Guide rates the Jagdhof Germany's best adults-only spa hotel, with a score of 96, and the separate Falstaff Hotel Guide gives the property 92 points overall.

05The neighbourhood

Röhrnbach sits centrally in the southern Bavarian Forest, between the three-rivers city of Passau and the Bavarian Forest National Park, in what the hotel calls a market town with heart. The property itself is a minute from the national park boundary by the lake, with the Saußbachklamm gorge around eight minutes away by car and the Donau-Golf-Club Passau-Raßbach roughly sixteen miles off. For something faster than a forest trail, the hotel also arranges self-drive outings in a Lamborghini Huracán through the surrounding valleys.

06Making the most of a stay

Half board here is built around what the hotel calls its Verwöhnpension, bundling breakfast, a light lunch buffet and the seven-course dinner; breakfast itself runs daily from 7:00 to 11:30. Day visitors can book single sessions in the wellness world without staying overnight, and personal trainers are available for the sport side of the programme, alongside the altitude-training chamber and a counter-current sport pool for anyone determined to keep training on holiday.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.