Square in Munich
FreeCosts nothing to visit.
Marienplatz is Munich’s central square, dominated by the neo-Gothic New Town Hall with its Glockenspiel clock. Free. The Glockenspiel performs daily at 11 am (and at noon and 5 pm in summer), drawing crowds who tilt their heads back to watch the mechanical knights joust and coopers dance. The square connects to the Viktualienmarkt, the pedestrian shopping streets, and the Hofbrauhaus district. Budget travelers use it as a starting point for everything.
Practical
On foot
Free and low-cost routes that stop at Marienplatz Munich.
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.
Nearby
Other places worth the walk, and what each one costs.
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.
Working out what Munich costs?
The whole of Munich