The glockenspiel takes ten minutes. Then you have all of Bavaria.
Which Neuschwanstein day trip actually gets you inside the castle. What a Dachau memorial tour asks of you. Where the Viktualienmarkt beer garden hides. Reviews of every tour you can book in Munich.
Neuschwanstein, the Third Reich walk, Dachau, and a table under the vaults.
The four bookings a first Munich trip is built around. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01South for the dayNeuschwanstein & Linderhof Castle Full-Day TripNeuschwanstein and Linderhof on one run down the Romantic Road. Take the coach that holds your timed castle slot, not a separate ticket.
02The city explainedThird Reich & WWII Walking TourOdeonsplatz, the Feldherrnhalle and the cellar where it started. Two hours that make the rest of Munich legible.
03Dachau, by trainDachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site Tour from Munich by TrainThe memorial site is forty minutes out on the S-Bahn. Go with a guide; the grounds say very little on their own.
04The long eveningBavarian Beer and Food Evening Tour in MunichBeer halls, small cellars and the food that belongs with them. Book the early sitting if you want to hear yourself talk.
Bavaria keeps its best days a coach ride from Munich.
A castle on a gorge, a small palace built for an audience of one, a lake the colour of bottle glass under the Watzmann, and Mozart’s town over the border. Four kinds of day out, and what it costs to get on each one.
Six Munich days, and the best thing to book on each one.
The castle two hours south, the memorial forty minutes north, the old town on foot, an evening that starts in a cellar, the green water of the Königssee, and Salzburg over the Austrian border.
The tours more travellers take than anything else in Munich.
Every Munich tour we have reviewed →One castle day out in front by a distance, then the history walks, then the beer. What earns each of them the slot.
1
Neuschwanstein & Linderhof Castle Full-Day Trip
Tour Bavaria’s Neuschwanstein and Linderhof castles from Munich, with Hohenschwangau, Alpine views, guide commentary, and optional entry tickets.
Read our review →
2
Neuschwanstein & Linderhof Castle-Fairytale Day Tour from Munich
from $95
3
Third Reich & WWII Walking Tour
from $31
4
Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site Tour from Munich by Train
from $64
5
Neuschwanstein Castle Tour from Munich
from $95
6
Third Reich Walking Tour Munich
from $45
7
Munich Hop-On Hop-Off Tour: 1-Day or 2-Day Ticket
from $27
8
Neuschwanstein Castle Full-Day Trip
from $93
Munich measures the year in litres and the day in courses.
A Hofbräuhaus table is the easy version. The better evenings work through the small cellars, the Viktualienmarkt stalls and the breweries that still mash on site, with something solid between rounds.
Munich does not hide what began here.
The party was founded in this city and the first camp was built forty minutes north of it. The walking tours cover the squares and buildings where it happened; the memorial site at Dachau is a separate day, and a heavier one. Both are led by guides who deal in evidence rather than atmosphere.
- 1Third Reich & WWII Walking Tourfrom $31
- 2Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site Tour from Munich by Trainfrom $64
- 3Third Reich Walking Tour Munichfrom $45
What a day out of Munich actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it charges. Munich itself is cheap to walk. The money goes on the coach south.
Old-town walks, museum entry, the night watchman round and the bike loops through the English Garden.
The standards: Neuschwanstein and Linderhof by coach, Dachau with a guide, the long beer and food evenings.
Private drivers, small-group castle runs and the days that cross into Austria and back.
Three things that only happen in this city.
Beer gardens exist everywhere. A hall that seats three thousand, a watchman still calling the hours at ten, and a stadium that changes colour do not.
Hofbräuhaus and the cellars
Munich licensed its brewers in 1487 and never really stopped. The Hofbräuhaus seats around three thousand under vaults painted like a chapel, and the band plays whether or not anyone is listening. The tours worth taking leave after one and go on to the small cellars and the working brewhouses, where somebody can tell you what is actually in the mash.
- 1Bavarian Beer and Food Evening Tour in Munich★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,575 reviews
- 2Classic Mike’s Bike Tour daily @ 11.30 incl Beer Garden & Surfers★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,246 reviews
- 3Beer and Food Tour with Dinner & Oktoberfest Museum★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 1,086 reviews
The night watchman’s round
Before street lighting, a watchman walked the old town with a halberd and a lantern, calling the hours and checking that the fires were banked. The tour keeps the costume and the route, which turns out to be the most efficient way anyone has found through the lanes behind Marienplatz. It runs in the evening, when the squares are empty and the facades are lit.
- 1Night Watchman Walking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 2,092 reviews
- 2Night Watchman Torch Tour in German★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,280 reviews
- 3Middle Ages Tour with Night Watchman★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 652 reviews
The Allianz Arena
The stadium sits on the northern edge of the city and its whole skin lights up: red for Bayern, white for the national side. The tour goes down the tunnel, through the dressing room and up to the press seats, then into the museum with the trophies. Go on a day with no fixture, when you can walk the pitch side instead of queueing for it.
- 1City Bus Tour & FC Bayern Munich Allianz Arena Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,071 reviews
- 2FC Bayern Museum + Arena View★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 944 reviews
- 3FC Bayern Museum Entry Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 193 reviews
Four Munich bookings that will not wait.
Most of this city can be arranged over breakfast. These four run on timed castle slots, a mountain season, a festival calendar and a memorial site that caps its guided groups.
- 01Neuschwanstein & Linderhof Castle Full-Day TripCastle entry runs on timed slots and the coach seats go with them. Through the summer the day trips are spoken for a week or more ahead.
- 02Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site Tour from Munich by TrainThe memorial site caps guided groups and the morning trains fill first. Take the early slot; the afternoon is the crowded one.
- 03Berchtesgaden and Eagle’s Nest Day Tour from MunichThe road up to the Kehlsteinhaus only opens from about mid-May to late October. Outside that window the tour goes to Obersalzberg and stops there.
- 04Beer and Food Tour with Dinner & Oktoberfest MuseumSixteen days in late September and early October, and the tent tables are claimed months out. Nothing about it can be arranged on the day.
Half the Munich year is cold, wet, or both.
From November the beer gardens stack their chairs and the mountain roads start closing behind you. The city answers with vaulted cellars, a palace full of gilt, concerts in the Residenz and a museum nobody finishes in a day. Get under a roof and stay there.
By place — the city, and the days out of it
By kind of day — on foot, on a coach, or in a cellar
Old town, beer hall, Dachau, Neuschwanstein: the run almost everybody does first.
A beer hall
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