Munich in a day- best places to see

Do a walking tour, not a bus tour. Pick one of the professional companies, not one of the "free" tours. Read the suggestions in the RS books, and read up to date reviews on Trip Advisor. The walking tours will enhance your visit, plus they are fun to do.

Jo is right, do a good walking tour of the central town. I did the free walking tour and for me it was a waste of time, too many in the group and the guide spent a lot of time explaining about the tipping process, not enough time explaining the history of the sights. Any walking tour will take you to Marienplatz, the Viktualienmark, and the Frauenkirche- the three main 'must dos'. Then go to the English Garden, I spent a half day there wandering around and enjoying the beer garden - of course I was there mid-summer so there was lots going on and the weather was perfect.

edit: if the weather turns, go to the Deutsches Museum - you could spend a whole day there. Also check out the other museums and churches if that's your thing.

We have been pondering places to go and things to. I think the English garden is perfect for our family. I was thinking a bike tour might be a pretty good idea as well since we are all active. Thanks for all the advice everyone.

You might want to think twice about Englischer Garten. It is known for nude sunbathing.

There is a lot to see in downtown Munich, particularly around Marienplatz. The Neues Rathaus (new city hall) is interesting with it's Gothic design, particularly if you catch the Glockenspiel doing it's thing at 11 AM. Next to it is Frauenkirche (Our Lady's Church) with it's green cupolas, the symbol of Munich. Near there is the Residenz, the in-town palace of the Wittelsbachers, with it's room after room of over-the-top Rococo decor. Some people like it; I found it tiresome. The Hofbräuhaus is near the Residenz. A pedestrian zone, with lots of shopping possibilities, connects Marienplatz to Karlstor, across from the main station (Hbf). There is at least one other Biergarten on the pedestrian street.

Going the other direction (east) from Marienplatz you can see Isartor, on of the original gates of the city. On the river nearby is the Deutsches Museum, although it is very extensive and you might not want to spend that much time. South of Marienplatz, the City Museum of Munich (Münchner Stadtmuseum) is smaller and takes less time to see. I've always found it to be interesting. It's all in German, but the last time I was there they had an exhibition (drawings, maps, models) about how Munich grew through the centuries. The dates were easy to understand in English.

I could go on and on, but you will run out of time before you run out of things to see and do.

I'm sure there are areas of the English Gardens where people do their sunbathing au-naturale but I was there on a weekend in July and never saw any. Obviously they are easy to avoid as I saw nothing but families with children, walkers and bikers. I guess I never strayed far enough off the main pathways - darn!

I think the bike tour sounds like a good idea for your family.

Thanks for all the great advice. I think we have decided on walking thru downtown, doing some shopping, hitting the Glockenspiel, and then going to the English Gardens in the afternoon. Our kids (and my wife) will probably be very jetlagged so I am not sure how much energy they will have. I was thinking a bike tour would be cool but they may not have enough energy for that after a long day of flights getting there.

I'd also recommend a self paced walking tour. When we lived there we had our own that we took visitors on but it was pretty similar to the RS one (plus RS has an accompanying podcast):

Munich Walking Tour Map

Munich Walking Tour Podcast

If the weather is nice don't forget to stop by a biergarten. You'll have several choices during your day either near downtown (Viktualien Markt) or in the Englischer Gartens (several to choose from).

DJ

I think if you have a map of the Gardens, it will show you where the nude sunbathing area is - I'm just looking at my RS map for Germany, Austria and Switz and it has a not really detailed map of Munich, but it shows in the Englisher Garten where the nude sunbathing area is. We went to the 'surf's up' area which was cool - just watching guys surfing some rapids for 10 min. But then - we wandered along and had to avert our eyes...

We had a whole 8-9 hours there...we did the Marienplatz, wandered a bit, I'm sure we went to the Viktualien Market which was nice (it was 2010 and whirlwind, so a bit fuzzy).

The self-guided tour in RS' Germany guidebook and on the podcast is excellent. Depending on your level of curiosity it can take anywhere from two hours to two days.

The self-guided tour ends at Odeonsplatz. From there I would recommend continuing west on Briennerstraße past the small park dedicated to the victims of the Nazis ("Platz der Opfer des Nationalsozialismus"), to the new NS Documentation Center (scheduled to open in April). The building is on the site of the wartime Nazi party headquarters, which was destroyed at the end of the war.

Just around the corner is a large three-story building that now houses the School of Music and Theater, but during the Nazi era it was Hitler's office building. This is the building in which Hitler, Mussolini and Britain's Neville Chamberlain signed the 1938 Munich Accord which ceded much of Czechoslovakia to Hitler. Across the street is the historic Königsplatz.

The nude sunbathing areas of Englischer Garten underscore our cultural differences. To the Germans it's no big deal, and if anything they are amused by the horrified reactions of tourists -- and annoyed by their cameras. Families traverse the nude areas without giving it a second thought. There are actually six such areas designated by the city; two in Englischer Garten, and the others at various locations along the Isar and nearby lakes. The one you are most likely to encounter is within the oval racetrack-shaped path just to the north of Haus der Kunst, and to the west of the Schwabinger Bach.

So funny JG - the sight that made me realize the part of the park we were wandering past was probably an 80 year old man disrobing...lol. I had to put the hand-eye blinder up (OMG! I don't need to be seeing that! MY EYES!). I did notice hubby craning his neck around tho hoping to catch some nubile young lady disrobing...the bugger ;) This was near the start of Oktoberfest and a weekday...but I can imagine it's a popular spot in the heat of the summer!

I also have enjoyed the Munich City Museum on a couple of different visits, for both its special exhibits and permanent collection. If you're going to visit imperial palaces in Vienna, then you can skip the Residenz in Munich.