Munich and Dachau

I like Pension Lindner, just off the newly-pedestrianized Sendlingerstraße, and convenient to both Marienplatz and Viktualienmarkt. It is just across the street from the Munich City Museum and the Jewish Museum and synagogue. It's recommended in Rick's Germany guidebook.

Public transportation from Marienplatz to Dachau is easy. Take S2 from Marienplatz (richtung Petershausen) to Dachau Bahnhof, then it's a short bus ride to the Memorial. The trip is less than an hour each way.

You can visit Dachau in a half-day, including transportation. What you will feel like doing after that depends on your reaction to it. I went in the morning and really didn't have much desire to "sightsee" the rest of the day. I could have continued to Nurnberg for the afternoon, but I spent several nights in Nurnberg after Munich.

"We should arrive in the early afternoon."

How are you arriving? By plane at MUC? By train at the Hbf? If so, from where are you coming?

Why does it matter? You will have various transportation options depending on how you are getting there.

A second vote for Pension Lindner. Great location, great value, and great breakfast!

I would highly recommend the guided tour given by the Memorial. It's about 2½ hrs long and costs 3 euro per person. The Memorial's guides undergo an extensive training program by the Memorial itself. However, the last English tour is at 1 PM, so if you don't arrive until early afternoon, you'll not be able to do it with the guided tour the same day.

You can also rent an audio guide for 3,50 euro. I would count on spending at least two hours at the Memorial (and that would be pushing it). The Memorial closes at 5 PM and it takes almost an hour to get there, so you'd have to leave Marienplatz by 2 PM on you arrival day if you used the audio guide.

You're probably better off exploring Marienplatz after you get to your accommodations, then going out to Dachau the next morning. An S2 leaves Marienplatz every 20 minutes for Dachau Bahnhof. There are two S-Bahn platforms at different levels in Marienplatz. The S2, to Dachau Bahnhof, leaves from the*** lower*** S-Bahn platform, Gleis (platform) 2, which will be designated as Richtung (direction) "Hbf/Pasing". The trip to Dachau Bahnhof will take 25 minutes. There you will have 10 minutes to find the correct bus (#726) and get on. The bus platforms are in front of the station and the one to Dachau Memorial is well marked. The bus to the Memorial takes about 7 minutes. Including the walk from the bus stop to the Memorial, the entire trip takes about 50 minutes, and the Memorial suggest you get you tickets at least 15 minutes before the tour, so I would leave from Marienplatz 1¼-1½ hour before a tour. English tours are at 11 AM and 1 PM. There are S2s from Marienplatz at 9:46 and 11:46.

The Glockenspiel on the Neues Rathaus in Marienplatz performs at 11 AM daily, so you could catch it's performance and go out to Dachau for the 1 PM tour.

An MVV München XXL Gruppentageskarte (day ticket for the inner two zones for 2-5 people), for 15,40€, will cover the round trip S-Bahn and bus as well as any other travel you want, by any conveyance, for the entire day.

Mal: Ditto Lee's comments. We took the tour with the trained guides and were truly impressed. You cannot go wrong. We found that we stayed after the tour to go back over some of the exhibits. The displays provide a good background for the camp system used by the Nazi regime and helps contextualize the Dachau camp within the whole system.