Bavaria (Germany)
Munich is the German city that never had to choose between grandeur and good company: a royal capital of palaces, painted ceilings and world-class galleries that also happens to run on beer gardens, market stalls and long tables where strangers share a pretzel.
The Wittelsbach dukes, electors and kings left it a city palace with a treasury of crowns, a summer palace with a park of canals and pavilions, and a gallery of old masters that ranks with any in Europe, while the townspeople left it the Viktualienmarkt, the Hofbraeuhaus and the English Garden, where surfers ride a standing wave in the middle of the city. This guide books Munich properly — Marienplatz and the Glockenspiel, the Residenz and its Treasury, Nymphenburg, the Deutsches Museum, BMW Welt and the Allianz Arena, the Alte Pinakothek with honest notes on the Neue Pinakothek closure, and the classic day trips to Neuschwanstein, Salzburg and the Dachau memorial — and pairs it with the beer halls, the markets and the Christmas season that make the city feel like a festival. Then it matches you to the right hotel, from the grand Bayerischer Hof to a design hotel above the market stalls, because in a city this walkable, the right address puts the whole old town at your door.
Marienplatz and the Glockenspiel
The heart of Munich since the Middle Ages — the neo-Gothic New Town Hall, the Glockenspiel with its jousting knights and dancing coopers, the golden Virgin on her column, and the Christmas market from 20 November 2026. Free, central and unmissable.
Munich Residenz
The city palace of the Wittelsbach rulers for four centuries — the Renaissance Antiquarium, gilded state rooms, the Treasury with the Bavarian crown jewels and the jewel-box Cuvillies Theatre. Germany's grandest city palace, in the middle of the old town.
Hofbraeuhaus and the Beer Halls
The most famous beer hall in the world — oompah bands, litre steins, long tables under painted vaults and regulars with their own lockers — plus the beer gardens and brewery halls that make Munich the beer capital. Book a guided beer and food tour to go deeper.
Linderhof Palace
The only one of Ludwig II's palaces he lived to see finished, and the one he actually lived in: a jewel-box rococo villa in a remote Alpine valley, with a Hall of Mirrors, a table that rose from the kitchen and a park of fountains and follies.
FreeThe heart of Munich since the Middle Ages — the neo-Gothic New Town Hall, the Glockenspiel with its jousting knights and dancing coopers, the golden Virgin on her column, and the Christmas market from 20 November 2026. Free, central and unmissable.
FreeMunich's open-air food market since 1807 — more than a hundred stalls of cheese, sausage, fruit, flowers and spices, a maypole, fountains to the city's folk comedians and a beer garden pouring from Munich's big breweries in rotation. Closed Sundays.
The city palace of the Wittelsbach rulers for four centuries — the Renaissance Antiquarium, gilded state rooms, the Treasury with the Bavarian crown jewels and the jewel-box Cuvillies Theatre. Germany's grandest city palace, in the middle of the old town.
The Wittelsbachs' baroque summer palace — the Gallery of Beauties, the room where King Ludwig II was born, a museum of royal coaches and sleighs, and a vast park of canals and pavilions. Winter hours apply, and the park pavilions reopen in April.
FreeOne of the world's great city parks, larger than Central Park — surfers riding the Eisbach standing wave, the Chinese Tower beer garden with around 7,000 seats, the Monopteros temple view, a lake with boats and miles of riverside paths. Free.
The most famous beer hall in the world — oompah bands, litre steins, long tables under painted vaults and regulars with their own lockers — plus the beer gardens and brewery halls that make Munich the beer capital. Book a guided beer and food tour to go deeper.
One of the world's great science and technology museums, on its own island in the Isar — aircraft, a model railway, flight simulator demonstrations and a children's kingdom. About half of the museum is open while the rest is rebuilt for 2028.
A century of BMW cars and motorcycles in the futuristic bowl-shaped museum, plus the free, cloud-roofed BMW Welt showroom across the road, beside the four-cylinder headquarters tower and the Olympic Park. Museum closed Mondays.
The glowing inflatable-looking home of FC Bayern Munich — stand in the stands on the Arena View tour, explore the FC Bayern Museum's trophies, or book a city bus tour that includes the stadium. A match night is the ultimate, if you can get tickets.
One of the world's great old-master galleries — Duerer's fur-collared self-portrait, Rubens's giant Last Judgement, Rembrandt and Altdorfer — plus modern art and design next door. One euro on Sundays; the Neue Pinakothek is closed until a planned 2029 reopening.
The site of the first Nazi concentration camp, opened in 1933, now a memorial and museum just outside Munich. Free to enter and open daily, it is a sobering, essential visit; a guided tour from Munich gives the context it demands.
King Ludwig II's fairy-tale castle above the Alpine foothills, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2025. Timed guided tours sell out, so book entry or a day trip from Munich well ahead; the Marienbruecke view is free, weather permitting.
Hotels we would book ourselves, from splurges to good-value bases.
$$$$Altstadt / Promenadeplatz
Munich's great family-run grand hotel on Promenadeplatz — 337 rooms and suites, the three-Michelin-star Atelier, the Palais Keller beer cellar, a jazz club, a cinema lounge and the rooftop Blue Spa with its glass-roofed pool. A world of its own in the old town.
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$$$$Altstadt / Kardinal-Faulhaber-Strasse
Munich's newest ultra-luxury hotel, opened in October 2023 in a former state bank and a baroque palais in the old town — refined rooms and suites, Bar Montez with live jazz, Brasserie Cuvillies and the Asaya Spa with an indoor pool.
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$$$$Altstadt / Maximilianstrasse
The royal grand hotel on Maximilianstrasse since 1858, founded at the wish of King Maximilian II — a glass-domed lobby for afternoon tea, the Schwarzreiter restaurant and bar, and a rooftop spa and pool above Munich's most elegant shopping street.
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$$$Altstadt / Viktualienmarkt
A 72-room design hotel right on the Viktualienmarkt — handcrafted natural-wood rooms, breakfast looking over the market stalls, the LOUIS Grillroom and a rooftop terrace above the old town. Boutique Munich at its most central.
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$$$Altstadt / Isartor
The hotel that calls itself the oldest in the heart of Munich, with more than five centuries of tradition beside the medieval Isartor gate — a family-style four-star with the Restaurant Schapeau and the Klimt-Bar, a short walk from Marienplatz and the Hofbraeuhaus.
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$$Hauptbahnhof / Bahnhofplatz
A playful design hotel in the 1870s royal post office beside the main station — 165 rooms with tongue-in-cheek Bavarian royal style, NENI restaurant, the Boilerman Bar for highballs, a pinewood sauna and bikes to borrow.
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$Altstadt / Sendlinger Tor
Smart budget design at the edge of the old town, with a lounge themed on King Ludwig II's palaces — compact rooms, an organic breakfast and the U-Bahn around the corner, a ten-minute walk from Marienplatz.
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$$$Altstadt / Platzl
A family-run, very Bavarian four-star on the little square by the Hofbraeuhaus: warm, traditional-style rooms, a fifth-floor sauna, the historic Pfistermuehle restaurant and an Ayinger tavern downstairs, minutes from Marienplatz.
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$$Altstadt / Viktualienmarkt
A small boutique hotel in a listed house with more than 400 years of history, tucked into a quiet square a minute from the Viktualienmarkt: old parquet floors, breakfast included and rooms from simple economy to junior suites.
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$$Ludwigsvorstadt / Theresienwiese
A personally run family hotel in an 1889 neo-Renaissance villa, a few hundred metres from the Oktoberfest grounds and within walking distance of the main station and old town: quiet streets, individual rooms and fair prices.
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$$Isarvorstadt / Deutsches Museum
A quiet boutique hotel on a side street between the Isar and the Gaertnerplatz: three minutes to the Deutsches Museum and the river, eight to the Viktualienmarkt, with trams and the S-Bahn close by.
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$Hauptbahnhof / Ludwigsvorstadt
Munich's favourite backpacker base, steps from the main station: clean dorms with en-suite bathrooms and personal lockers, private doubles, a guest kitchen, a bar with a free welcome drink and breakfast with unlimited coffee.
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A family-owned four-star on a pedestrian street between the main station and the Stachus, in the Geisel family since 1936 and renovated in 2017: polished rooms, Alpine touches and the Geisels' acclaimed wine restaurant downstairs.
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$$Schwabing
A minimalist, good-value design hotel in the heart of Schwabing, around 600 metres from the English Garden: 81 rooms and suites for one to six guests, a small bar, allergy-friendly rooms and the U-Bahn three stops from Marienplatz.
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$$Haidhausen
A dependable full-service hotel in Haidhausen, built directly onto the Rosenheimer Platz S-Bahn station: one stop to Marienplatz, a direct line to the airport, the Deutsches Museum a short walk across the Isar.
Check rates →The first-timer's itinerary that puts Marienplatz, the market and the Residenz on day one, museums and the English Garden on day two, and Neuschwanstein or Salzburg on day three, with the bookings to make before you go.
The practical essentials for a first visit to Munich: when to go, getting around, beer hall and beer garden etiquette, Sunday and Monday closures, tickets to book ahead and what things cost.
A neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood guide to choosing a base in Munich, from the old town and Maximilianstrasse to the main station, Sendlinger Tor, Schwabing and Haidhausen, with the hotels we recommend in each.
How to eat and drink like a local in Munich: the six big breweries, the best beer halls and beer gardens, the etiquette, the Bavarian dishes to order, the Viktualienmarkt and a word on Oktoberfest.
The best Christmas markets in Munich in 2026, from the Christkindlmarkt on Marienplatz to Tollwood and the Medieval market, plus winter hours, cosy indoor sights and winter day trips.
How to plan the three classic day trips from Munich: King Ludwig II's Neuschwanstein, Mozart's Salzburg across the Austrian border, and the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site, with tours, trains and timing.
