On a fantastic Go-Today European Alpine Adventure package, we booked a custom trip to Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. We traveled by train, rode a gondola (i.e. funicular) in almost every place we visited, and enjoyed stunning alpine scenery. It was a beautiful late November trip that allowed us to partake in multiple Christmas Markets and enjoy the snow.
Munich (or München, the actual German name of the City), was our only stop in Germany. So when we talk about Germany here, we’re only assessing Munich – however, we hope to update this page in the future with additional cities. Like most trips we take, we like to visit a few countries to get the flavor of each and understand which we want to go back to and explore more. After experiencing just a tiny bit of Germany, we understood immediately that we would have to go back, as there is so much to explore.
What München is:
- A vegan friendly City (can’t emphasize this enough, Germany has some amazing vegan options)
- A cyclist/transit friendly City
- Filled with biergartens
What München is not:
- Cheap
- Small
- Inefficient
München
Located in Southern Germany, München appears to be the land of the Biergarten. It has beer halls everywhere and it is home to the Oktoberfest that all others try to imitate. What many visitors don’t realize is that there is so much more to München– history (i.e. the Marienplatz, Hitler’s beer hall putsch), one of the largest urban parks, an epic Christmas market, proximity to the Nazi’s first concentration camp, and one of the world’s most photogenic castles.
You could easily spend 5 days or even a week just exploring München and the exciting day trips within its proximity. Since we were only there 1.5 days – we are absolutely 100% going back to further explore. We really did not research the City enough ahead of time and we just did not understand how many things there are to do in München – don’t repeat our mistake.
Transit
Made for bicycles, with a full subway system, München was a great City to use public transit. Does it’s subway look like it was made in WWII and are the tunnels confusing with arrows pointing everywhere? Yes, but that all adds to the beauty of the system (seriously, the old subway cars look super cool), and it runs very efficiently.
Once you’re underground in the City center, coming out of any station will involve a lot of long hallways, corners, and arrows that don’t always point the right direction so make sure you allow extra time to find your way to the correct platform.
Lodging
While in München, we stayed a few subway stops away from the Marienplatz at the GHotel, conveniently located next to major transit lines. The hotel was clean and the staff were nice, it was a great place to lay our head at night after being out on the town all day.
Food/Drinks
Germany has its act together, München clearly emphasizes walking, transit, cycling, and vegan food! There are many options in the City Center, but above all, please do not miss Max Pett. While it is expensive, their vegan schnitzel is absolutely amazing and it’s one of those vegan dishes you just don’t see everywhere.
Activities
Like we mentioned, there is a ton to do in München, and there’s still so much there that we want to do and see. I limited our recommended activities to a list with 1-2 sentences per activity, and separated activities into things we did and things we want to do. The activities are in order, #1 is the activity we recommend most. See the gallery at the end of this section for some visual highlights!
Things we did
- Neuschwanstein Castle – This was the highlight of our whole trip, the castle is literally a fairy tale. 100% take the trail to the Marienbrucke (Mary’s Bridge) past the castle, that’s where the best photo opportunity is – and take the tour of the castle, you’ll have to wait but it’s worth it (We loved the secret cave passage to the master bathroom).
- Check out the Marienplatz Christmas Market, we saw 4-5 Christmas markets on this trip but this was the best by far. It’s huge, and when you hear the Christmas carol’s, and you’re looking up at the gothic spires of the Marienplatz and it starts to snow, you’ll have goosebumps for sure.
- Visit an Apotheke (i.e. a German Pharmacy). While searching for some tylenol, we went to an Apotheke, which was actually a pretty educational experience. Germans largely promote the use of herbal remedies for health issues (tea, vitamins, etc.), to access over-the-counter medications you have to consult with a pharmacist and they take it from their stash behind the counter. It was great to see how they don’t rely on pills as an easy solution to health problems.
Things we want to do
- Visit Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp. The only way we won’t repeat history is if we don’t forget it.
- Spend some time in the Englischer Garten, one of the world’s largest urban parks, and have a brew at the biergarten by Kleinhesseloher Lake.
- Visit the Hofbräuhaus Beer Hall and enjoy a brew. Visiting München’s beer halls seems like a must.