Best Things to Do in Munich

How we ranked this shortlist

This is the list we'd hand a friend landing in Munich for the first time with a day or two and no fixed plan. It is ordered roughly by a combination of how unmissable each sight is and how easy it is to fit into a walkable day, not by ticket price or fame alone. Almost everything on it sits inside or just beyond the Old Town, so you can clear the top of the list largely on foot.

Times, prices and opening hours shift, so treat the practical notes as starting points and confirm the current details on the official sites before you build a tight schedule around them. The order below is a suggestion, not a rule — the joy of Munich is that the next good thing is usually a short walk away.

1. Marienplatz and the Glockenspiel

Start where Munich starts. Marienplatz has been the city's central square since 1158, and its north side is filled by the neo-Gothic New Town Hall, whose tower carries the famous Glockenspiel. It plays at 11:00 and noon daily, with an extra afternoon show in the warmer months — check the current schedule and arrive a few minutes early for a clear view up to the figures. Stay for the chimes, look up at the dragon climbing the facade, and use the square as the hub it has always been.

2. Climb Alter Peter for the view

Directly opposite the New Town Hall stands St. Peter's, the oldest church in the centre — Alter Peter to everyone who lives here. A tight spiral staircase (no lift) climbs to a viewing gallery that looks straight down onto Marienplatz and across to the twin domes of the Frauenkirche. It is the best rooftop view in the Old Town and, for the modest climb, the best value. Go early or late to dodge the queue on the narrow stairs.

3. Wander the Viktualienmarkt

A two-minute walk south of Marienplatz, the Viktualienmarkt is a permanent open-air food market — stalls of cheese, charcuterie, honey, flowers and Bavarian snacks around a maypole, with a beer garden in the middle that rotates its pour between the city's six breweries. It is the best place in the centre for a stand-up lunch: a Brezn and a Weißwurst, or a Leberkässemmel, eaten among the stalls. The market is liveliest in the late morning.

4. The Residenz

Behind a deliberately plain street facade, the Residenz hides the Wittelsbachs' city palace: more than a hundred rooms of state apartments, the barrel-vaulted Renaissance Antiquarium, a shell-encrusted grotto courtyard, and — as separate tickets — the Treasury of crowns and reliquaries and the perfect rococo Cuvilliés Theatre. It is Munich's great wet-weather sight and easily a half-day if you let it be. Combination tickets cover the museum, treasury and theatre; check current pricing before you go.

5. Choose a great museum in the Kunstareal

In Maxvorstadt, a few minutes north-west of the centre, the Kunstareal packs the city's great galleries into a few walkable blocks. The Alte Pinakothek holds Old Masters; the Pinakothek der Moderne combines modern art, design and architecture; the Brandhorst shows contemporary work behind a facade of coloured rods; and the Lenbachhaus, by Königsplatz, has the world's finest Blue Rider collection. Pick one — two at most — and give it real time. Many state museums offer reduced Sunday admission; verify before you plan around it.

6. The English Garden and the Eisbach wave

Spend an afternoon in the English Garden, one of the largest urban parks in the world. At its southern edge, where the Eisbach channel surges under a bridge, surfers ride a permanent standing wave year-round — free to watch and genuinely thrilling. Walk north past the lawns to the little Monopteros temple on its hill and on to the Chinese Tower, where one of the city's biggest beer gardens sits under a wooden pagoda. It is the perfect counterweight to a morning of museums.

7. Spend an evening in a beer garden or hall

No Munich list is complete without it. In a traditional beer garden you may bring your own food to the unserved benches and buy only your Maß — locals arrive with a cloth, a Brezn and a radi and stay for the afternoon. For a roofed, rowdier version, the beer halls led by the Hofbräuhaus serve the full Bavarian spread with a brass band. Either way, this is the warm, communal heart of the city's evenings.

8. The Frauenkirche and the Asamkirche

Round out the Old Town with its two essential churches. The Frauenkirche — the twin onion-domed cathedral that defines the skyline — guards the legend of the Devil's Footstep just inside its door. And the tiny Asamkirche on Sendlinger Straße, built by the Asam brothers as a private chapel, packs more gold, stucco and drama into one small space than churches ten times its size. Both are free to enter and take only minutes.

9. Take the tram to Nymphenburg

If you have a fine morning to spare, ride the tram west to Schloss Nymphenburg, the Wittelsbachs' summer palace. The long baroque frontage runs along a central canal; inside are the Hall of Mirrors and Ludwig I's Gallery of Beauties, and the gardens hide pavilions including the rococo Amalienburg. The grounds are free, beautiful and far quieter than the Old Town — a grand, gentle counterpoint to the city centre.

10. Cars, football or a castle day trip

With a third day, point north or out of town. The BMW Welt and Museum, the Olympic Park and the Allianz Arena make a strong half-day of cars, architecture and football. Or escape the city entirely: Neuschwanstein for the fairy-tale castle, the Zugspitze for Germany's highest point, or Dachau — twenty minutes out — for an essential, sobering visit to the memorial site.

Honourable mentions worth your time

A top-ten list always leaves out things that deserve a place, so here are the near-misses we'd add the moment you have a spare half-day. The Hofbräuhaus is the most famous beer hall in the world and, clichéd as it is, worth one loud, brass-band evening. The Olympic Park and BMW Welt make a strong northern outing for car and architecture fans. Schwabing and the Glockenbachviertel are the neighbourhoods to wander for café and bar life beyond the Old Town. And the Isar river — renaturalised into beaches and tree-lined paths — gives you the loveliest free walk or cycle in the city, out towards the Flaucher and the zoo.

If you are travelling with children, weight the list towards the Deutsches Museum, the Eisbach surfers, the Hellabrunn Zoo on the Isar and the football and car attractions in the north. If you are here for the art, swap a tower climb for a second Pinakothek. The beauty of Munich is that the list bends easily to whoever is reading it.

How to fit the list into your time

With one day, do items one to seven in a loop: the Glockenspiel at eleven, Alter Peter, the Viktualienmarkt for lunch, a single museum or the Residenz in the early afternoon, the English Garden as the light softens, and a beer garden or hall for the evening. With two days, add the Frauenkirche and Asamkirche, the tram to Nymphenburg, and a second museum. A third day frees you for the north — cars and football — or a day trip into the mountains.

Throughout, hold the schedule loosely. Munich's weather can flip in an hour, so keep an indoor sight (a museum, the Residenz, a beer hall) in your back pocket for each day and let the order flex. Book any timed entries — the Residenz on a busy day, a stadium tour, a castle day trip — ahead, and confirm current opening hours and prices on official sites before you commit. The rest you can happily improvise on foot.