Those planning to travel to GARC for a vacation will be in for a treat.  This is a very beautiful area located in southern Germany in the heart of Bavaria.  Some important aspects of planning this vacation are as follows that should assist ones planning efforts.

  Initiate your efforts by visiting the Armed Forces Recreation Center (AFRC) Europe home page at
http://www.afrceurope.com.    This is an excellent site to initiate email with the center’s automatic information mailing router, and provides a wide selection of price information, pictures and items of interest.  The visual displays of the Chiemsee and Garmisch maps are difficult to read on the web, but are easy to follow hard copy (available once you arrive).
  Consider your needs carefully when you decide which rooms you want, locations within town, and price you can afford.  My analysis of costs produced the following results, and used 2 adults and 2 children (12 & 13 yr. olds) as the baseline.  Review your family or personal needs to determine bed space and rooms required.  The family suites offer a total of two rooms and a large bathroom that contain 3 queen size beds.  Pricing this against getting 2 single rooms and a rollaway couch proved cheaper in the long run.  Rooms come complete with TVs in both rooms, a VCR (movie rentals are free at the front desk), coffee maker and iron.
  Hotels in town appear cheaper at first but you must consider all costs.  For example, rooms are smaller (to include bed size) and eating at the hotel is much more expensive.  AFRC hotels have a game room for the kids and slot machines for the adults.  AFRC hotels have security guards and ample parking, although crime is generally nonexistent here in Garmisch.
  Eating at AFRC hotels was excellent in terms of selection, but a bit expensive in terms of price as it added up.  The breakfast available weekdays from 0700-0930 had a wide selection of American style eating such as bacon, eggs, SOS, waffles, juice, fruit, etc.  You may also purchase cold items such as muffins or cereal separately.  Buffet cost was $5.95 for each adult; $2.95 for children.  Sundays they have a Brunch that was very good.
  The Patton hotel (where we stayed) is conveniently located, and offers a bus service to the ski lodge daily for those enrolled in the weekly package.  We enrolled the kids in the snow boarding, and the weekly package comes complete.  They issue pants; jacket, boots, snow board but you must bring gloves and hats.  The stores were all out of small kid’s gloves due to high demand while we were there.  Instructors stay with the kids all day so you can go out and do things without worrying.  The Hausberg lodge has an American style lunch selection, and the bar opens at 1400 for adults.
  Those desiring the ski week packages should arrive in Garmisch Friday or Saturday at the latest.  The lodge holds their registration Saturday evening at 1700ish and inprocesses all those starting the course on Sunday.  As a result, those arriving and showing up Sunday morning took a long time in a very long line, and pandemonium and confusion abounded.  The classes also got off to a late start.  There are lockers for you to store your gear in daily, so you don't have to transport it back and forth to the hotel, unless you bring your own and desire to do so.  Each locker is only 50 cents a day, and holds the skis, boots, clothing… whatever. The next picture shows the upper mountain slopes with the course set up for the kids racing in the foreground.  They place several flags for the students to race through, and timing determines the winning of awards at the Thursday pm banquet.  This was a great dinner where all kids and most adults get a gold, silver or bronze medal from each grouping.  We decided to only ski on Sunday and pay the daily rate.  This was about $55.00 per person for lessons, equipment and clothing.  It costs $9.00 each for a one-lift pass up the mountain to watch the race or travel to the top.  You can get an all day pass for about double that.  There are several nice restaurants and places to eat/drink up on the mountain for lunch and snacks.  You will also see a shot looking down the mountain towards Garmisch from the first lift level.  It is a beautiful view on a clear day, but there are often clouds or fog present that obscure all visibility.  THe air is extremely clear, crisp and fresh here.  It is well worth the price to take the train up to the top of the mountain, where you can see all the way into Austria and beyond on a clear day.  Simply breathtaking.
  On the way down riding the tram, you can also see some of the facilities used during the Munich winter olympics.  These include the skating dome, slalom course and jump slides.

  While the kids are skiing or snow boarding, parents can enjoy some of the trips available, local shopping, or whatever.  We took the trip to see the neuschwanstein castle; the one Disney used to model his Cinderella castle after.  On the day we went it was so foggy, you could not even see the top of the towers.  Inside is incredible, with numerous paintings, original antiques and incredible lavish style.  What a waste King Ludwig only spent a hundred something days in it and it remains unfinished.  I also noticed the incredible Gothic woodcarving in the King's bedroom.  Took several years of impressive detail.  But for heaven's sake, he had this huge castle and wait until you see the size of his bedroom!  Most of us can fit it in a corner of our living room.  No pictures or video are allowed inside “to protect the artwork and paintings”.  Not sure how a video camera without flash would damage it, and although I agree with their point, you will find an ample selection of booklets available to purchase at the gift store at the end of the trip for a hefty fee.

Garmisch has some excellent restaurants around town, offering traditional German selections of pork and beef.  Most come with salads, potatoes, yes excellent draft beers, and delicious deserts.  A bit on the pricey side, but affordable if you share a plate or eat a bit before you go first.
  Although we didn't come to Germany to eat pizza, there are numerous parlors around town, and the Pizza Hut served better pizza than we have ever had in the United States.  It satisfied finicky tastes of the kids, and was even great by our parental standards.  Around town you will be able to find lots of shops but beware they are expensive.  Many choices of postcards, chocolate, knick-knacks, souvenirs, etc.  And unlike Naples Italy, there are strict rules abound that make even Massachusetts appear to be an unconservative place.  Laws against this, can’ t do that, fines for this… I highly suggest you don't litter, speed, park away from the curve, forget to use your blinker, dispose of bottles on Sunday, flip anyone off, or forget to stop and offer payment to someone you splash for dry cleaning.  All will result in a hefty ticket or even jail time in some cases.
  We decided to spend our last two nights in Bad Ibling Station at the Army base there.  You may call the TLF to obtain space A lodging, at a cheaper price than the AFRC hotels.  In Germany, U.S. bases are not well advertised, either due to OPSEC reasons or laws prohibiting signs.  As a result, you should note and follow directions carefully, as those listed in open source travel guides such as Military Living ®.  There are no big signs in town to guide you to the base, although my wife was able to point out a large concentration of satellite dishes in the distance, as we came down the mountains from Garmisch.  Yes, it turned out to be the 66th MI and Bad Ibling Station.  Good OPSEC folks.  We used a family suite there for $77.00 night, although you could get a single room with living room, bathroom and bedroom (1 Queen) and use the fold out couch and extra rollaway bed for $66.00 if you want.  They have a small PX, medium commissary, shops, and a great snack bar.  It has a full menu of burgers, chicken, American style food, Visebeer and Guinness Stout on draught.  The bowling alley also has slot machines, a good menu and six lanes for the family to bowl.  The drive from Garmisch to Bad Ibling takes about 70-90 minutes through the beautiful German countryside.  Reminded us of northern New England or the Western States.  Extremely clean, clear and fresh with maintained roads and easy directions to get there.  Only one bad turn you may miss if your not careful between Bad Tolz and Bad Ibling.  From there, it’s only 35 minutes to drive to Garmisch.  Straight down Autobahn 8, Chiemsee (pronounced kim-say) has a beautiful hotel ordered built by the fuhrer in 1938.  You must check out the selection of hand made porcelain dolls in the gift shop, moderately priced even by finicky shoppers.  Excellent quality and design at affordable prices.  Again, the map at the web site shows all features available here like shoppettes, campsites, etc.  Clearly an excellent choice for summer recreation.
  On our last day we headed north to Munich and passed 15 minutes north to Dachau to view the German Concentration camp.  A very moving site, maintaining a museum, barracks and crematorium used by the Nazis to eliminate threats to the regime, and the Arian Nation.  There are an assortment of memorials, maintained structures and facilities to remind society of the horrors of the past.  Military enthusiasts should never confuse the strengths and RMA inherent with Guderian’s Blitzkrieg with those of the oppressive, dictatorship in Hitler’s Third Reich.  The museum is free, although the English tour guide asks for a 5 DM donation to cover costs of preserving the camp.

A solemn sign points to the wooden rafters in front of the ovens that shows where people were hanged.  Additionally, the room on the far left was a disinfectant area where prisoners were disinfected from lice and vectors before going into the showers (room in left side of picture).  Everything within the camp was a complete and disgusting deception of military etiquette and standards designed to fool prisoners.

This picture shows the second set of ovens that are located in a nearby building.  ashes could be emptied out into grating below, then disposed quickly.

   On an important note, there is an esso station in the town of Freising just 4.5 km from the airport.  You can use your NATO coupons here to get gas instead of paying triple when you turn in the rental car.  Just follow the signs into town and stay straight through the center traffic light.  It is about 400 meters around the bend on the left from there.  The AGIP station next to the airport can't take coupons.