And long awaited Munich guide is finally ready! As you can imagine, now that I live here this Munich guide will be improved and revised from time to time as I learn more and more about this beautiful city.
Frankly I did have some prejudices before I move to here. After all I was moving from Istanbul –the city that truly doesn’t sleep and so big and colorful and full of everything you can imagine you can do! And I heard/expect Munich would be orderly and beautiful but dull and boring classic German city. Glad to find out Munich has many faces and many different neighborhoods!
I will get into detail of probably everything mentioned in this Munich guide! Actually some parts I already did, so you may also want to check `Munich` category of gezielciniz to discover more about Munich!
So, as usual, my city guide format starts with summary version and later we will go into details for Munich guide!
Travel: Munich is one of the central hubs in middle Europe so you can find many daily flights to many capitals and cities. It would be wise to check Lufthansa tickets for more alternative times, and trains are always an option! And Flixbus -one of cheap bus travel option across Europe can get you almost everywhere!
Münich Airport Transfer: Just use S-bahn, that is the most easy and convenient option. Your ticket should cost around 11.6 (2018) euro for one way from airport to central or vice versa. There is no structure to validate your ticket/show your ticket but there are random controls inside trains. In case you stumble upon such control without a valid ticket penalty is 60 euro! So keep this in mind. Trip to center should take around 30-35 minutes; you should get either S1 or S8. One thing to pay attention, when going to airport direction if you happen to take S1 make sure you are on last part of the train because it consists of two trains and first one separated before airport and if you fail to move to the second part of train you miss airport and go in a different direction! They announce this in English as well but better if you get in to last part from start anyway. When in doubt just ask/follow people with luggage! (also airport day ticket might be of interest to you check out the link for details)
Visa: Schengen visa needed.
Food & drink: As you can imagine I would say sausages and pretzels first! Don’t forget to try white sausages a specialty here. One local dish I like is käsespätzle. It is a kind of pasta/noodles cooked with cheese and dry fried onions on top –very delicious! But most of the other local dishes are meat oriented like Munich Schnitzel and you will also find pig and reindeer meat specialties. One of that would be Schweinshaxe made from pigs but fyi it is a heavy dish not for everyone’s taste.
As for drinks, yes beer 🙂 Especially weiss beer. But you should also try Apfelschon and Spezi which are popular non-alcoholic drinks. Spezi is cola and fanta mix but there are many brands who uses different mix formulas and people here are very into it!
And back to beer, oh yeah just order local beers and in doubt/lost in many options chose Tegernsee Hell. Also try Obazda a cold dish made from cheese that accompanies October fest tables along with pretzel and beer!
Things to do/sightseeing: Marienplatz, Odeonplatz, Frauenkirche, English Garden, Viktaulianmarkt, Olympia Park, BMW Welt and BMW museum, Nymphenburg Schloss, Hofbrauhaus, Deutsche Museum, The Asam Church and any Beer garden! And a half day trip do Dachau if you want to see a Concentration Camp ( For details check `things to do in Munich` )
Prices: Munich is known as the most expensive cities in Germany along with Frankfurt. Personally I think Munich is more expensive 😀 But if you can arrange a reasonable price accommodation actually many sightseeing places are free. Of course staying in central areas would be convenient but Munich has really good public transports so you can also check out places 15-20 minutes to center and save money.
Like I said many sightseeing places are free but of course for museums and palace visits you will need ticket. However on Sundays museums are just 1 euro so if you are planning to visit museums try to plan it on a Sunday.
Since prices are usually most interesting parts in any guide, let me give you price examples on food-drink as well for Munich guide !
You can find bratwurst (sausage inside bread) as a popular street food choice around 2.5-4 euro. Beers are really cheap if you buy from markets but from a café/restaurant it will be around 3-4 euro, coffee prices are around 2-3 euro, main dishes in a reasonable restaurant should be around 8-15 euro and 6 pieces avocado sushi is around 3-4 euro : D
So this was summary! Now let’s get into details and some more general info about Munich guide.
Munich is beautiful, aesthetically pleasing city. One of the first things you are likely to recognize is that there is not much modern high buildings in the city. Actually this is deliberate choice as after WW2 when city was in rebuilding phase they made a decision to keep the original texture pre-war. (a counter example is Frankfurt where they decide to build from scratch as new and opted for sky tower buildings)
And of course main characteristics of the city comes from Bavarian tradition. For those of you who don’t know, Bavaria was an independent kingdom in the past but then became part of unified German but still they have distinctive language accent and you can still hear `I’m not German I’m Bavarian` correction to this day! Actually the German folk clothes you imagine with leather short pants and hat with fedora and of course Octoberfest maiden dresses are Bavaria traditional clothes not classic German clothes as they are not common in other parts of Germany!
Munich is very bicycle friendly and bicycle ways are everywhere. Which means `be careful not to walk in bicycle ways` if you don’t want to face with `had enough of these tourists` frowns of Munichers!
For gifts that will remind you or your friends/family Munich, popular options are beer glasses in all sizes, Oktoberfest clothes and of course sausages. And for football fans FC Bayern Munich related everything! Also Munich is famous for cuckoo clocks but they tend to be expensive.
No Munich guide is complete without mentioning Oktober Fest. It is indeed worth mentioning an event that draws 7 million visitors to a city which has 1.5 million populations! Hotel bookings for next year is probably already have high rates even now! So if you have any plans on attending October Fest, (which is unlike name usually starts at the end of September) book your place asap! And try to visit in a weekday because believe me it will be crowded anyway! Think of this way there are many huge tents there which has like 12000 people capacity but each and every one of them are so full you can’t get in even to stand inside! Well unless you paid for table reservation or have an invitation from one of the tents!
Beers are sold in liters (small size not available!) for around 10.5 euro and you can visit all famous Munich beer breweries there along with festival area where you can also find Ferris wheel and horror house and other Luna park style festive area entertainment and of course many street vendor style food shops as well! Ok obviously this needs to be in another article! Really I should stop saying summary and write it term paper long!
Alright moving on for Munich guide, you can get to many central sightseeing places by walking. But Olympia Park and Nymphenburg Schloss are a bit distant then central area. You can consider 3 days ticket and actually if you are more than 1 person group tickets provide good value/price as it is valid for upto 5 people for less than 2 people price.
Anyway here is things to do in Munich for details on where to go and what to see, otherwise this Munich guide will get even longer and I’m surprised you even read to this point 😀
As usual let me know in comments if you have any questions or a suggestion you would like to add for this Munich Guide!