A delightful town that reinvented itself in the early 1960s, Leavenworth is located in Chelan County, Washington and has been remodeled as an alpine Bavarian Village.
Renowned for its charming shops, wide variety of accommodation and active events calendar, with Leavenworth’s Oktoberfest celebration one of the most attended outside of Munich. The old-fashioned Bavarian theme is very much at home against the magnificent background of Washington’s steep snowy Cascade Mountains, with even McDonalds sporting a timbered design.
As you stroll past the Bavarian architecture, you will come across the Marktplatz where daily showings of a 30-minute documentary film tell Leavenworth’s story. With the loss of its timber and railway industries, the town was in slow decline and decided in the early 1960s to invest in tourism and transform into a Bavarian travel destination. Nowadays, a number of people of German and Austrian descent are drawn to this location as their new home.
Leavenworth offers its visitors ample opportunities for adventure sports and outdoor recreation throughout the year. Icicle Junction Entertainment Park guarantees a whole day full of fun for the entire family, while the area’s whitewater rafting rides on the close-by Wenatchee River are extremely popular in the state. Further activities for nature lovers include fishing, hiking, horseback riding, skiing and golfing.
Highlights
Icicle Junction Family Fun Center: the entertainment park features a real steam locomotive for excursions, a games center, movie theater, miniature golf and Bumperboat Lagoon.
Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum: over 3,000 nutcrackers from several countries dating back 300 years are on display in this unique museum.
Riverfront Park: peaceful walking trails, swimming in the Wenatchee River and picnic areas are only a block from the downtown shops.
Shopping: the Bavarian Village is home to many wonderfully unique shops where you can buy items imported from around the globe such as handcrafted cuckoo clocks, Dresden china or hand painted Russian dolls.
Wenatchee National Forest: Leavenworth is surrounded by 2.2 million acres of some of the most stunning mountain terrain in the world.