Dachau from Munich Day Trip

when I was there a few years ago we found the bilingual (maybe more, don't remember) signage and photos had plenty of information and we didn't feel the need for a guide. We both had plenty of prior knowledge going in but were still overtaken by some of the things we saw. I think were there between 2 and 3 hours.

You may not want to plan anything too frivolous for the rest of the day. It is quite moving.

Getting there and back is easy.

Echo Nigel's comments. No need for a guide. In fact, probably an advantage to be able to linger or move along at the pace that interests you. We are really glad we went; it still informs my thoughts when I read about world politics and events.

I find that catching the train that gets you there right around the time the site opens works best for me ... once there, everyone's pace is different so can't answer your total time question, just be sure to give yourself plenty of time to return to move on to your next destination (including getting any bags left in a locker or hotel) ... and I rarely do tours since I like to explore at my own pace (and I have been known to linger a little longer at something that really interests me or wait for that perfect camera shot) ... a recent exception was the Aachen Cathedral where you need to go on the tour if you wanted to see Charlemagne's throne or get up close to his tomb.

And I'll dog-pile with Nigel and Bob ... I was there once (40 years ago) and I am still moved by how people can treat other people ... it was a tough day.

I visited in 2018 and recall arriving via train around 10 am and exploring at my own moderate pace, having lunch in the cafeteria, then getting back to Munich around 3 pm. So, perhaps allow 3-4 hours on site. The displays were well-described and I don't feel I missed anything without a guide. I had already visited Auschwitz and must say Dachau was more disturbing to me; my last stop prior to leaving was the area where the original crematories are still standing, and you enter the building just the same as the victims did. I reflected and gathered myself for some time after that. As others say, the rest of the day was not full of frivolity.

Wow. Thank you all for your comments. I'm really looking forward to the somber occasion and will plan accordingly for the rest of the day. I will go without a guide and appreciate the feedback and advice

Interesting,
I visited Dachau about 8 years prior to visiting Auschwitz.

Auschwitz made Dachau into a minor league place.

My wife and I had nightmares for days after our visit to Auschwitz. I am not saying to skip Dachau, but if you have been to Auschwitz, then you won't need to see Dachau.

Hi, Brent.

I'll echo some of the previous comments by stating that if you go without a guide, you'll be fine. Almost all of the signage includes English translation in a comprehensive way, not just a "one-line of translation" way.

After countless visits for work and with friends in Munich over many years, it was finally time: I felt emotionally ready (better than years before) to visit KZ Dachau in June 2018. I arrived at the 9am opening to a overcast morning; I had intended to stay until noon. I continued to wander from one part of the grounds to the next part, going through the museum, reading some of the information panels, attending a weekly Friday-noon Protestant service of 1, absorbing what I was seeing, and taking the time to reflect. Where I almost lost it was slowly flipping through a gigantic hardcover book, Book of Remembrance for the Victims of Dachau Concentration Camp, listing the names of over 33-thousand who perished here. I finally noticed the change in "sun angle" when the sun finally poked through the clouds, and that's when I realized people were leaving. It was 5pm: I had stayed the entire 8 hours.

From Munich Hauptbahnhof (central station), you can catch a regional RB train or S-Bahn S2 train to station "Dachau Bahnhof" (not "Dachau Stadt"). From "Dachau Bahnhof", catch bus 726 to stop "Dachau, KZ-Gedenkstätte". The MVV journey planner says the one-way trip duration with train and bus lasts 30 to 40 minutes.

I've been to Dachau. I went entirely using public transportation and did it with a Memorial trained guide.

I think I know where the 9 am 3rd party guided tour starts, and I don't think they can get organized and walk you to the S-Bahn station for the 9:09 S2 to Dachau station. The next S2 leaves the Hbf at 9:37 and gets to the Memorial at 10:18. If the guide doesn't quite give you an 3 hour long tour, and get you back on the bus at 13:26, you might get back to the Hbf at 2:14 pm, or it could be later. I don't know how that fits you schedule for the train to Vienna. I think that tour 3rd party tour, for two people would be about $75.

If you want to take the tour guided by a Memorial trained guide, the tour will cost you $8 for two people, but the tour doesn't start until 11 am, so you probably can't get back to the Hbf as soon as with the 3rd party guided tour.

On the other hand, you could leave earlier and get to the Memorial a lot earlier. As far as I know, there are not quides at the Memorial that you could hire to take an earlier tour. The Memorial's English tours start at 11 an. But you could take the audio tour at any time, and get back to the Hbf before the 3rd party tour would get you there. And the most that would cost you would be about $27, if you had to buy a transit ticket just to the Memorial and back. Assuming you would not be staying close enough to the Hbf to walk and would have to by a ticket to get to the Hbf, or if you would be using a Bayern-Ticket to get to Salzburg, your cost of getting to the Memorial could be a lot less, or free.

Nobody has ever been able to convince be that the more expensive, third party tours are better than the ones given by the Memorial's own trained guides, so I think you are right in going earlier and not use the 9 am 3rd party tour.

We went in reverse. We stayed in Dachau and took the train into Munich. Believe it was about an hour’s ride. From the camp, the train station is a couple miles. We had a car so didn’t need a bus from the hotel to train station. We found the signs more than adequate and don’t feel a guide is needed. We also arrived later in the day and stayed until closing time. All told, we were there about 1.5 hours. If you wanted to read all exhibits in the admin building it would take longer.

Brent,

As previous replies have indicated, Dachau is a very easy site to visit. I chose to take a tour with Radius Tours and was very pleased with both the guide and the tour. As I recall, he provided information on the history during the short train ride out to Dachau.

I was able to see Dachau back in 2019. We did not have a tour guide, but were able to tour at our own pace. We spent 2-3 hours & that still didn't seem like enough time to fully take everything in. Be sure to see the short film in the main building. (Full disclosure: After watching, I was unable to bring myself to go to the crematorium area.) It is not a pleasant experience, but it is one that I would not miss.

Auschwitz made Dachau into a minor league place.

I'm sure the inmates had just as a hellish time.

Though other camps have more original buildings, I think a trip to Dachau is always warranted if only to see how close the camp was to the town-which negates peoples claims that "they didn't know" about the camps.

"close the camp was to the town-which negates peoples claims that "they didn't know" about the camp"

My grandmother knew it was there but Government said it is a prison - no doubt about that.

And Dachau by the way had many outer camps in and around Munich. Allach for example where BMW was using forced labor to build aircraft engines. People knew about these 'prisons' as well but like our society today people thought ok becasue all of them are criminals or terrorists.

Anyone recommend staying in Dachau rather than Munich?

All your comments are very informative about Dachau.

@mollyberg - Rather than staying in Munich, we stayed in Dachau at Hotel Burgmeier. We had a very pleasant stay. We had a rental car so it was a short drive to the concentration camp. The train station was near the hotel, so taking the train into Munich was easy.

Auschwitz made Dachau into a minor league place.

I'm sure the inmates had just as a hellish time.

Maybe more so. Most of those who came to Auschwitz died in the gas chambers shortly after arriving. They weren't mistreated for very long.

Most of those who were at Dachau "survivied" (i.e., didn't die at Dachau), but they might have wished that they had died. They were underfeed, physically abused, and overworked for years. It was probably a more hellish time.

My mother's boss (she was an apprentice at the time) was sent from Nuremberg to Dachau in 1936, simply because someone had denounced him as a "communist". He came back after half a year, physically and psychologically broken and was never able to do his job again.

Thanks to all who commented on this topic. Interesting conversation, including those who were able to interject some (indirect) personal experience.

The death rate at Dachau will never be known, but at a minimum it was 28,000 from the approximately 200,000 prisoners that were held there at one time or another. They died from forced labor, death marches, starvation, disease and medical experiments.

Using terms like "minor league" is horribly disrespectful to those who died there.

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/dachau

They died from forced labor, death marches, starvation, disease and
medical experiments.

I understand some prisoners were shot for not doing what they were ordered to do. These prisoners might have deliberately disobeyed to get shot because they couldn't take it anymore.

To follow Lee's comment:

I understand some prisoners were shot for not doing what they were ordered to do. These prisoners might have deliberately disobeyed to get shot because they couldn't take it anymore.

Within the KZ Dachau memorial site, a path leads north from the present-day main gate towards the two crematoria. Along the camp's western perimeter, the path runs parallel to what would've been a shallow ditch and adjacent electrified barb-wired fence. There's at least one sign stating that any prisoners approaching or entering the ditch or fence area were immediately shot, and that some prisoners ran deliberately into the "no-go area" to commit suicide by gunfire or electrocution.

There are tons of primary source documents on display throughout the museum. Reading them all would take hours but you will certainly want to take in as much as you can. We purchased a wonderful book from the rather small gift shop that contained many of the primary source documents as well as a CD containing them so you can read them all later. I haven't been there in several years but I recall it being a short train trip from Munich followed by a short bus ride from the Dachau station. My wife and I even got off at the wrong bus stop and enjoyed a short walk to the site.

In 2016 we stayed in Dachau and rode the train into Munich. It's was an AirBnB near the Bahnhof our daughter chose, so as to have 2 bedrooms. It was very cheap. She had friends living in Dachau. We found a Hundertwasser building in town; the Maypole was still up; and we stumbled upon some Stolpersteine (brass paving stones with information about the Jews who were removed from the exact location during the Shoah). Otherwise, I would have preferred to stay in Munich, where we went everyday, except the day we went to the Camp.

Leonard, the Stolperstein are for anyone who was murdered by the Nazis, not just Jewish people. You will find them for Communists, Socialists, Gays, Jehovah Witnesses, Roma & Sinti, Disabled, political activists, and many, many others.