Best time to visit Munich, month by month: weather, daylight, Oktoberfest, the Christmas markets, Fasching, the strong-beer festivals, the Frühlingsfest and Tollwood

💡 The Short Version: There is no single best month, so choose by what you want. May to September have mean highs of 19.4°C to 24.9°C and the longest days, up to 16 hours in June, and they are also the wettest months, with 107 to 121 mm a month from May to August. September brings the Oktoberfest, from 18 September to 3 October 2027. November and December have the Christmas markets, from 20 November 2026, with highs of 4.8°C in December and 8.4 hours of daylight on the 15th. January and February are the coldest, with 19.4 and 16.4 frost days, and have Fasching and the first strong-beer festivals. No month is empty. Or book a walk: the city’s own two-hour Old Town walking tourad is from €22.

Munich month by month

Highs and lows are the mean daily maximum and minimum in °C, and rain is the monthly total in mm with the number of days with 10 mm or more. The weather is the 1991 to 2020 normals for the Deutscher Wetterdienst’s München-Stadt station, about 4 km north-north-west of Marienplatz (DWD, with the highs, lows and heavy-rain days from the WMO sheet for the same station). The airport station is drier and cooler, at 757 mm and a mean of 8.9°C a year against the city’s 940 mm and 10.1°C. Daylight is the length of the day on the 15th in hours, calculated for Munich’s coordinates.

The weather in numbers

• Rain peaks in summer, not winter. June has 120.9 mm, July 118.9 mm and August 116.5 mm, and May has 107 mm. January and February are the driest, with 51.9 mm and 45.5 mm. The year adds up to 939.7 mm.
• Storms. Thunder falls on 6.3 days in June, 7.8 in July, 4.9 in August and 4.5 in May, 29.3 days in the year.
• Heat. July has 16 days at or above 25°C and 4.6 at or above 30°C, August 15.3 and 4.4, and June 11.4 and 2.3.
• Cold. January has 19.4 frost days and February 16.4, and December 17.2. There are 19.5 days a year when the temperature never rises above freezing, 7.7 of them in January and 5.1 in December.
• Sunshine. 1,841.5 hours a year: 241.4 in July, 232.1 in August, 223.7 in June and 213 in May, against 74.6 in January and 66.4 in December.
• Daylight. From 8.4 hours on 15 December to 16.0 on 15 June. The shortest day, 21 December, runs from about 08:01 to 16:22, and the sun sets at about 16:28 on 31 December.
• Clocks. Germany changes on the last Sunday of October and of March: 25 October 2026, 28 March 2027 and 31 October 2027.

The Bavarian State Chancellery across the snow-covered Hofgarten. Photo: Flocci Nivis, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.

Dates that shape a visit

Oktoberfest

The 192nd Oktoberfest runs from Saturday 18 September to Sunday 3 October 2027, with September averaging 19.6°C by day and 10.4°C at night and October 14.5°C and 6.5°C. Entry is free; the tents book whole tables. See Oktoberfest 2027.

The Christmas markets

The Christkindlmarkt on Marienplatz runs from 20 November to 24 December 2026, and the other markets between 12 November and 5 January: see Munich Christmas markets 2026. New Year’s Eve is in Munich on New Year’s Eve 2026.

Fasching

Shrove Tuesday is on 9 February 2027, and the market women of the Viktualienmarkt dance at 11:00, with a programme from about 9:00. On Rosenmontag, 8 February, the taking-part pubs serve a Weißwurst breakfast for one to two euros each. The Residenz, Nymphenburg and the Alter Peter tower are closed on Shrove Tuesday. The season opens on 11 November at 11:11, and the Narrhalla prince couple is crowned on Marienplatz on 5 January.

The strong-beer festivals

Doppelbock, a beer of 7 to 8 per cent brewed for Lent, has its own season after Fasching. The Löwenbräukeller holds a festival from 12 February to 20 March 2027. Paulaner am Nockherberg holds one from Friday 26 February to Sunday 21 March, open Monday to Friday from 16:00 to 22:30 and on Saturday and Sunday in two sittings, 11:00 to 16:00 and 16:30 to 22:30. Admission is by reserved table: €195 for 10 tickets, each with a €14.90 beer token, or €22.50 for a single ticket at the box office if there is room (paulaner-nockherberg.com). The Augustiner-Keller, the Hofbräukeller and the Giesinger Werk 2 hold festivals too. See Munich’s beer halls.

The Frühlingsfest

The spring festival, a small Oktoberfest on the Theresienwiese, has two tents, a Weißbier garden, rides and stalls, and free entry. It runs in late April, and the city has not yet published the 2027 dates. The 2026 festival ran from 17 April to 10 May.

The Ferris wheel and rides of the Frühlingsfest on the Theresienwiese, with the Paulskirche behind. Photo: Strubbl, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Tollwood

Tollwood’s summer festival runs in the Olympiapark Süd from mid-June to mid-July. Entry to the grounds and the market is free, and the concerts in the Musik-Arena are ticketed. See the Olympiapark. The winter festival is on the Theresienwiese.

Public holidays

In Munich the public holidays are 1 January, 6 January, Good Friday, Easter Monday, 1 May, Ascension, Whit Monday, Corpus Christi, 15 August, 3 October, 1 November and 25 and 26 December. In 2027 they fall on 26 March, 29 March, 1 May (a Saturday), 6 May, 17 May, 27 May, 15 August (a Sunday), 3 October (a Sunday, the last day of the Oktoberfest) and 1 November (a Monday). Shops are shut on Sundays and holidays, and bakeries may sell for three hours between 8:00 and 17:00. From 1 April to 15 October and on the four Advent Sundays, shops selling tourist goods in the old-town pedestrian zones may open from 11:00 to 19:00 on Sundays and holidays.

How busy it is

No month is empty. Every month of 2025 had more than a million overnight stays, according to München Tourismus. In the city’s preliminary monthly figures for January to September 2025, July had the most, 1,982,996, and February the fewest, 1,179,620; September, the Oktoberfest month, had 1,879,872 (Landeshauptstadt München). The city’s statistics office credits trade fairs for records in January and September 2025, and December 2025 was the busiest December on record.

Which month for what

• Walking weather. May and September, with mean highs of 19.4°C and 19.6°C, or June, with 16 hours of daylight.
• The heat and the storms. July and August: the rain falls in thunderstorms, so put the indoor sights in the afternoon, as in 3 days in Munich.
• Beer gardens. The warm months, May to September. Each garden sets its own opening dates: see Munich’s beer gardens.
• Christmas. Late November and December, with 8.4 to 9.3 hours of daylight and a mean high of 4.8°C in December: wear layers.
• Beer and carnival. February and March, with the strong-beer festivals, at highs of 5.6°C and 10.1°C.
• Short days. December and January, with 8.4 and 8.8 hours of daylight.
• The mountains. The Zugspitze is closed on 9 to 13, 16 to 20 and 23 to 26 November 2026, and the Eagle’s Nest is open only until 8 November: see the Zugspitze and Berchtesgaden and the Eagle’s Nest. Neuschwanstein is in the Neuschwanstein day trip.
• Indoors in bad weather. The Deutsches Museum is open daily from 9:00 to 17:00, and costs €18 from 2 November 2026 with about half the building closed: see the Deutsches Museum and the best museums in Munich.

Plan the rest

Where to stay in Munich compares the areas and hotels near Munich Hauptbahnhof lists the closest. Once you have your dates, 3 days in Munich fits the sights round the closed days. Where to eat in Munich, Munich’s beer halls and beer gardens cover the meals and drinks, and what to book before you go to Munich has the hours for every sight. For the way in, see Munich airport to the city and Munich public transport. Day trips from Munich covers the trips out.