Munich is the capital of Bavaria and one of Europe's most prosperous and well-organised cities — home to BMW and Siemens, to four UNESCO World Heritage Sites within day-trip range, and to the Oktoberfest that brings six million visitors to the Theresienwiese meadow each autumn for the world's largest folk festival. Yet Munich is more than Lederhosen and Märzenbier: the Deutsches Museum is the world's largest science and technology museum; the Alte Pinakothek holds one of the finest Old Master collections in Europe (Rubens, Dürer, Raphael); and the English Garden (Englischer Garten) at 3.7 km² is larger than Central Park and has a standing river wave (Eisbachwelle) where surfers ride an artificial bore year-round. The city's history has its dark chapters — the NSDAP was founded here, and the Nazi Documentation Centre on Königsplatz confronts this honestly — but postwar Munich reinvented itself as the model of German civic prosperity: excellent public transport, world-class museums, Biergarten culture and proximity to the Alps (1 hour to Zugspitze) that make it one of Europe's most complete city experiences.
Munich's central square has the 1867 neo-Gothic New Town Hall — the Glockenspiel carillon at 11am, 12pm and 5pm animates 43 bells and 32 life-size figures re-enacting the 1568 wedding of Duke Wilhelm V; the tower lift offers city panoramas.
Munich's open-air gourmet market has operated daily since 1807 — stands of Bavarian Weißwurst (white veal sausage), Obatzda cheese spread, fresh Brezn (pretzel) and the May Pole at the market's centre. The maypole Biergarten is the best lunch spot.
The 1589 royal brewery is Munich's most famous beer hall — the ground floor's long communal tables, Oompah band and 1-litre steins of Hofbräu Märzen are tourists and locals alike; order the Schweinsbraten (roast pork with dumplings).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideEurope's largest urban park has the artificial Eisbachkanal river wave where surfers ride year-round even in snow — crowds gather at the Prinzregentenstraße bridge to watch; the Chinese Tower beer garden in the park is 7,000 seats of Bavarian gemütlichkeit.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Schwabing district north of the English Garden was Munich's bohemian quarter where Klee, Kandinsky and Thomas Mann lived — today it has the city's best neighbourhood restaurants; try Tantris (1971, grand dame of German gastronomy) or neighbourhood Wirtshaus.
One of the world's great Old Master collections — Rubens' "Massacre of the Innocents", Dürer's self-portraits and the largest collection of Flemish works outside the Low Countries fill the 1836 Leo von Klenze building; €1 on Sundays.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideMunich's most historic café (1872) near the Pinakothek quarter — Lenin, Hitler, Thomas Mann and Rilke have all sat here; the billiards tables and stucco ceiling are unchanged; Bavarian lunch specials under €12.
The bowl-shaped BMW Museum traces 100 years of Bavarian motor manufacturing; the adjacent BMW Welt showroom (free) is a spectacular Frank Holl architecture of spiraling steel where customers collect their new BMWs — one of Germany's most visited buildings.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe 1664 summer palace of the Wittelsbach dynasty has 200 hectares of formal French gardens, cascades and pavilions — the Gallery of Beauties with Ludwig I's portraits of Munich's most beautiful women is the most visited room.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe 1869 fairy-tale castle of King Ludwig II (the "Dream King") that inspired Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty Castle sits on a rocky crag above the Bavarian Alps 2 hours from Munich — book the guided interior tour months in advance in summer.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Dachau concentration camp memorial 30 minutes from Munich was the first Nazi concentration camp (1933) — the museum, memorial garden and reconstructed barracks document the 12-year history of systematic persecution; mandatory for understanding German history.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe world's largest science museum has 73,000 exhibits across 17 floors — Benz's original Patent-Motorwagen, a working coal mine, original Wright Brothers correspondence and the physics labs where Hahn and Strassmann split the atom in 1938.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideMunich's Biergarten tradition (Augustiner, Paulaner, Löwenbräu) involves self-service food, a full litre of fresh Helles lager and long communal tables under chestnut trees — the Augustiner-Keller on Arnulfstraße is the most atmospheric in the city.