Dachau tour question

We arrived early and were happy with using the audio guide.

When we were in Munich for a Rick Steves tour, some of our tour mates went to Dachau on a guided tour. They just went to the tourist office at Marienplatz and signed up for the tour for the next day. The tour included transportation and a guide. I can try and get you the exact details if you’re interested. I bet this info is even in his guidebook!

They just went to the tourist office at Marienplatz and signed up for the tour for the next day.

Getting to Dachau by yourself using the Munich metro is actually easy. Take the S-2 (dir. Petershausen) to the Dachau Bahnhof. You'll have 10 min (or 20) at the Dachau Bhf to catch the 726 bus. The bus leaves from a bus stop in front of the Bahnhof; it's well marked. Get off the bus 7 minutes later at the KZ-gedenkstätte, Dachau. The S-Bahn runs every 20 minute, the bus every 10 minutes.

For 4 adults, you should get a M - 1 Gruppen Tageskarte for 17,-€. The Tageskarte (day ticket) will be valid for any and all public transit in zones M and 1 for the entire day, so you can use it for the round trip and any other travel in the central zones that day. If you were touring Munich and staying only in the central zone, an M (for Munich) Tageskarte would be advisable, for 15,60€, anyway, so the M - 1 ticket is only 1,40€ more, or .35€ more per person to get to Dachau.

The tour led by Memorial trained guides is 4,-€/person. I would advise getting to the Memorial an hour early, immediately signing up for a tour, and then having a bite to eat at the deli there.

We are planning to take public transport to Dachau. Our preference is do the guided tour there, so I think we'll just plan to arrive an hour early as suggested. If they are full, it seems like people have been happy with the audio guide. If we were to use someone else for a tour, I wasn't really thinking of a tourism/travel company, I was looking at this list of officially licensed guides from the Dachau webste: https://www.kz-gedenkstaette-dachau.de/en/our-tour-and-programs/other-tour-providers/. If anyone has any experience with them, I'd love to hear. Thanks!

We went with this tour company and we found it to be more than outstanding.
https://dark-history.eu/munich-all-tours/munich-private-tours/dachau-memorial-site/

These guides ARE trained by the Memorial, but they add so much more. Personal stories and histories.
The guides at the memorial do not get paid much, so they cannot live off of just doing a few tours a week, so guides from other companies that are doing tours here are doing other types of tours too. Guides cannot live off doing 2 tours a week at 40€ per tour, which is probably what the memorial pays.
Any idea how Covid has affected the tour business in Germany the past 2 years, how guides are trying to hang on to their companies after investing years of hard work? Dachau probably lost many of their guides as they were also closed for many months. So, please, cut them some slack and stop dissing them and telling people they are wasting their money by hiring a good private tour guide. Even Rick Steves advises doing this.

The reason I was looking at a private guide is because, from what I have read, it is hard to get into their guided tours offered directly by the memorial and they often sell out. We will only have this day to go, and I would be disappointed if their guided tours were sold out when we arrived. So I thought it might be less stressful to have a tour arranged up front. I was looking at the churches and educational groups that offer tours and are licensed by Dachau. That is all. I thought I explained this in my original post, but perhaps I wasn't clear. I was not trying to encourage people to argue about this issue. Again, if anyone has any experience with the licensed guides on their website, I'd love to hear about it.

katie,

I decided to take a guided tour of Dachau with Radius Tours and was very happy with it - https://www.radiustours.com/tours-in-english/dachau-concentration-camp-memorial/ . The group travelled to Dachau by train and then local bus, and they made all the arrangements.

I thought the guide was very knowledgeable and was able to answer any questions. The guide started providing some of the history on the train ride to Dachau, which I thought was a good use of the time. Some free time was also provided for tour members to walk around and reflect on the dreadful history of the site.

The group travelled to Dachau by train and then local bus, and they made all the arrangements.

A couple of years ago, I was staying in Munich and did a tour of Dachau. I traveled to Dachau by train and then local bus. I made all the arrangement myself (i.e. looked at the schedule and bought my own ticket). I saved $34 (31€).

I thought the guided tour was the best option for me, and I enjoyed the opportunity to review the history with the guide on the train ride. Whether to take a tour is mostly a matter of personal preference and I felt that was the best option for me at the time. I didn't regret my decision.

Katie I have been looking at an approved private guide as well- for same reasons. Having a guide can add so much context and enrich what especially in this case will be a very heavy experience. Do I want to sit and wait and hope I can get a guide inexpensively and if not use audio? Or use an approved by Dachau guide and pay a bit more?

I don’t believe there is a wrong answer here- any of the 3 approaches to visit are valid and would add a lot Vs simply walking around on my own. You’ll have to be sure and share what you do; and how the experience is.

I have never been to Dachau. I've been to Auschwitz. In my opinion, one concentration camp is enough for a lifetime.

I have however been to Munich and did a private tour with Stefan Biro. I had scheduled with another guide, but that guide hurt his knee, couldn't do the trip, and recommended Stefan as his replacement. I could not have been more pleased with the tour Stefan gave. Stefan is a native of Munich, is very knowledgable about the area's history, and is a great guide. He offers tours to Dachau. He does not have a private website that I can find, but he is on the Tours by Locals website. Search for trips in Munich... then click on the guides link, and scroll through until you find Stefan B. If you click on him, you will be able to find reviews and his Dachau tour.

If you like what you see, DO NOT book a tour on the Tours by Locals website. I have an e-mail address for him and a phone number that seems to work on WhatsApp (but I'm waiting for a reply). Most guides will give you a better deal if you book directly because they don't have to pay the TBL platform's finder's fee (25% last time I checked). If you are interested, PM me, and I can provide contact info.