Gray, wet days come often here, and kids still need somewhere to burn off energy. These are the indoor places we head to when the rain won't stop: hands-on museums, warm wave pools, trampoline halls and big play parks. Here's what we checked, from the Deutsches Museum to WichtelWerk. Pick one close to home and pack a dry pair of socks.
One of the largest museums in Germany, with 20 permanent exhibitions on an island in the Isar. Kids walk among planes and helicopters in Modern Aviation, see how locks and bridges work, and try about 20 hands-on light experiments in Classical Optics.
Younger children head to Kids' Kingdom: a marble run, a fire engine to climb into, a giant guitar to crawl inside and a pedal-powered aircraft.
Therme Erding is a thermal spa and water park with more than 300 real palm trees around its pools. Kids head for the Galaxy, 28 slides adding up to over 2,850 meters, including four children's slides for over-3s and two gentler ones for toddlers.
The 34-degree wave pool runs from gentle ripples to surfing swells up to two meters high. The sauna and wellness areas are for ages 16 and up.
SEA LIFE Munich is an indoor aquarium in the Olympiapark, next to the Olympic Tower. A walk-through underwater tunnel runs beneath the tropical ocean tank, home to blacktip reef sharks and Pünktchen, a zebra shark.
Other zones cover the Isar river, the Danube delta, jellyfish, seahorses and a discovery pool. Many tanks sit at floor level, so toddlers can see in without being lifted.
Three listed 1908 exhibition halls on the Theresienhöhe hold 275 vehicles, from trams and VW Beetles to steam locomotives and the Benz Patent-Motorwagen. Hall I covers city traffic and crash safety; Hall II is a railway platform lined with locomotives and carriages; Hall III has racing cars, bikes and skates.
The children's area in Hall III lets kids build, paint, slide and play with toy cars.
WichtelWerk is an indoor play center with 1,600 m² of play inside and a 1,000 m² outdoor play meadow. The centerpiece is a four-level climbing maze with a wobble bridge, a shoot-out arena and a 10-meter wave slide.
Around it sit two bouncy castles, a ball pit, a separate toddler area, a kids' kart track and the Donut Glider, a slide ridden in a rubber tube.
Superfly Munich is an indoor trampoline park of about 4,000m². Beyond the open jumping courts and a foam pit for landing flips, it has Valo attractions, where trampolines meet video games, and Pixel Games, where teams collect points and solve puzzles level by level.
It suits school-age kids and teens who want to burn off energy on a cold or rainy day.
A natural history museum in the north wing of Nymphenburg Palace. The heart of it is a quiz hall where kids press a button to answer questions about animals, and doors pop open or model animals sprint off. Pumuckl audio plays by cases of local wildlife.
Elsewhere: glittering minerals, the history of life, a hall on the brain, and Bruno, the brown bear who roamed Bavaria in 2006.
A 3,400-square-meter trampoline hall with 13 attractions. Next to the big FreeJUMP trampoline floor sit Ninja Warrior-style courses (the NinjaBridge and the points-based NinjaPod Arena), a soccer arena, and SurvivalJUMP, where jumpers try to outlast a spinning bar.
It suits kids who want to burn off energy and try a challenge. Parents can jump too, or wait in the café area.
Cosimawellenbad is Munich's only public pool with waves. When the wave machine runs, the big pool rolls like the sea; the rest of the time it is a lap and aqua-fitness pool.
Younger kids get a large splash area with a slide, a little boat channel, floor fountains and water jets. There is also a warm outdoor pool with bubble loungers, and a café overlooks the pool hall.
An arcade and family entertainment center inside the Forum Schwanthalerhöhe mall. Kids race on Mario Kart and Super Bikes 3, play air hockey, skee-ball and NERF shooters, and the youngest ride licensed kiddie rides such as Peppa Pig and a carousel. There is also an 11-hole blacklight mini golf course and bowling lanes with colored lights and animations.
A hands-on museum built around one big interactive exhibition at a time, with stations, objects and workshop corners to touch, try and explore. The current show, "Iss was?!", is about food and the senses: kids milk a model cow, grind grain into flour, shop in a play supermarket and explore an oversized nose and tongue. Exhibition guides are on hand to help. A visit takes about 90 minutes.
Westbad is a city-run indoor leisure pool under a large glass dome in Pasing. The fun pool has a current channel, a waterfall and a 60-meter slide, and toddlers get their own splash pool.
Older swimmers can do lengths in the 25-meter pool, and parents can warm up in the two whirlpools. A self-service restaurant inside serves both swimmers and visitors.
Munich Action Park fills the former Olympic ice training hall at the Olympiapark with about 2,000 square meters of action sports: bouldering walls, a Ninja Warrior obstacle course, a parkour area and a calisthenics zone.
Younger kids get their own Kids' Area with low bouldering and obstacles to try each sport. A bistro sells pretzels, pinsa, cake and drinks, and outside food isn't allowed.
The Deutsches Museum's aviation branch sits in hangars on the edge of the Schleißheim airfield, whose oldest buildings date from the early days of flight. More than 70 aircraft fill the halls, from a Lilienthal glider to the Eurofighter, plus helicopters, flying boats and the huge Europa rocket.
It suits plane-mad kids more than toddlers.
Bavaria Filmstadt is the visitor side of a working film studio on Munich's southern edge. A guide walks groups through original sets and props: the U-boat model from "Das Boot", the classroom from "Fack ju Göhte" and the set from "Jim Knopf". Kids can act short scenes in front of a camera, then ride a 3D motion-seat cinema. An outdoor play tower by the entrance fills the wait.
Coco Loco is an indoor play hall in Grünwald, on Munich's southern edge, filled with jungle-themed climbing frames, an XXL bouncy castle with a climbing course and maze that slides into the fun park, and a netted area with four trampolines.
Electric cars and motorbikes circle a track, and the youngest get a fenced-off area with a slide and soft building blocks. A café serves pizza, burgers and fries.
BMW Welt is the carmaker's showroom and delivery center, a sweeping glass building with a twisted double cone at one end. Kids can explore the latest BMW, MINI, Rolls-Royce and BMW Motorrad models up close, and look down on the Premiere, where new owners drive off in their cars.
The BMW Museum, directly opposite, covers more than 100 years of BMW history and runs hands-on workshops for kids.
Gray, wet days come often here, and kids still need somewhere to burn off energy. These are the indoor places we head to when the rain won't stop: hands-on museums, warm wave pools, trampoline halls and big play parks. Here's what we checked, from the Deutsches Museum to WichtelWerk. Pick one close to home and pack a dry pair of socks.
One of the largest museums in Germany, with 20 permanent exhibitions on an island in the Isar. Kids walk among planes and helicopters in Modern Aviation, see how locks and bridges work, and try about 20 hands-on light experiments in Classical Optics.
Younger children head to Kids' Kingdom: a marble run, a fire engine to climb into, a giant guitar to crawl inside and a pedal-powered aircraft.
Therme Erding is a thermal spa and water park with more than 300 real palm trees around its pools. Kids head for the Galaxy, 28 slides adding up to over 2,850 meters, including four children's slides for over-3s and two gentler ones for toddlers.
The 34-degree wave pool runs from gentle ripples to surfing swells up to two meters high. The sauna and wellness areas are for ages 16 and up.
SEA LIFE Munich is an indoor aquarium in the Olympiapark, next to the Olympic Tower. A walk-through underwater tunnel runs beneath the tropical ocean tank, home to blacktip reef sharks and Pünktchen, a zebra shark.
Other zones cover the Isar river, the Danube delta, jellyfish, seahorses and a discovery pool. Many tanks sit at floor level, so toddlers can see in without being lifted.
Three listed 1908 exhibition halls on the Theresienhöhe hold 275 vehicles, from trams and VW Beetles to steam locomotives and the Benz Patent-Motorwagen. Hall I covers city traffic and crash safety; Hall II is a railway platform lined with locomotives and carriages; Hall III has racing cars, bikes and skates.
The children's area in Hall III lets kids build, paint, slide and play with toy cars.
WichtelWerk is an indoor play center with 1,600 m² of play inside and a 1,000 m² outdoor play meadow. The centerpiece is a four-level climbing maze with a wobble bridge, a shoot-out arena and a 10-meter wave slide.
Around it sit two bouncy castles, a ball pit, a separate toddler area, a kids' kart track and the Donut Glider, a slide ridden in a rubber tube.
Superfly Munich is an indoor trampoline park of about 4,000m². Beyond the open jumping courts and a foam pit for landing flips, it has Valo attractions, where trampolines meet video games, and Pixel Games, where teams collect points and solve puzzles level by level.
It suits school-age kids and teens who want to burn off energy on a cold or rainy day.
A natural history museum in the north wing of Nymphenburg Palace. The heart of it is a quiz hall where kids press a button to answer questions about animals, and doors pop open or model animals sprint off. Pumuckl audio plays by cases of local wildlife.
Elsewhere: glittering minerals, the history of life, a hall on the brain, and Bruno, the brown bear who roamed Bavaria in 2006.
A 3,400-square-meter trampoline hall with 13 attractions. Next to the big FreeJUMP trampoline floor sit Ninja Warrior-style courses (the NinjaBridge and the points-based NinjaPod Arena), a soccer arena, and SurvivalJUMP, where jumpers try to outlast a spinning bar.
It suits kids who want to burn off energy and try a challenge. Parents can jump too, or wait in the café area.
Cosimawellenbad is Munich's only public pool with waves. When the wave machine runs, the big pool rolls like the sea; the rest of the time it is a lap and aqua-fitness pool.
Younger kids get a large splash area with a slide, a little boat channel, floor fountains and water jets. There is also a warm outdoor pool with bubble loungers, and a café overlooks the pool hall.
An arcade and family entertainment center inside the Forum Schwanthalerhöhe mall. Kids race on Mario Kart and Super Bikes 3, play air hockey, skee-ball and NERF shooters, and the youngest ride licensed kiddie rides such as Peppa Pig and a carousel. There is also an 11-hole blacklight mini golf course and bowling lanes with colored lights and animations.
A hands-on museum built around one big interactive exhibition at a time, with stations, objects and workshop corners to touch, try and explore. The current show, "Iss was?!", is about food and the senses: kids milk a model cow, grind grain into flour, shop in a play supermarket and explore an oversized nose and tongue. Exhibition guides are on hand to help. A visit takes about 90 minutes.
Westbad is a city-run indoor leisure pool under a large glass dome in Pasing. The fun pool has a current channel, a waterfall and a 60-meter slide, and toddlers get their own splash pool.
Older swimmers can do lengths in the 25-meter pool, and parents can warm up in the two whirlpools. A self-service restaurant inside serves both swimmers and visitors.
Munich Action Park fills the former Olympic ice training hall at the Olympiapark with about 2,000 square meters of action sports: bouldering walls, a Ninja Warrior obstacle course, a parkour area and a calisthenics zone.
Younger kids get their own Kids' Area with low bouldering and obstacles to try each sport. A bistro sells pretzels, pinsa, cake and drinks, and outside food isn't allowed.
The Deutsches Museum's aviation branch sits in hangars on the edge of the Schleißheim airfield, whose oldest buildings date from the early days of flight. More than 70 aircraft fill the halls, from a Lilienthal glider to the Eurofighter, plus helicopters, flying boats and the huge Europa rocket.
It suits plane-mad kids more than toddlers.
Bavaria Filmstadt is the visitor side of a working film studio on Munich's southern edge. A guide walks groups through original sets and props: the U-boat model from "Das Boot", the classroom from "Fack ju Göhte" and the set from "Jim Knopf". Kids can act short scenes in front of a camera, then ride a 3D motion-seat cinema. An outdoor play tower by the entrance fills the wait.
Coco Loco is an indoor play hall in Grünwald, on Munich's southern edge, filled with jungle-themed climbing frames, an XXL bouncy castle with a climbing course and maze that slides into the fun park, and a netted area with four trampolines.
Electric cars and motorbikes circle a track, and the youngest get a fenced-off area with a slide and soft building blocks. A café serves pizza, burgers and fries.
BMW Welt is the carmaker's showroom and delivery center, a sweeping glass building with a twisted double cone at one end. Kids can explore the latest BMW, MINI, Rolls-Royce and BMW Motorrad models up close, and look down on the Premiere, where new owners drive off in their cars.
The BMW Museum, directly opposite, covers more than 100 years of BMW history and runs hands-on workshops for kids.
