Mid-range · 12-hour walk · Munich
Munich in a day: palace to beer hall
Nymphenburg in the morning, the Glockenspiel and the tower of Alter Peter, lunch at the market, the Asamkirche and the Residenz, a beer garden in the English Garden and the Hofbräuhaus by night.
Munich's centre is small and its day is long, which is a good combination. The one thing out of town is Nymphenburg, so it goes first while the tram is empty; after that everything is on foot, from Marienplatz through the market and the Residenz to the English Garden. The day ends where Munich's day ends, at a long table with a litre of beer.
The route, stop by stop
-
Nymphenburg Palace
The Wittelsbachs' summer palace, reached on the 17 tram. The Gallery of Beauties — thirty-six portraits Ludwig I commissioned of women he admired — is the room people come for, and the park behind runs west as far as you care to walk.
-
Marienplatz
Arrive by tram from the previous stop
Back into town on the same tram. The Glockenspiel in the town hall tower plays at eleven and at noon: thirty-two figures, a joust and a coopers' dance.
30 min here Walk here → -
Alter Peter
About three hundred steps up the tower of the city's oldest parish church for the view down onto the square — and on a clear day, the Alps.
30 min here Walk here → -
Viktualienmarkt
Lunch. Weisswurst is a morning sausage by tradition, so at this hour take a Leberkäse roll or whatever the grill under the maypole is turning, and a beer from the market's own beer garden.
60 min here Walk here → -
Asamkirche
A church two brothers built beside their own house in the 1730s and filled floor to ceiling with gilt and stucco. Narrow as a townhouse, and possibly the most concentrated baroque in Germany.
20 min here Walk here → -
Munich Residenz
Back across the old town to the Wittelsbachs' city palace. The Antiquarium, a Renaissance hall lined with busts, is the room that makes the ticket; the treasury is extra and worth it.
90 min here Walk here → -
Chinesischer Turm
Through the Hofgarten into the English Garden, to the wooden pagoda and the seven thousand seats of the beer garden around it. Self-service: fetch your own Mass and return the glass for the deposit.
60 min here Walk here → -
Hofbräuhaus
Back to town for dinner in the most famous beer hall in the world, founded as the court brewery in 1589. Touristy, loud and with a brass band — go once, and this is the day for it.
90 min here Walk here →
More in Munich
Every walking route in Munich, or the full Munich guide for where to stay and what a day costs.