MUNICH · GERMANY
Beer halls, baroque squares, the Alps an hour south.
Marienplatz and the Glockenspiel, the Hofbrauhaus and the beer gardens, the long day out to Neuschwanstein, and the WWII history told on the streets where it happened.
Only here
Three things that are Munich and nowhere else.
Plenty of cities have a cathedral and a square. The beer halls, the Glockenspiel and the Bayern arena belong to this one alone.
Since 1589
The Beer Halls
Munich did not invent beer, but it perfected the room you drink it in. The Hofbrauhaus has poured since 1589, the Augustiner cellars longer still, and every September the city throws the original Oktoberfest on the Theresienwiese. A guided crawl gets you the history between the steins.
- 1 Bavarian Beer and Food Evening Tour in Munich
- 2 Classic Mike’s Bike Tour daily @ 11.30 incl Beer Garden & Surfers
- 3 Munich: Beer and Food Tour with Dinner & Oktoberfest Museum
Eleven o'clock
The Glockenspiel
Twice a day the carillon high on the New Town Hall clatters into life, forty-three bells and thirty-two figures re-staging a royal wedding from 1568 and the coopers' dance that followed the plague. The crowd on Marienplatz tips its head back for the full ten minutes. It happens nowhere else.
- 1 Munich Old Town Walking Tour
- 2 Munich: Spooky Tour of Old Town in German
- 3 Munich: Walking Tour Old Town and Viktualienmarkt
Rekordmeister
The Allianz Arena
On the northern edge of the city sits a stadium wrapped in a skin of inflated cushions that glows Bayern red on match nights, visible from the autobahn. Behind it is the most decorated club in German football. The tour takes you pitch-side, into the dressing rooms and through the trophy hall.
- 1 Munich: City Bus Tour & FC Bayern Munich Allianz Arena Tour
- 2 Munich: FC Bayern Museum + Arena View
- 3 Munich: FC Bayern Museum Entry Ticket
The big day out
If you leave the city only once.
More travellers build their Munich trip around this one run south than anything else. Start here.
The classics
Munich's Most Popular Tours
The castle day trips, the WWII walks, the Dachau memorial and the city sightseeing. The handful most travellers come away having done.
Where to begin
The days a Munich trip is built around.
The fairytale castles, the old town walks, the beer halls, the WWII history, the Alps and the home of FC Bayern. The handful of days most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
The fairytale castle
How to see Neuschwanstein.
It is the most visited castle in Europe and a two-hour run from the city, so the how matters as much as the if. Three ways to reach King Ludwig's fairytale, depending on the time and the budget you bring.
Bavarian beer
A litre at a time, in the halls that made it famous.
Six big breweries are allowed to pour at Oktoberfest, and most of them keep a hall in the old town the rest of the year. The Hofbrauhaus fills three floors, the Augustiner cellars run cool and dark, and when the chestnuts come into leaf the gardens open. A guided tour reads the room for you, between the first stein and the last.
Read the guide: the best beer hall and brewery tours →1933 to 1945
The city where it began, and how it is remembered.
Munich called itself the capital of the movement, and the Nazi party rose from its beer halls and squares. The city does not look away from that. Walking tours trace the addresses and the decisions on the ground where they happened, and the memorial at Dachau, the first camp, is a short train ride north.
- 1 Munich: Third Reich & WWII Walking Tour
- 2 Third Reich Walking Tour Munich
- 3 Munich: Birthplace of the Third Reich Guided Walking Tour
An hour south
Where Bavaria runs into the Alps.
Drive ninety minutes out of the city and the land stands up. Berchtesgaden sits in a bowl of limestone peaks, the Konigssee runs emerald between the cliffs, and the Eagle's Nest looks down from the ridge it was built on. The mountains start closer to Munich than most people expect.
Alpine day trips →By place
Munich, and the south of Germany around it.
The Altstadt for the squares and the markets. Neuschwanstein for the castle. Dachau for the memorial. Berchtesgaden for the Alps. Salzburg over the border. Nuremberg up the line.
By activity
Pick how to spend the day.
On foot through the old town. A stein in a beer hall. The market at lunch, or by bike along the Isar. The big day out to the castles, or the harder day to the camp.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
Never been? Here is a long weekend that covers the old town, the castle and the history without a wasted hour.
Just added