Munich Holidays

Munich city breaks

Munich’s full-blown Bavarian – and proud. The whole place is drenched in tradition, from its architecture to its grub. You can tuck in to white sausages and wheat beer for brekkie. And if you look around, you’ll clap eyes on centuries-old beer halls, Baroque churches and Gothic structures – a lot of them re-built after World War Two.

Village of a million

Despite being the capital of Bavaria and the region’s biggest city, Munich’s centre’s got a cosy feel about it. One of its nicknames is ‘milliondorf’, which means ‘village of a million’. While some of its German neighbours show off cloud-poking skylines and shiny, modern blocks, Munich’s architecture takes a more traditional turn – think red-roofed houses and low-rise buildings with candy-hued facades. In fact, the 85 metre-high New Town Hall’s one of the loftiest points in town.

Go green

Another thing the city’s known for is its green space – there are parks peppered all over, like sprinkles on an ice-cream. The English Garden hogs a lot of the limelight. This massive chunk of grassy space rubs shoulders with the Isar River, so streams and waterways cut through the lawns. The Chinese Garden’s plonked right in the middle of it all – it’s a beer garden with a tree-topping pagoda-style tower as the backdrop.

Make way for Wiesn

Beer festivals don’t come bigger, better or boozier than Oktoberfest, and Munich is the home of the OG party. A huge plot of land is kept empty all year in preparation for the event – it’s called the Theresienwiese, and come September it’s smothered in huge tents and rollercoasters. Big-name Bavarian brewers each get their own tent, and they come alive during the festival with live music, lashings of specially brewed beer and plenty of Bavarian grub.