City in Germany
18 things to see5 of them free
Munich is pricier than Berlin, but the best of the city costs nothing. The English Garden is one of the largest urban parks in the world, bigger than New York’s Central Park, and right at its southern edge you can watch surfers ride the Eisbach standing wave for free year-round. Wander Marienplatz to catch the Glockenspiel chime in the New Town Hall tower, then graze the stalls of the Viktualienmarkt food market, which costs nothing just to walk through. The cluster of squares and grand buildings around Königsplatz makes a free architecture walk, and beer gardens let you bring your own food and pay only for a drink. Munich sits a short, cheap regional train ride from Salzburg, Nuremberg, and the lakes and mountains around Berchtesgaden, so it works well as a budget base for day trips. Skip the Oktoberfest weeks if you want lower prices: spring and early autumn outside the festival are the cheapest sensible times to visit.
What to see
5 of these cost nothing at all.
Leo von Klenze custom-designed one hall in the Alte Pinakothek to be tall enough to hang Rubens's Last Judgment, which stands over 6 meters. The museum holds 72 Rubens paintings, the largest permanent collection of his work anywhere in the world, which gives a sense of the scale of the Wittelsbach collecting ambition.
The Asamkirche (St Johann Nepomuk) is a tiny Baroque church on Sendlinger Strasse, built by the Asam brothers as their private chapel. Free to enter.
Dachau opened on March 22, 1933, barely seven weeks after the Nazi seizure of power, making it the first concentration camp in the Third Reich and the administrative model for every camp that followed.
The Deutsches Museum on Museumsinsel in the Isar holds approximately 125,000 objects across 50 fields of science and technology, making it the largest science museum in the world by collection size.
Standing wave on the Eisbach river at the southern edge of the Englischer Garten, where surfers ride year-round. One of Munich's most photographed spectacles. The wave is fast and only for experienced surfers, but watching from the bridge is free entertainment.
One of the world's largest urban parks, larger than Central Park and Hyde Park. The Eisbachwelle (river surfing wave) at the southern entrance, the Chinesischer Turm beer garden, and the Monopteros temple viewpoint are the anchor spots. The park runs for 5 kilometers along the Isar river. Free, open, and central to Munich life.
The Hofbrauhaus is Munich's most famous beer hall, a cavernous room of long wooden tables, brass bands, and one-liter Masskrug steins. Free to enter.
The Isar River runs through Munich with naturalized banks, gravel bars, and swimming spots that locals use all summer. Free.
Munich's central square has a Glockenspiel performance at 11 am and noon that reenacts a 1568 ducal wedding and a 1517 coopers' dance, with 32 life-size figures and 43 bells, and almost everyone watching has no idea what they are actually looking at.
The Maximilianstrasse runs east from the Nationaltheater in central Munich to the Maximilianeum, the Bavarian state parliament building, in a straight line that was designed to function as a processional route as much as a commercial street.
Munich's Neues Rathaus (New Town Hall) on Marienplatz was built between 1867 and 1909 in Neo-Gothic style, occupying most of the north side of the main square.
Neuschwanstein is the most photographed castle in Europe, and it was never finished. Ludwig II lived here for a total of 172 days before his death in 1886; the chapel and watchtower never progressed beyond foundations.
A baroque summer palace of the Wittelsbach dynasty, with one of the largest palace parks in Europe. The Gallery of Beauties and the Marstallmuseum (carriage museum) are the interior highlights. The park is free and open year-round. Located in western Munich, reachable by tram.
The gardens of Nymphenburg Palace are a vast baroque park with canals, pavilions, and wooded paths stretching behind the palace. Free.
Grand square at the southern end of Ludwigstrasse, framed by the Theatinerkirche, the Feldherrnhalle, and the entrance to the Hofgarten. The Feldherrnhalle was modeled on the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence and is historically significant as the site of Hitler's failed 1923 Beer Hall Putsch.
The Munich Residenz was the seat of the Wittelsbach dynasty, which ruled Bavaria for over 700 years, and it grew into the largest palace complex in Germany over those centuries.
Munich's daily food market in the city center since 1807. Over 100 stalls selling produce, flowers, cheese, meat, and prepared food. The central beer garden (rotating breweries) is one of Munich's best. The market is the food heart of Munich, equivalent to Vienna's Naschmarkt but older and more compact.
The Viktualienmarkt Beer Garden is a communal outdoor beer garden in the center of Munich's daily food market. Free to sit.
On foot
Tip-based tours and self-guided routes, which is usually the cheapest orientation there is.
The Heart of Munich Free Walking Tour meets at Marienplatz and times the 10:45 morning departure so the group arrives back for the 11 am Glockenspiel show. It is the most efficient free orientation for Munich's old town.
The Munich Beer Garden Walk is a self-guided route through the city's beer culture, starting at Marienplatz and ending in the Englischer Garten. The Bavarian tradition of bringing your own food to a beer garden means the full walk costs as little as the price of two beers.
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