13 Must Visit Places In Munich

Now, the modern-day Munich is a major tourist destination, a transport hub for German and European high-speed railway network, a major financial center, a manufacturing center for aerospace and precision products, a river surfing hotspot, has some of the best breweries in Germany and is known for its Oktoberfest, the much anticipated annual beer festival. You have many Munich attractions to visit around during your trip here including museums, churches, university buildings, football stadiums and many more to keep you occupied and interested for weeks.

You can find a number of tourist spots listed in our Munich attractions to make your visit as eventful and enjoyable as possible.

The Parish St. Peter’s Church which is on our Munich attractions list pre-dates the founding of the city. Its 91-meter tower known as old-Pete or Alter Peter is the oldest recorded church in the city, with origins dating back to the Merovingian dynasty. The interior has the beautiful sculpture of Saint Peter, built by Erasmus Grasser, on a high gilded altar. Five of John Polack’s attractive Gothic paintings and several altars are some of the masterpieces which adorn the church.

This oldest landmark stands on the hill Petersbergl. The church has 299 steps for you to climb to get rewarded with a lovely panoramic view of the city from the mounted telescopes. The church is open from 9:00 AM to 6:30 PM during summer and up to 5:30 PM during winter months, while on weekends, it opens an hour later.

The Konigsplatz or the King’s Square is one of the city’s most important landmarks and is next on our list of Munich attractions. The square built in the 19^th century is enclosed by temples and buildings with lovely architecture. The square with European neo-classicism architecture was used for huge rallies by the Nazis. Now it is used for open-air music concerts and movie nights during summer months. The area around the square has Kunstareal which houses the museums and gallery. Glythotek, the museum of classical art and Pinakothek, the museum where artworks from medieval to modern are displayed, are located in this area of the square.

The Frauenkirche as locals call it, or the Church of the Lady, a Gothic cathedral and parish church with twin onion domes at the top is another eye-catching landmark of the city next in our list of Munich attractions. This church located in the old city built in the 15^th century, was heavily damaged during World War II and rebuilt later on, is the largest church in the city. You can go up the south tower to get a nice aerial view of the city right up to the Alps. As you enter the imposing structure, you will find the footprints of the devil on the floor of the church. Also housed here is the 13th-century tomb of the Roman emperor Ludwig the Bavarian.

The Residenz Museum in our list of Munich attractions is an awesome structure that was opened to the public in 1920. You need to be prepared to spend some hours to go through this massive museum which earlier served as a royal palace for the Wittelsbachs, the family that ruled Bavaria for around 800 years. As is the case of most such buildings in Germany, this palace dating back to 1385, was largely destroyed during the WW II, but has been almost rebuilt to its original glory and converted to a museum with stunning interior décor, housing priceless paintings, royal family jewels and jewelry, religious objects and other treasures.

The complex actually houses three museums, the Treasury is where the family treasures are displayed, the Cuvillies Theater which was the court theater during the royals rule, and the Residenz Museum. You can walk through extremely lavishly decorated, from floor to ceiling, royal residence to get a feel of the royal lifestyle. The 66-meter long antequarium with its ceiling covered with exquisite artworks and lined with busts is marvelous. The gallery has gilt-framed photos of royal family members. As the rooms never seem to end, it is better to get an audio guide before you enter this mammoth building to get a sense of direction.

The tickets are priced at Euro 7 each for Residenz and treasury and 3.5 for the theater, while a combo for all three is priced at Euro 13. Children under 18, as well as students over 18, get free admission. The timings are between 9:00 AM and 6:00 PM in summer, and from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM in winter months.

The Neuschwanstein Castle is a place in our Munich attractions list which can be visited only on a guided tour which lasts around 35 minutes. This magnificent castle of bricks and white limestone was built by the introvert King Ludwig II as a way of escaping the public gaze. After his death, this fairytale castle was thrown open to the public. This castle constructed in 1869 now attracts around 1.4 million visitors every year and is placed third in the list of most popular tourist destinations in Germany.

Tickets are limited and you need to plan for the visit in advance. You can either book online for skip-the-line tours, or buy at the counter which means a waiting time of about 3 hours with no guarantee of getting a ticket. Online tickets cost Euro 40 with a 50% discount for children below 18. The timings are between 9:00 AM and 6:00 PM in summer, and from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM in winter months.

The Englischer Garten in our list of Munich attractions is a huge public park extending from the center of the city to its northeast. You can indulge in plain romantic walk through the beautiful stress-busting garden or even go on a surfing wave adventure on Eisbach wave which is a wonderful professional surfing spot. Here, swimming is not allowed for anyone. You will also find waterfalls near Eisbach where you can find a quiet spot to relax. It has a Chinese tower with its beer garden where one can forget everything with a drink, with the large chestnut trees in the background. Then there is the vantage spot monopteros, from which you can get a lovely colorful view of the whole of the garden as well as a nice view of the city. Then to top it all, you can walk from the beer garden to the dam Oberfohring along the River Isar, a unique opportunity which the garden presents in the center of the city.

The Allianz Arena is a spectacularly designed football stadium which is one of the Munich attractions in our list. This 75,000 seating capacity stadium was constructed in a short time of just 3 years and opened to the public in 2005 when the first match was played here. The massive stadium has almost 10,000 parking slots in 4 x 4 storied esplanade car parks which is the largest in Europe. It has a massive 6000 m² of catering space categorized into around 17 sections including kiosks, bistros, restaurants, press club, VIP club, kids club, mixed club and more. There are more than 750 screens in the Arena to beam live-action for the football-crazy fans. You will find that the total area of Arena is around 171,000 m² and the stunning 7 level stadium occupies about 38,000 m².

You will find this a highly fun-filled place along with plenty of shopping choices and a food enthusiast's delight with a number of outlets. The place is open from 10:00 AM to 6:30 PM with the Allianz being open up to 7:00 PM. During match days the admissions open 2 hours before kick-off. The stadium can be reached by public transport, car, taxi, coach, or bike and parking is available. If you need guidance, a number of tours like VIP-tour, kids-tour, disabled-tour, kick tour and combo-tour are available.

The Neues Rathaus, or the New Townhall, is a stunning structure of new-Gothic architecture constructed during 1870 as a seat for the Mayor’s office. This building in our list of Munich attractions has many annexes constructed subsequently which together represent the city’s power center. It is an attractive 100 meters long highly decorated façade famous for its architecture. There is a 12-minute show every day at the second level depicting the history of Munich at 11:00 AM, 12 noon and 5:00 PM, with the last show not available in winter months. The 85-meter high tower on the building is another place from where you can have a good panoramic view of the city. You can get good food at the attractively decorated cellar restaurant Ratskeller.

The castle of Nymphs or Nymphenburg Palace in our list of Munich Attractions is a baroque palace in Munich which was the summer residence of the Wittelsbachs dynasty, who ruled Bavaria. The elegant building complex was started in 1664 and completed over many decades based on the design of Italian architect Agostino Barelli using locally available limestone from Kelheim. This is one of the largest palaces in Europe and a top tourist spot in Germany which is a must-see for its wonderful architecture. This magnificent structure was opened to the public in 1792 and the tradition is being followed till now. It might be interesting to know that visiting the palace gives you a chance to meet the present head of the Wittelsbachs house, Franz, the Duke of Bavaria.

The Ludwig Maximilian University is another Munich attraction on our list. It was founded in the 15^th century in 1472 and has since then developed into one of Europe’s premier academic and research centers. It is a public entity with the board including people from academia, industry professionals, private sector and eminent persons from other fields.

The massive Deutsches Museum is next on our Munich attractions list, a must-see for all the visitors to Germany for its huge collections of exhibits, from their origin to the present day. This is the most popular and visited museums in Germany with around 1.3 million visitors every year. This is also a major science and technology research center which has collaboration with universities in Munich and run support programs for teachers also. The museum has four centers, three, including the main museum in Munich, and the fourth in Bonn,

The museum has a big collection of 100,000 items under the Science and Technology category from stone-age to the present time. At any point in time, about a fourth of the collections are on display. You will find some stunningly original inventions like the U1 submarine, the first motorized aircraft by Wright brothers, Z3, the first program-controlled computer by Konrad Zuse and many such exhibits.

The museum is open every day, except public holidays, between 9:00 PM and 5:00 PM. The admission ticket costs Euro 14, family ticket with parents and 1 child costing Euro 29. Concessional fare is available for children, seniors above 65 ears, disabled, school children and even adults in groups. Online ticket booking is also available as also some guided tours.

The St. Johan Nepomuk, normally known as Asam Church, was built from 1733 to 1746 by a sculptor and painter brothers as their private church. This most important building of Southern Germany’s late Baroque is in our Munich attractions list due to its architecture and space utilization in the small 22 x 8 square meters private property on which it was built, harmonizing the sculptures, paintings, and confined space. The three interior levels are designed such that the bottom-most level is the darkest with its design indicating the sufferings of the humans. The middle level which is the place of the king is brighter, while the top-level illuminated ceiling painting is dedicated to God. The life of Saint Nepomuk, the ceiling fresco by Cosmas Damian Asam, is one of his masterpieces. The church being a private one doesn’t subscribe to normal church plan and has its own deviations. Since the brothers also meant it to be a confession place for youth, the church has seven confession rooms.

Our Munich attractions list cannot be complete without the BMW museum which is a must-visit for any automobile enthusiast or otherwise. The auto company has such a wonderful reputation that its museum showcasing its history would be extremely interesting. It opened in 1973 after the summer Olympics and the BMW-Welt opened directly opposite in 2008, The museum covers every technical development the company has undertaken from its inception more than a century back to the present day, like aircrafts, engines, turbines, motorcycles, and even futuristic models still on the design board and in planning stage. Around 250,000 people visit this every year to get a real experience of the working of this high-end world-class automobile company and see firsthand the technical innovations that have taken place over the decades. The main attraction is the permanent exhibition containing 110 exhibits in a 4000 m² area. Regular temporary exhibitions are arranged regularly. It is open from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM on all days except Mondays on which it is closed.

We have tried to pack in as much information as possible regarding the Munich Attractions to include some of the most unique places which might be of interest to you when you visit the city. This is by no means is an exhaustive tourist guide, even as it tries to ensure that you enjoy the flavor of Munich in every possible way by covering such places in your itinerary. Trip.com helps you out by providing all the important and relevant pieces of information you need to make every aspect of your trip enjoyable and memorable.