Discover Schmidmühlen

There are many different ways to discover Schmidmühlen: a seasonal Star Trail, a renovated historic town centre and a stage of the Vils canoe tour that passes through the market town. This gives you starting points for exploring culture, local history and a journey on the water.

The Star Trail as a winter highlight

The Star Trail is installed from the first Sunday of Advent until Epiphany. Its final stop and one of the highlights of the trail is the glass bauble hut in front of the town hall. More than 3,500 Christmas baubles are hung inside. The seasonal dates are particularly important when planning your visit: if you would like to include the Star Trail in your trip, plan your visit accordingly and check local information before travelling.

Renovated town centre and arable farmers’ houses

The historic town centre of Schmidmühlen was renovated between 1989 and 1995 with support from the urban development assistance programme. The market centre is home to arable farmers’ houses with broad hop lofts. These houses give your walk through the town centre a specific architectural focus: alongside the history of the renovation, you can look out for the building style and the broad lofts reflected in their name.

Two connections with the water in the market town

An arm of the Lauterach runs through the market town of Schmidmühlen. The fourth stage of the Vils canoe tour offers a different perspective on the water: it runs via Vilswörth through the market town to Emhof. The local river arm and the described canoeing stage thus cater to different interests. If you include the stage in your plans, you can use its route and the named stops as a guide.

Amberg-Sulzbach: regional highlights

The wider travel destination of Amberg-Sulzbach offers a range of themes beyond Schmidmühlen. The Amberg-Sulzbach region lies in Bavaria between Regensburg and Nuremberg. Its landscape includes imposing limestone cliffs, gentle Jura hills, extensive forests and picturesque river valleys.

One specific hike is the Felsenweg trail from Sackdilling through the Felsenlabyrinth to the Bauernlöcher. The route is 2.7 kilometres long, and the stated walking time is about 45 minutes. At Wolfertsfeld in Birgland, you can try traditional archery on the Bow-Vision 3D course: the circular route is about 3 kilometres long and passes through the farm woodland typical of the Upper Palatinate Jura. The different distance and walking-time details help you assess these two activities according to how much time you would like to spend.

Cultural history is also part of the wider Amberg-Sulzbach region. The Erzweg connects sites with a mining tradition spanning more than 1,000 years and leads through cultural and natural landscapes. At Kultur-Schloss Theuern, the Eastern Bavaria Mining and Industry Museum researches and documents mining and industry in eastern Bavaria, keeping their history alive.

The Kirwa festivals are among the region’s traditions: since 2023, they have been part of Bavaria’s intangible cultural heritage. They are celebrated each year in the respective town and are open to visitors and local residents. Many inns in the Amberg-Sulzbach region also regularly invite guests to a traditional Schlachtschüssel meal. Dates vary from inn to inn; dishes served include Wurschtsuppn, Kesselfleisch and blood sausages, liver sausages and bratwurst made according to the inns’ own recipes.

This emphasis helps point your search in a direction without combining the different destinations into a single trip.

Discover more destinations: Auerbach In Der Oberpfalz, Birgland, Ursensollen, Schnaittenbach, Edelsfeld, Vilseck, Weigendorf, Ammerthal

View the wider travel overview: Amberg-Sulzbach.