Tourist Information for Leavenworth, WA

Stevens Pass Closed

As of Wednesday morning, January 25, Stevens Pass is closed due to slides and avalanche danger.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Jaruary 25, Stevens Pass is now open. Check Washington State DOT for further information.

Willkommen!

Welcome to Accidental Bavarian, your doorway into the beautiful Bavarian town of Leavenworth, Washington. Nestled in the rugged and scenic Cascade Mountains alongside the Wenatchee River, Leavenworth is a gateway to year-round outdoor adventures, culinary and agricultural tourism, and family fun.

Leavenworth is also a city of festivals. Nearly every calendar month has a new festival to celebrate. From Ice Fest in January to Maifest welcoming spring, then from the Autumn Leaf Festival in September to the Christmas Lighting Festival celebrating the arrival of snow play and Santa Claus, and every week in between, Leavenworth is waiting to help your family make beautiful memories for many years to come. Read more about Leavenworth's Festivals.

Our love affair with Leavenworth began many years ago. This website is an outgrowth of that love. It's our vision to create a website that hopes to serve the people of Leavenworth by encouraging new visitors, help tourists get information and advise from other tourists, and keeping other long-time visitors connected to our favorite place. If you're curious about who we are and why we've created Accidental Bavarian visit the Contact page.

Leavenworth Ski Hill Nordic Trails open Friday, January 21

The Ski Hill Nordic Trails will open Friday late afternoon. The ticket booth will open at 3 p.m. as normally scheduled for Ski Hill operations on Friday. The grooming staff will work on the Golf Course trails throughout the weekend and hope to have that venue open early next week. See the website for conditions.

Leavenworth Ski Hill Opens Saturday, December 10

The Leavenworth Ski Hill will open this Saturday, Dec. 10th for Tubing, Skiing and Snowboarding. This will be the first weekend of the 2011-2012 Season and offers discounted early season rates for skiing and snowboarding at $10 per person. The Tube Hill will charge non-peak rates of $15 for 90 minutes.

Operating hours for the Rope Tows, Tube Hill and Ski Hill Lodge will be Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Lodge will offer a limited menu of drinks and snacks.

For more details about the Leavenworth Ski Hill please visit Tube Hill or Leavenworth Ski Hill. They will make a decision about mid-week operations on Sunday.

An International Love Story

This short film was filmed last year entirely in Leavenworth. It has been receiving outstanding critical praise and begins to make the rounds of the film festivals after the first of the year.

"The Next Big Thing" in Leavenworth

Always check here first to find out what is TNBT - The Next Big Thing in Leavenworth. We'll update this approximately weekly with spotlight events for the next week or so.

Leavenworthy Award

Washington State Department of Transportation is Leavenworthy!

(We periodically declare a person or business Leavenworthy. Please click the Leavenworthy link to see who we have declared Leavenworthy in the past.)

On an April day this year we had to make a trip to Seattle for a dear uncle's memorial service. We decided to stay in Leavenworth for the weekend. Before leaving we made sure we reviewed the WSDOT Winter driving page. The spring was so cold and wet we knew we could run into winter-like driving conditions. On this page we accessed PDFs about winter driving tips, viewed mountain pass webcams, got information about studded tire and tire chain requirements, and subscribed to email notifications about specific road and pass conditions.

We had a new smart phone and those emails proved vital. We were able to avoid a 4 hour delay on Snoqualmie Pass and reroute to Stevens Pass (opened due to the hard work of the WSDOT just hours before after an avalanche.) The WSDOT is also very active on Twitter, alerting drivers to road hazards, mountain pass conditions, weather conditions and communicating with travelers. We once used Twitter to alert WSDOT about some questionable conditions at a busy rest area. If you follow them, they follow back so that you can let them know if you see a problem like a rock slide, water on the roadway or a dirty rest area.

We won't travel anywhere in Washington State without connecting with the Washington State Department of Transportation. Because the fine folks there work so hard to keep our roads open, minimize road hazards, and communicate with Washington State travelers, they are most definitely Leavenworthy.

Ira Finkelstein's Christmas
trailer available

Ira Finkelstein's Christmas, the movie filmed last winter in Leavenworth, has just posted the trailer for the movie. And here it is, making it's worldwide debut right here at Accidental Bavarian.

Ira Finkelstein's Christmas from Von Piglet Productions on Vimeo.

New Travel Blog Articles

Check out our travel blog for new articles about Leavenworth and other fun places we've visited. Some of our latest blog posts are about a visit to St. Augustine, Florida and a yummy treat we discovered there, some travel photo books we put together, the Leavenworth MaiFest Awards, and a photo blog of some of our Leavenworth, Washington favorites. Check back often or subscribe to the RSS feed.

What Is Accidental Bavarian?

Accidental Bavarian is intended to help you find things to do, places to eat, things to see and overnight accommodations in Leavenworth, Washington. You'll find our tips and recommendations and what's currently happening in our home away from home.

Read more about Accidental Bavarian and our mascots, Fritzi and Mitzi.

You can also read a recent blog post "Who Are the Accidental Bavarians and Why Are They Stalking Leavenworth?"

Lanier Bed and Breakfast Inns

LanierBB.com is an online directory, with details for over 45,000 worldwide properties. Pamela Lanier's Bed and Breakfast Inns lets clients search boutique properties for the perfect place to stay for a romantic getaway, a family vacation, a girl's weekend, or wine tasting tour.

Their best-selling print Guidebook, "The Complete Guide To Bed and Breakfasts Inns & Guesthouses International", is currently in its 27th edition and has sold nearly 3 million copies worldwide.

Accidental Bavarian is now working with Pamela Lanier's Bed and Breakfast Inns and they are offering a special discount to our Leavenworth property owners for new and renewing memberships.

Click for more Leavenworth news

Woody Goomsba Continues to Get Attention

Woody Goomsba and Leavenworth continue to get attention. Recently the Huffington Post and USA Today Travel (and Accidental Bavarian was interviewed for the story!) both featured the Woody Goomsba Video. Wherever you find yourself on the issue of Leavenworth's wacky wooden spokescracker, you can't deny his attention-getting capabilities. The Leavenworth Chamber of Commerce recently released the 6th in the video series. You can go behind the scenes and find out more about the making of the increasingly popular videos.

• Woody at Der Spa
• Woody Falls in Love
• Woody Goes Golfing
• Vacation Impossible

Also, Nancy Smith, Executive Director of the Leavenworth Chamber of Commerce was interviewed on New Day Northwest on King-5 TV in Seattle about Woody Goomsba and the recent Bavarian Ice Festival.