Bad Münstereifel is a historical spa town in the district of Euskirchen with about 17,000 inhabitants, situated in the far southeast of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The little town is one of only few historical towns in the southeast of North Rhine-Westphalia, and because of this is often overcrowded by tourists throughout Spring and Summer.
Bad Münstereifel lies about 30 kilometres southwest of Bonn and around ten (both as the crow flies) south of the county town of Euskirchen in the Münstereifel Forest, a part of the Eifel mountains. The River Erft flow through the town. It has a borough of around 151 km² in area at heights of 200 to 586 m above sea level (NHN). The latter is the height of the Michelsberg, which is the highest point in the borough and rises in the northwestern part of the Ahr Hills (another region of the Eifel).
The borough is around 60 percent forested, several woods are designated as so-called ancient forest (Urwald). Over 200 kilometres of trails enable access to the low mountain uplands, which are about 25 kilometres from the Eifel National Park.
The city is the first in which a so-called outlet center (direct sales point) was created in a city center and not, as was previously the case, outside or on the outskirts of a village. South of the city wall, just in front of the Orchheimer Tor, a number of new buildings were erected around an open space. In addition, numerous brand shops are located in existing buildings in the historic old town within the city wall, along the pedestrian zone. The project is called City Outlet Bad Münstereifel and was opened on 14 August 2014. In the first four month about half a million visitors are said to have been visited the center.
