Little Bavaria: Leavenworth, Washington

ByChristine Updated on

Leavenworth is a Bavarian themed town in the midst of mountainous scenery in Washington state. If you forgot for a moment that you actually were in the United States, you might believe this was Germany.

It provides a nice European ambiance without leaving the country!

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German Architecture

The decorative roof-lines, flower boxes, Maibaum (blue and white maypole in the center of the town), and mountains do a decent job of being a little Bavarian town’s doppelganger.

The Hotel Europa in Leavenworth Washington displays the German charm of this town with colorful flower boxes, carved wooden balconies, and flags painted on its facade.

Leavenworth Food and Drink

We wandered around the town, looked into a few shops, and tried out both Gustav’s and the Icicle Brewing Company where we sat outside, enjoyed the views and people watching.

Outdoor seating is a must when imitating Germany, and we both wish it were more common for restaurants in the states to have a nice outdoor area.

Nutcracker Museum

While in town we also went to the Nutcracker Museum. Now that’s something quite appropriate for a faux German town and it has cheap admission so why not? It was so much more interesting than you’d think, or than we thought when we first decided to go. We were pleasantly surprised.

Yes, there are some creepy and just plain strange nutcrackers; yes, you will get tired of looking at nutcrackers by the end as there are so many, but in those golden moments in between, you will be really glad you checked it out.

We’re all familiar with the typical nutcracker (see the picture below), of which there were so many varieties: soldiers, mountain climbers, Darth Vader, doctors, holiday themed, knights, astronauts, hunters, princesses, and so on.

But there were also so many other types of nutcrackers. There were stones with round grooves in them which had been used to crack nuts, some with a single pit and others with multiple pits that signified they had been communal nut cracking stones.

There were metal nutcrackers, some thousands of years old, from all over the world, and some very ornate and intricately designed. There were sets of nutcrackers with nut picks and other utensils.

Even more nutcrackers were made out of other metals or wood, often carved with faces or as animals. Other still, were screw nutcrackers where as one turned the top, the clamp is lowered and eventually cracks the nut against the baseplate. Anyway, much more variety than expected, and a fun little excursion!

We only spent an evening and another afternoon in the town itself, but spent another few days hiking into The Enchantments and climbing some striking sandstone slabs in the area.

Interested in Other German Towns in the US?

We really enjoyed Frankenmuth, another German themed town in Michigan.

Christine is the co-founder of Never Stop Adventuring, and an avid traveler who started traveling the world as a child growing up in a military family. She even lived in Germany for numerous years. Since then she has been to 48 U.S. states, 17 countries, and traveled the U.S. in an RV for over 7 years.

With her 3 kids, the adventures continued family travel style. She has planned and coordinated travel with kids for the last 10 years and shares family travel tips and tricks, destinations, costs and even the mistakes so you can be empowered to take your own family trips with confidence!