Dachau Concentration Camp tour?

No need for an outside tour company at Dachau. They charge more than 20€ per person; you can do it on your own for about 4€. I suspect that outside guides are just former Memorial guides hired away for more money.

The Memorial itself has an extensive training program for their own guides. Their tours cost only 3€/P. English language tours start at 11am and 1pm. Get there 20 minutes earlier to get your tickets.

You can get to the Memorial easily on your own. The trip takes about 45 minutes by S-Bahn and bus. Since you will want a transit pass at least for the inner zone anyway, 12,20€ for an Innenraum Gruppentageskarte (inner zone day pass for a group of up to 5 people), spend the extra 3,20€ and get the München XXL Gruppentageskarte (day pass for the inner two zones) for 15,40€.

From anywhere in downtown Munich, take the S2, Richtung (direction) Petershausen and get off at the Dachau Bahnhof. Depending on the station you use in downtown, the trip takes about 20 minutes.

The bus to the Memorial (#726, Richtung Saubachsiedlung) leaves every 20 minutes from in front of the Bahnhof, and the stop is well marked, in English. You'll have 10 minutes at the Dachau Bahnhof to catch the bus; the bus trip take 7 minutes.

If you can't make the guided tours, the Memorial also rents audio guides for 3,50€, so you can take the audio guide tour anytime and at your own pace.

Here is the website for the Memorial, KZ-Gedenkstätte.

If you prefer an organized tour, and many people do, Radius tours is a good one. Their office is located at the main train station. I took their tour in 2006 and was happy I did. Their guides are all native English speakers and ours was very well informed.

Edit: When I posted after Lee did, his response was only a few sentences. He has now edited it to make his case. I'm not saying he's wrong. What I am saying, and others have agreed with me, that some people find value in a guided tour. Another person might claim that it may cost more and is therefore the wrong thing to do. When traveling it's not always about how much money you save. Some people insist that you can only take the train, and that renting a car costs more. But sometimes a car is an advantage. There is no right or wrong way when it comes to travel. People have to choose what will make their own trip work for them and not belittle people for making a different choice.

Other things worthwhile seeing in Munich are,

Downtown city center, Marienplatz: Watch the Glockenspiel (playing clock) on the Neues Rathaus (new city hall) at 11am. Visit Frauenkirche, the church with the green cupolas. Tour the nearby Residenz, the in-town palace of the Wittelsbachers. Eat lunch at the Hofbräuhaus or in the Ratskeller of the Rathaus.

On an island in the Isar: Visit the Deutsches Museum. The museum is extensive and could take an entire day. Due to renovation, some parts might be closed.

Outside downtown, but still in the inner zone: Schloß Nymphenburg. Take the #17 tram from the north side of the Hauptbahnhof.

I agree with Andrea. We also took the same tour and our guide was excellent. Well worth the money.

I also took Radius Tours and was very pleased with the tour and the guide. However, as Lee mentioned you could also travel to Dachau on your own and take the tour provided by the camp.

Regardless of which option you choose, you'll need to prepare yourself for the experience.

Jeremy: We used the Memorial guide. She was a scholar and had extensive knowledge of Dachau. I can't think of a reason not to use them unless the timing of your visit didn't match up to the scheduled tour times. Lee has provided all you need to get there and experience it. I recommend getting there early enough to spend time in the administrative buildings that have been converted to explanatory displays--well worth the time.

Andrea, when you took the tour in 2006, did you already know how easy it is to get to the Memorial on your own and how much less the Memorial charges for it's own tours, and still decide to take the outside tour, or did you take the tour without knowing how easy and inexpensive to is to do it on your own, and you are just now trying to justify your decision?. ("If I paid more, it must have been worth it.")

Anyone who has followed many of my posts knows that I am dedicated to finding the most cost effective ways to travel in Europe. Is that a problem? When was the last time someone posted that they wanted to know how to make their trip more expensive?!

Yes, when I first posted it was simply a quick post - that it's not necessary to take an outside tour because it's easy to get there on you own and the Memorial's own guide do a good job. I then went out to several websites (KZ_Gedenkstätte and MVV) to find the exact details as to tour costs and times and transit cost and times. So I came back later with information to support my argument. Are you complaining that I added good information to support my argument or that, by initially posting just my points, I beat you by 7 minutes?

Those people who are defending the extra cost of the outside tours seem to be doing so by saying that the outside guides were better than the Memorial's own guides, but has anyone done both to compare? Lacking an objective comparison, no one can say that one is better than the other, but if not, you can't justify the higher cost of the outside tour. Of course, the other thing that the outside guides do is take you there. However, that is hardly worth a difference per person of about 20€. OK, so you didn't know at the time how easy it would have been. Just admit you made a mistake; don't disparage the Memorial's guides to cover it up.

Thanks for all the replies everyone! Lee, that first reply is extremely helpful, I appreciate the time you took to write that out. I'll be printing it out and taking it with me for the trip. Unfortunately like many posts on here, it's now turned into a debate over who is the better or smarter traveler. Saving money is always great, but at the same time, many people such as myself look at these trips as possibly a once in a lifetime experience so saving a few euros here and there is not a priority. I am much more concerned with getting the best overall experience. I'll have to do some research as to which route is the best in regards to visiting Dachau.

But as always, thanks again for the help everyone!

The time spent getting to Dachau or any other Concentration Camp as well as the time spent getting back to Munich (or Berlin) with a tour guide is not spent in silence. You get the undivided attention of the guide who will tell you stories that you won't find in Dachau, you can ask them questions and get several hours more information.
Yes, I have toured both ways, on my own as well as with a tour group. They are both fine, but going on a group tour has never, ever been a waste of money. You spend a lot of money getting to Europe and then scrimp on the things that will make your trip even more memorable? This flabbergasts me.

I have visited Sachsenhausen 3 times, Ravensbruck twice, Bergen Belsen twice and Dachau once. Those that I visited with a guide were never a waste of money. Considering you get the guide for approximately 6 hours for 15-20 euro, it is a true bargain. They not only have the same training as those working for the Memorial itself, they have to do refresher classes, meet with survivors and do their own personal research. They have always been passionate about imparting their knowledge to their guests.

"Considering you get the guide for approximately 6 hours for 15-20 euro, it is a true bargain. "

Radius itself only advertises 5 hours for 24 euro. (4,80€/hr)

The Memorial gives you a guide for 2½ hours for 3 euro or 1,20€/hr. Now, that is the true bargain.

"Thanks for all the replies everyone! Lee, that first reply is extremely helpful, I appreciate the time you took to write that out. I'll be printing it out and taking it with me for the trip. Unfortunately like many posts on here, it's now turned into a debate over who is the better or smarter traveler. Saving money is always great, but at the same time, many people such as myself look at these trips as possibly a once in a lifetime experience so saving a few euros here and there is not a priority. I am much more concerned with getting the best overall experience. I'll have to do some research as to which route is the best in regards to visiting Dachau."

Jeremy, that was exactly the point I was trying to make. Cheaper can be fine, and who doesn't like to save money. But choosing to do it another way isn't wrong. There is no right or wrong. You have heard from a variety of people and now you can make an informed decision based on what you want to do. No one should have to justify the decision they make to anyone else.

I hope you have a wonderful trip.

Edit: Lee, no I'm not upset that you complaining that your post. I simply pointed it out to put my response in context to what you had originally posted.

I toured Dachau on my own. It was incredibly moving, and the museum is set up so that it is easily done without a guide. If you have other questions, there is always someone available. Just depends on what you are comfortable with. I was travelling alone, and still found myself mesmerized. Had planned on only spending a minimum amount of time, and then could not pull myself away. I can guarantee that you will "enjoy" this historical and sacred place no matter how you see it.

Yes, admission to the Memorial is free, and there are signs, so you can do it entirely by yourself, but for 3€ , I think the tour run by the Memorial is well worth it. My only objection is to spending 24€ for what no one can convince me is not essentially the same thing.

I found my Memorial trained guide to be extremely knowledgeable. Except for a few minutes when she had us go into the crematorium alone, to contemplate it, she talked to us constantly for 2½ hours. I don't think I remember half of what I was told. How much more could I have absorbed?

For our visit to the Munich area, we took a different approach since we definitely wanted to also visit the Ludwig castles: we spend a full day visiting both Neuschwanstein and near by Linderhof and minimized our time at Dachau to a few hours by just visiting the grounds without a tour guide. We then spent our remaining time visiting the Munich inner city sights which can be done in about one day. We felt we did not need to spend any more time at Dachau because we already knew a lot about concentration camps and wanted to just get a feel of the place without a long tour. We were very satisfied with that decision and really enjoyed the castle visits, tours and surrounding rural landscape. Each person needs to decide what is most important to visit during their limited time.

"Each person needs to decide what is most important to visit during their limited time."

I agree completely, but my advice would be if you can't spend enough time, don't bother. Save it for another trip. I didn't go to Dachau until my 7th trip to Munich because I was too busy seeing other things. I didn't think, for me, seeing Dachau was a high priority. But then, like hamitonpa, I thought I already knew a lot about concentration camps. I grew up immediately after WWII and even had a history teacher who had been in a unit that liberated one of the camps, and brought in picture every year when we studied the subject. I was a little surprised to find out, though, that Dachau was "only" a work camp, not a death camp.

You must not have learned much there then if you are relieved that people could just be worked to death and starved to death or shot in the head. Is that less gruesome, less cruel?

Edit: According to this source around 27,000 were killed. Quotation marks around the word "only" doesn't take away from the horror of being at this camp. It is sad that your guide didn't impart this important fact to you.
http://www.scrapbookpages.com/DachauScrapbook/deathstatistics.html

Experiments aren't as bad either I guess.
http://www.scrapbookpages.com/DachauScrapbook/experiments.html

I DID learn that, and I'm not saying that it wasn't a terrible place, but it was not an extermination camp, where they just brought people there with the intent to kill them. Notice that I put "only" in quotation marks.

BTW, 27,000 is about 2½% of the number killed at Auschwitz.