Free things to do in Munich: what costs nothing, and the museums that charge €1 on Sundays

💡 The Short Version: Free every day: the NS-Dokumentationszentrum (closed Mondays), BMW Welt, the English Garden, the Nymphenburg park, the Hofgarten, the Frauenkirche nave, the Viktualienmarkt (closed Sundays) and the Glockenspiel. On Sundays seven state museums charge €1 each, for any visitor, and the Lenbachhaus is free on the first Thursday evening of the month. Not free: the Residenz, Nymphenburg’s palace, the Deutsches Museum and the BMW Museum. Mondays close most museums. Or book a tour: the city’s own two-hour Old Town walking tourad is from €22 (GetYourGuide).

The free list at a glance

The Diana Temple in the Hofgarten, with the Theatinerkirche towers behind. Photo: Achim Lammerts (Syntaxys), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The €1 Sundays

The Bavarian State Painting Collections, the Antikensammlungen and the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum charge €1 on Sundays. It is not a free day, and it applies to every visitor, tourists included.

• Special exhibitions with their own price are not covered.
• The €1 is for Sundays only. The same museums charge the full price on holidays: the Alte Pinakothek is €9 on Easter Monday.
• Monday is the closed day for all of them. Best museums in Munich has the hours and late nights.
• A pass never pays on a €1 Sunday. Seven museums cost €7 in all, and the City Pass starts at €39.90.

The free evening and the free under-18s

• The Lenbachhaus is free on the first Thursday of every month from 18:00 to 22:00. It is €10 otherwise.
• Children and young people under 18 enter the state museums free, and so do the Residenz, Nymphenburg and the Jewish Museum. The Residenz prints no nationality condition. The Deutsches Museum is free under 6.
• Pupils over 18 with a school ID are free at the Residenz and the state art museums.

What is not free

• The Residenz is €20 for the museum, the Treasury and the theatre, with the Hofgarten free beside it. See Munich Residenz tickets.
• Nymphenburg’s palace is €16 in winter and €20 in summer, and the park is free. See Nymphenburg Palace tickets.
• The Deutsches Museum is €16 to 1 November and €18 from 2 November, with half the building shut. See the Deutsches Museum.
• The towers: Alter Peter is €5, the Neues Rathaus tower from €7 and the Skylift €13. The Frauenkirche South Tower is closed. See Munich’s viewpoints.
• The BMW Museum is €17, and the plant tour €24.

A free day

• Sunday: the Alte Pinakothek and the Pinakothek der Moderne at €1 each, then the Glockenspiel and a walk in the English Garden. The NS-Dokumentationszentrum has its free English tour at 13:00. The Viktualienmarkt stalls are closed.
• Monday: the English Garden, the Nymphenburg park, BMW Welt, the Frauenkirche nave and the Viktualienmarkt. The art museums and the NS-Dokumentationszentrum are closed.
• A weekday evening: the Lenbachhaus on the first Thursday of the month, 18:00 to 22:00.

The Schönfeldwiese lawn in the English Garden, with the city’s towers on the skyline. Photo: Bbb, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 1.0.

Tours worth paying for

A walking tour puts the free sights in order. Prices are GetYourGuide’s lowest “from” prices, per person.

The city’s own Old Town tour

From €22 · 2 hours · 4.6 stars from 564 reviews

Munich: Old Town Guided Walking Tourad is run by München Tourismus in English or German. It takes in the Neues Rathaus, Marienplatz, the Frauenkirche, Maximilianstraße, Odeonsplatz and the Residenz. Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.

Practical information

• Cash: BMW Welt and the BMW Museum do not take cash for tickets. The Residenz desks take cash or cards.
• The one thing that ruins a free day: Monday. Most museums are shut, and the Viktualienmarkt is shut on Sunday.

What to book in Munich has the closed days for every sight, and Marienplatz and the Glockenspiel has the square. Munich City Pass or Munich Card says when a pass pays. Munich’s beer gardens says which gardens allow your own food, and where to eat in Munich lists the Viktualienmarkt stalls with their hours. 3 days in Munich builds a plan round the Sunday and Monday rules. For a bed nearby, see where to stay in Munich, and Munich public transport has the fares. Almost every Christmas market and the Oktoberfest are free to enter: see Munich Christmas markets 2026 and Oktoberfest 2027. The Munich old town walk and the English Garden walk string the free sights into routes.