Three tours you should take in Munich

Munich is a beautiful and welcoming city. If you're only in Munich for a couple of days, there are still great ways to see the city. Here are three walks you should take to appreciate the city, its history and of course — the beer!

1. Sandemans "Free" walking tour

For a complete overview of Munich's history, and a walking tour of the city center, Sandemans is the way to go. While it is technically free, the tour guides will ask for tips at the end. It's pay-what-you-can, so if you are a poor college student this is a budget way to learn about Munich. What I enjoy about Sandemans tours is each guide puts his or her personality into a tour, so it's a little different every time. And, it starts in Marienplatz just in time for you to hear the famous, poorly tuned glockenspiel. Something you really only need to hear once in your life.

2. Any tour of Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site

While it's a heavy subject, I think it is hugely important for anyone to tour Dachau. The immensity of World War II sets in when you can see first-hand what conditions were like during the Holocaust. We once again went with Sandemans (tour supply was short over Christmas), but there are several highly-recommended guides on Trip Advisor who lead smaller groups. I do recommend you go with a guide instead of walking the grounds and reading the placards. My husband has done both and felt he had a much more meaningful experience with an expert than he did on his own. Good guides also have answers to your obscure questions.

3. Build-your-own Beer Tour

Ok, this is cheating a little bit :) But it's so easy to find beer in Munich! Start at the iconic Hofbraeuhaus (the atmosphere is electric!), but then make it your mission to never drink there again. Try the Jodlerwirt, Augustiner, anything on this map, or turn to Yelp if you're really stuck. And if tours are just how you like to travel, the Internet has you covered there, too. Check out these bar crawls (but don't blame me if you're "bro"ed out by the end of the night).

Prost!

Munich: Dachau Concentration Camp Tour

There's no easy way to write about visiting a Concentration Camp. But I think it's important that you visit, if you have an opportunity. I'm not going to write much about it because it seems like everyone will have a similar-but-different, powerful experience. I certainly did.

It's horrifying and astounding to realize the scale of Dachau, and how it compares to other camps and other atrocities during the war: the 41,000+ who were murdered at Dachau are a fraction of the millions at other camps.

It's redeeming to realize that Germany today has a very deep respect, reverence, or even shame, for what happened. You don't make jokes about the Holocaust here. A Nazi salute — even in jest — is punishable with jail time.

And there's hope in realizing that we can say "Never Again" and mean it.

What's this?

I went to Dachau with a tour, which I would highly recommend. Our trip today was actually the second time my husband toured Dachau; he was here in 2007 on his own and did the self-guided, read-the-placards method. He mentioned a couple times that he preferred the guided since our guide provided a lot of context for what the signs within the memorial and museum describe. Guides also have answers to your random questions. A four-hour tour only covered the very basics of Dachau; with a guide you can ask more in-depth questions between group stops. We used Sandemans New Munich Tours, but there are plenty of tour groups to choose from.

Travel pro-tip: we bought sandwiches at the train station before heading out. Our tour started at 9:30 and finished at Dachau around 2:30/3:00, so I was quite thankful that the family had the forethought to grab some sandwiches to eat on the S-bahn home. (No food allowed within the memorial.)

DIY Travel: Getting to and from Dachau would be very easy. Take the S2 S-bahn toward Petershausen; get off at Dachau Bahnhof. Exit the station and walk to the bus stop, which is right outside. Then, take bus 726 to Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. If you have a metro pass for the entire network, your travel costs are already covered. The bus waited for a long time at either terminus, so it's very easy to navigate. (Most tours include travel costs in the price if you don't have a travel pass.)