Dachau Camp Visit

I did the tour offered by the Memorial in 2009. We received a constant flow of information for 2½ hours, so, yes, I think you get more information than you would on you own (and you can ask questions of the guide). My guide was excellent and presented us with far more information than we could remember. After the tour you're free to go back through the Memorial to reflect on anything you want.

And yes, I ate at the cafe.before the tour. The cafe, as I remember, was cafeteria style. I don't remember the food being anything exceptional, just cafeteria food.

Jennifer,

I'd recommend taking the tour as I believe you'll get a better sense of the history than if you just wander about on your own. Once advantage in having a guide is that you ask questions to clarify any additional points you're interested in. I'd suggest allowing a bit of time after the tour to just wander about and reflect. It's a moving memorial site.

We did the Dachau Camp September '14. We did not do the guided tour, but we did the personal handheld device tour which had a LOT of information about each of the stops. It also included things like, listening to survivors recorded testimony of their experience.
We did eat at their cafe and it was great! Excellent prices as well. Hope that helped!

We just went to Dachau on Thursday. Our plan was to sign up for the 11:00 tour as well. We got there just before 10 since they only take 30 people and wanted to get our names on the list. Unfortunately, the 11:00 tour was cancelled because the guide didn't show up. We were bummed and did the audio guide, which was fine but nothing near what a guide would provide. We didn't want to wait 3 hours for the 1 pm tour.

In an earlier thread I had posted about Dachau some people talked about using an outside guide. This could be an option as well. The risk with using the camp provided guide is that the tour may fill up (or in our case not be there!) so you need to be okay with either waiting for the 1 pm tour or just using the audio guide. For us, in retrospect, it might have been better to go with an outside guide, just for the certainty of having a guide.

I also recently did the audio guide tour and found it very informative. I enjoyed listening to the stories from people who were there. When you walk through the museum, there is a lot of information there on the displays, too. I can't comment on a personal guide because I prefer to do things at my own pace, not at a groups pace. The whole day was a very emotional day, though.

I agree with Charlotte, I was there last week and used the audio guide. Ms. Jo wrote a very good trip report last week, she had a guide for the tour. I was not sure I could keep up with a tour (temporary injury), so I used the audio guide.

I went to Dachau last summer and used Munich Walks tour (the group meets near the glockenspiel at Marienplatz around 10:15 a.m.) The guide was very knowledgeable and friendly, and an added benefit -- they take care of the transportation (train/bus) to the camp. It was a really moving experience and would recommend it. There were about 15 people in our group, so a nice manageable size.

Transportation from downtown Munich to the camp is incredibly easy; anyone should be able to do it on their own and $ave. Get on any S2 (leaving every 20 minutes) from the Hauptbahnhof (or any station on the main S-Bahn trunk line between Ostbahnhof and Laim, like Marienplatz) in the direction of Petershausen, get off in 21 minutes at Dachau Bahnhof, walk around or through the station building and find the bus stop in front of the station for the bus to the Memorial (the bus stop is well marked in English). You'll have 10 minutes to get to the bus. It's number 726 and the trip to the Memorial (KZ-Gedenkstätte) takes 7 minutes.

The best way to pay the fare is with a München XXL Tageskarte (8,30€ for a single person, 14,80€ for a group of up to 5 people). If you are already planning to get a Tageskarte (day pass) for the inner zone anyway, the XXL pass is only 2,10€ more for a single, 3,10 more for a group. The Tageskarte will cover your travel to the Memorial and back plus any travel by S-/U-Bahn, streetcar, or bus anywhere else in the inner two zones of the Munich metro district (MVV) for the rest of the day.

Once at the Memorial, you can tour it yourself for free. A tour by a guide trained by the Memorial costs 3€ per person. English tours are at 11 am and 1 PM, or you can rent an audio guide for 3,50€.

We took a tour of Dachau and we did it alone. We traveled from a near by train station, near or hotel to the camp. We did the audio tour, had enough time to grab a bite to eat there at the museum, then got a train back to downtown Munich (marienplatz).
Spent sometime there walking around, then back on the train to the hotel.
All was easy and no crowds