Dachau Memorial Site from Munich: free entry, the train and bus 726, and the guided tours

💡 The Short Version: Entry to the Dachau Memorial Site is free, and no booking is needed. It is open daily 9:00 to 17:00 and closed on 24 December. From Hauptbahnhof the RB16 or RE1 takes 11 to 13 minutes to Dachau, then bus 726 to the stop “KZ-Gedenkstätte”; a day ticket for zones M to 1 is €11.70 and covers both. The memorial’s own English tour is €4, at 11:00 and 13:00 daily, and takes about 2.5 hours; buy it at the desk at least 45 minutes ahead. Or book a guided tour from Munich: the five-hour memorial tourad is from €47 and the six-hour full-day tourad from €41 (GetYourGuide). Entry is free, so a tour pays for the guide and the transfer.

The Dachau concentration camp opened on 22 March 1933 and was liberated by units of the US Army on 29 April 1945. The memorial gives the number of people who died there between 1933 and 1945 as some 41,500.

Getting there

The Visitors’ Center and entrance are at Pater-Roth-Straße 2a, 85221 Dachau, on the east side of the town. Dachau is in MVV fare zone 1, so a ticket for zones M to 1 covers the train and the bus.

• Fare: zones M to 1, €6.40 for a single, €11.70 for a single-day ticket and €21.20 for a group day ticket for up to five. From 1 January 2027 the day ticket is €12.40 and the group ticket €22.50. A day ticket pays from the second journey. Children aged 6 to 14 travel free on an adult’s single-day ticket. The memorial advises the “Munich-M1” day ticket.
• Works: on 3 to 6 November 2026, and on the weekends of 13 to 16 November, 27 to 30 November and 4 to 7 December, fewer S-Bahn trains run through the city centre and the S2 from the west is reduced, so take the RB16 or RE1 from Hauptbahnhof. The S2 beyond Dachau is replaced by buses from 1 to 9 November and 23 to 28 November, which does not affect the trip from Munich.
• By car: parking at Alte Römerstraße 73 is €3 a car, cash only, and the car park is often full in summer. The memorial asks visitors to use public transport.

Guided tours from Munich

Entry is free. A tour from Munich pays for the guide and the transfer, and the listings say what else is included. Prices are GetYourGuide’s lowest “from” prices for one adult.

The one question to ask: whether the guide is licensed by the memorial. Only licensed guides may give information tours on the site, and the memorial may bar others.

What the memorial covers

Start at the Visitors’ Center, which has the information desk, the tour tickets and the audio guides.

The Jourhaus, the gatehouse of the former Dachau concentration camp. Photo: Renardo la vulpo, Wikimedia Commons, CC0.

• The main exhibition, in the former maintenance building, follows the “path of the prisoners” from arrival to death or liberation, in six sections across 13 rooms and areas. The texts are in German and English.
• The exhibition in the former camp prison, the barracks exhibition and the former crematorium are on the grounds. The crematorium area closes at 16:30.
• The Memorial Room, at the end of the main exhibition, carries more than 130 plaques and stones for individuals and groups held at Dachau.
• The English guided tour goes through the grounds, the historical buildings and parts of the permanent exhibition. It is limited to 30 people; the meeting point is given when you buy the ticket.
• The audio guide is €5 (€4 reduced) plus a deposit left at the desk, in 18 languages including English.

Allow the 2.5 hours of the tour, or longer with the exhibition. The tours from Munich are listed at 5 to 6 hours door to door.

Rules and hours

• Behaviour: no smoking, eating or alcohol on the grounds, and no dogs apart from guide dogs. Flags and banners, vehicles and loudspeakers are not allowed, and luggage must not be left unattended. Clothing or symbols linked to right-wing extremist groups are banned, and visitors are asked to dress appropriately.
• Recording: the content of the guided tours may not be recorded, filmed or reproduced.
• Age: the memorial advises that children under 12 should not visit the exhibitions and the grounds. Its tours for individual visitors are for visitors over 13.
• The one thing that spoils the day: arriving for the English tour less than 45 minutes before it starts. Tickets are not reservable and the tour is limited to 30.

Dachau is one of the day trips from Munich. The city’s own history is covered by the NS-Dokumentationszentrum, which is free, and Third Reich tours in Munich. The Sachsenhausen Memorial near Berlin is also free to enter, and Nuremberg has the former Nazi Party rally grounds. Munich public transport covers the tickets and zones, what to book before you go to Munich has the other tickets, and where to stay in Munich compares the areas.