Munich looks expensive until you learn its rules: state museums charge €1 on Sundays, every beer garden legally lets you bring your own picnic, and the English Garden, Isar riverbanks and Olympiapark cost nothing at all. Three days, under €25 a day.
The 1972 Olympic grounds are free to wander — tented Frei Otto roof, lake, and Olympiaberg, a 60m hill built from WWII rubble. The summit climb takes 10 minutes and gives a full Alpine panorama on clear days. Only the tower (€13) charges.
Ludwig I's neoclassical square copies the Athenian Acropolis: the Propyläen gate, Glyptothek and Antikensammlungen face each other across open lawns. The square itself is free, and both museums drop to €1 on Sundays instead of €6.
The Asam brothers built this 22m-wide baroque chapel in the 1730s as their private church, cramming gilt stucco, frescoes and a hidden skylight into a space narrower than most shops. Free entry; open roughly 09:00–18:00 outside services.
South of the centre the Isar widens into gravel islands and shallow rapids where Münchners swim, barbecue and sunbathe free of charge all summer. Public grills, drinking-water taps and shingle beaches; U3 to Brudermühlstraße, then 10 minutes on foot.
Munich's second-oldest permanent market, running since 1903, is a fraction of Viktualienmarkt's prices because it serves the neighbourhood rather than tourists. Bakery pretzels around €1.20, cheese and fruit stalls, and a few benches to eat on.
The blocks around Goethestraße and Schillerstraße behind the Hauptbahnhof hold Munich's cheapest kitchens: Turkish, Vietnamese, Balkan and Afghan. Döner runs €5-6, a bowl of pho about €9 — roughly a third of an Altstadt restaurant plate.
Bavarian law lets you bring your own food into a self-service beer garden, and this 5,000-seat chestnut grove from 1812 is the classic place to do it. Buy only a Mass (about €10-11), unpack your market picnic at the plain wooden tables.
German supermarkets are the budget traveller's dinner: Lidl, Aldi and Edeka inside and around the Hauptbahnhof sell Leberkäse rolls, salads and half-litre beers for €1-3. Bakery counters cut bread prices sharply in the last hour.
The 229-hectare baroque park behind the summer palace is free to enter every day, with canals, swans, the Grand Cascade and gravel walks that take an hour end to end. Only the palace interiors and pavilions require the €8-15 ticket.
306 wooden steps up Munich's oldest parish church deliver the best view in the city — Marienplatz directly below, the Frauenkirche domes, and the Alps on a föhn-wind day. At €5 it undercuts every other viewing platform in town.
Munich's tram 19 crosses the city from Pasing to Berg am Laim past the Stachus, Karlsplatz and the Maximilianeum parliament. With a €9.90 day ticket for the inner zone it doubles as a sightseeing tour at a fraction of hop-on-bus prices.
The 1836 Greek-style rotunda sits on an artificial mound with a free framed view over the park to the Theatinerkirche and Frauenkirche spires. Drummers and picnickers fill the slope on warm evenings; nearby Chinesischer Turm sells cheap self-service beer.