How to Spend a Weekend in Munich, Beyond the Beer Festival

Oktoberfest is billed as the biggest beer festival in the world and draws more than six million visitors from everywhere. It is also only one part of Munich. The city has history, art, museums, parks, palaces and a river with surfers in it. I have been to Munich at least three times and to two Oktoberfests, and this is the plan I would give a first-timer with a weekend to spend. I partnered with Expedia on it.

A weekend is enough for the centre, one big museum and a palace, provided you resist the urge to see everything. Munich rewards a slower pace: a long lunch, a walk in the park, a beer before dinner. The plan below is built around that rather than around a checklist.

Before you arrive: where to sleep and how to move

Munich is large but well connected by public transport. For a weekend, stay either centrally or somewhere with quick metro access. There are plenty of hotels and hostels just outside the Central Station, though I prefer to be a little further out. If you want to be near the main sights, look around Altstadt or Marienplatz. Hostel people should look at Smart Stay Hostel, Jaeger's Munich or 4 you Hostel & Hotel. If comfort and wellness matter more, I recommend the Westin Grand Munich, which I loved on my last visit: it sits in Bogenhausen next to the Sheraton, with U4 access that reaches the Central Station in ten minutes and the Theresienwiese, the Oktoberfest ground, in a few more.

Buy a three-day transport ticket for 16 euros rather than fumbling for singles. If you arrive on a Deutsche Bahn train, day tickets for your travel days are already included.

Friday evening: get lost around Marienplatz

Even though I had been before, I took a free walking tour with Sandeman's New Europe Tours and came away with a head full of Bavarian stories. Walking is the best way to learn a city. If you would rather go alone, give yourself a few hours around Marienplatz, the Frauenkirche, the Rathaus and the Viktualienmarkt. For a view from above, climb the 289 steps of St Peter's Church; there is a small charge for the observation deck.

If you are in the square at 11 am or 5 pm you will see the Glockenspiel, the clock whose figures come out twice a day and re-enact Munich's history. I find it overrated, but it costs nothing to look up. The new Town Hall behind it is worth a proper look regardless.

Saturday: museums, then the river

Start with the Deutsches Museum. If I had to choose one museum in Munich, this would be it. You could lose hours inside, following the history of science and technology: ships, aircraft, trains, astronomy, chemistry, DNA, computers, the environment. Whatever your interest, it is covered, and much of it is interactive.

If art is more your thing, pick a Pinakothek depending on whether you want modern, medieval or eighteenth-to-twentieth-century work. Begin the day with one or two of these, stop for lunch, then carry on.

In the evening, head for the English Garden. It is one of the largest urban parks in Europe, bigger than Central Park in New York. Walk or cycle, find a beer garden, and watch the people surfing in the Isar.

Beer, and why Bavarians are serious about it

Bavaria and beer go back a long way — possibly to 9500 BC, with the first written mention in 3000 BC by the Sumerians. By the eleventh century Benedictine monks held the rights to brew and sell, and monasteries worked as breweries. Augustiner Brau was founded in 1328 and is the oldest brewery in Munich. In 1516 the Duke of Bavaria brought in the Beer Purity Law, restricting beer to three ingredients — hops, water and barley malt — so that it could not be adulterated. The law is still in force, and Bavarians are proud of it.

Sunday: palaces, cars and football

Nymphenburg Castle is a Baroque palace built in the 1600s as the summer residence of Maximilian II Emanuel. The complex is vast and the gardens behind it are made for strolling, whether with friends or alone. Pay to go inside and see how the royals lived; in good weather, the gardens alone justify the trip.

If cars interest you, the BMW Welt and Museum are in the Olympic Park area, next to the Olympic Tower, where you can go up for a city view and try adventure sports such as ziplining. The BMW Museum is closed on Mondays and open until 6 pm on other days. The BMW Welt is free and open until midnight every day, with car exhibitions that include Rolls Royce and Mini.

Around the Olympic Park you can also visit the Olympia Park Hill, the Munich Olympic Walk of Stars, the Rock Museum, the Olympic Stadium and SEA Life Munich, depending on your taste.

Football fans should head to the Allianz Arena, home of FC Bayern. Watch a match if the fixtures allow, or simply see the stadium lit in its changing colours. There are daily guided tours, and it is open from 10 am to 6 pm.

Three questions I get asked

Is a weekend enough?

For the centre, yes. Add a day if you want a castle trip, and two if you want the mountains as well.

Do I need a car?

No. The metro, trams and regional trains cover the city and most day trips, and a three-day ticket costs 16 euros.

What if it rains?

The Deutsches Museum and the Pinakothek galleries can absorb a whole day between them. Oberschleissheim Castle is also inside the city and easy to reach when a longer trip does not appeal.

Where to eat

Munich has plenty of good tables, and if a brewery does not appeal there are restaurants and rooftop bars instead. Beer gardens are everywhere, including a Paulaner inside the Westin Grand. The Viktualienmarkt, near Marienplatz, is an open market with food all day.

What I like about eating here is the range. The reputation suggests sausage and beer, and both are excellent, but the city also does Italian, Middle Eastern and Indian very well. You can eat cheaply or expensively, and a beer garden turns a single drink and a pretzel into a proper pause in the day.

Places worth trying: Hungriges Herz, Eataly, Bayerisch Hof for a fancy breakfast or a drink at the rooftop bar, Glockenbach, Flushing Meadows, and Vinzmur for food on the move. A friend recommended Vegelangelo, Gratitude, Dean and David for vegetarian food. While staying at the Westin Grand I explored the neighbourhood and found an Indian restaurant called Namaste, which was very good.

Try the Bavarian breakfast at least once: a pair of white sausages, beer and pretzels. If you want more budget options, there is a good list of cheap eats in Munich online.

If you have another day

Dachau Concentration Camp is one option, and a serious one. The other is the castle circuit: Neuschwanstein, or Linderhof and Hohenschwangau. Allow a full day, since regional trains and buses take around two hours each way, and entry to the castles is only possible on guided tours that must be booked well in advance.

Chiemsee is another possibility, a lake about 1.5 hours away by regional train, and there is a good guide online to all the castle day trips from Munich. One of my favourite excursions was Salzburg in Austria, a beautiful city reached by regional train on a Bayern Ticket, which keeps the cost down.

Germany's highest peak, the Zugspitze, works as a day trip or an overnight one. If time is short or the weather turns, Oberschleissheim Castle is inside Munich and easy to reach.

If you have longer

Use the position. Trains reach Innsbruck or Vienna in about four hours. Ulm and Nuremberg are close by in Germany, and Prague takes four to five hours by train or bus. That makes Munich a sensible base for a longer trip rather than only a weekend: you can go south into the Alps, east to Vienna, or north to Nuremberg without changing your accommodation twice.

More resources

• 99 things to do in Munich
• What to pack for Munich, for every season
• The best and worst Munich restaurants
• Munich Christmas markets
• Tips for enjoying Oktoberfest
• Staying at the Westin Grand Munich

Enjoy Munich. Tell me when you go, or what you liked if you have been already — I am always looking for vegetarian food ideas and new places to see. Nearby, I have also written about Stuttgart, Tübingen and Frankfurt.