Munich
Germany
Beer halls, baroque and the Alps an hour down the motorway
Photo by Anastasiya Dalenka on Unsplash
Photos by Andrey Omelyanchuk, Jan Antonin Kolar, Jan Antonin Kolar and ian kelsall on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Germany
May to September, plus December for the Christmas markets
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 120mm in Jul
Where it is
48.14°N, 11.58°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
A week easily- Watch the surfers on the Eisbach standing wave in the Englischer Garten
- Drink a litre in a beer garden under the chestnut trees at the Chinesischer Turm
- Take the train to Neuschwanstein, or better, to the Alps at Garmisch
- See the Glockenspiel once, at eleven, and admit it was slow
- Go to Oktoberfest on a weekday morning, when there is room
Munich travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Germany
ExpensiveEuros. Germany is more cash-attached than its neighbours and plenty of beer gardens, bakeries and small restaurants still refuse cards outright — carry fifty euros in notes even in 2026.
ATMs & cards
Sparkasse, Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank machines are free or nearly with European cards. The Euronet machines in the pedestrian zone charge and offer a bad conversion.
Avoid these
- Euronet in the pedestrian zone around Marienplatz
Use these instead
- Sparkasse
- Deutsche Bank
- Commerzbank
- HypoVereinsbank
Free or nearly with European cards. Germany still runs on cash more than its neighbours — beer gardens, bakeries and small restaurants often refuse cards outright.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Germany
Very safeOne of the safest large cities in Europe, and comfortable to walk alone at night. During Oktoberfest the Theresienwiese and the trains to it are the exception: pickpocketing, and a great deal of drunkenness. Cycle lanes are on the pavement and cyclists have right of way on them, which catches out every visitor once.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (9 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- Theresienwiese — during Oktoberfest, for pickpockets and a great deal of drunkenness
- München Hauptbahnhof — and the streets behind it late at night
- Cycle lanes, which run on the pavement and where cyclists have right of way — every visitor steps into one once
- The Eisbach standing wave, which is for expert surfers and has drowned people who tried it
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Germany visa rules
No visa needed
Freedom of movement — no time limit, and no visa. Bring a passport or national ID card.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 90 days
90 days within any 180-day period, counted across the whole Schengen area, not per country. ETIAS, a paid online authorisation, is being introduced for these passports — check the official link for whether it applies to your travel dates.
Visa required in advance€90 (Schengen short-stay visa)
A Schengen short-stay visa is applied for before travel, at the consulate of your main destination.
How to get it: Apply at the consulate or visa centre of the country you will spend most time in, typically 15 working days ahead and no more than six months before travel.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Germany
Excellent and cheapRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date
- Tick-borne encephalitis for the south (Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg) if walking in forests
Getting treated
EU/EEA and Swiss visitors are treated on the same terms as residents with an EHIC or GHIC card; UK visitors use a GHIC. Everyone else pays, and travel insurance is worth having for the repatriation cover rather than the treatment.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
Very goodWeisswurst is eaten before noon and never after — the old rule was that it should not hear the midday bell. You suck it out of the skin, with sweet mustard and a pretzel. Beer gardens allow you to bring your own food but not your own drink, which is why everybody has a picnic and a litre.
Nightlife
Beer gardens under chestnut trees from April, beer halls all year, and a club scene nobody expects from a city this well behaved.
- Chinesischer Turm — the beer garden in the park
- Hofbräuhaus — the tourist one, and worth seeing once
- Glockenbachviertel — the bars and the gay scene
- Theresienwiese — Oktoberfest, for two weeks from late September
Closing: Beer gardens 23:00 by law, bars 01:00–03:00, clubs until dawn.
A beer in a bar: €5–6
A beer garden lets you bring your own food but not your own drink — which is why everybody has a picnic and a litre.
Getting around
Easy and cheap- UberWorks here
- BoltWorks here
- FREE NOWWorks here
Uber brokers licensed hire cars rather than its own drivers
- From the airport
- Munich airport to the centre €70–85 by taxi, €13.60 on the S-Bahn
- Against a taxi
- Roughly level with the meter, and Germany is one of the few places where a taxi is sometimes cheaper.
The Rückkehrpflicht — hire cars must return to base between jobs — is why a car can be ten minutes away in a small city.
Time zone and your working day
Europe/Berlin — 6 hours ahead of you
2 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–11:00 your time, 15:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 03:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 03:00–11:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of Germany
Why these are Germany's numbers and not Munich's
Home broadband — Good. Comfortable for two people working, streaming in the evening, large downloads. Broadband here runs at 79% of the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Fast. Enough to work from a cafe or a beach on a hotspot all day. Mobile runs at 2.7× the global median of 109 Mbps.
Ookla publishes no separate figure for Munich, so these are medians for all of Germany. Cities usually beat the national number and remote islands and national parks fall well below it — treat this as the country's shape, not as a measurement of the street you will be staying on.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Germany, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
German
- HelloGuten TagGOO-ten tahk
- PleaseBitteBI-tuh
- Thank youDankeDAN-kuh
- Yes / NoJa / Neinya / nine
4 more phrases
- Excuse meEntschuldigungent-SHOOL-di-gung
- How much is it?Was kostet das?vas KOS-tet das
- The bill, pleaseDie Rechnung, bittedee REKH-nung
- Cheers!Prost!prohst
Religion
Split Catholic and Protestant, and largely secular
The south is Catholic, the north Protestant, and a growing share is neither. Church tax is a real thing residents pay.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Be punctual — arriving late without warning is genuinely rude
- Separate your rubbish; recycling rules are taken seriously
- Make eye contact when toasting, and say prost
- Carry cash; plenty of bars and restaurants still refuse cards
Don't
- Do not jaywalk, especially with children present — people will tell you off
- Do not make Nazi references or salutes, even as a joke; several are criminal offences
- Do not walk in the red-paved bike lanes
- Do not expect small talk from strangers; directness is not coldness
Where to stay in Munich
No Holistay rentals in Munich yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Munich on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Munich MUC
40 minfrom the airport· 28 km as the crow flies
40 min on the S1 or S8.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
