Not every family outing hinges on the language. These are the plans we'd pick when your kids don't speak German yet: things to see, ride, touch and watch, where the fun doesn't depend on following every word. Plays and other shows that lean heavily on German stay off this page.
Polarwelten is an indoor exhibition about the Arctic and Antarctic. Kids meet polar bears, penguins and whales through pictures and interactive stations.
The main draw is a 360° room with a show of about 25 minutes, where glaciers, icebergs, underwater scenes and northern lights surround you. It suits curious kids who like animals.
Two actors play with opposites: up and down, in front and behind, together and alone. They chase, hide and seem to vanish on a stage full of surprises, with fast moments and quiet ones. Director Simone Oswald, a pioneer of theater for the very youngest, developed the show with Munich nursery children.
A St. Martin's lantern walk from a farm at Munich's eastern edge. The loop runs about 2 km along field paths from Reitsberger Hof to the old village of Baldham-Dorf and back, with stops that tell the story of St. Martin sharing his cloak.
Stands at the farm and in Baldham-Dorf serve hot apple juice, sausages, pretzels and roast goose, so it doubles as an early dinner.
A 750-square-meter open-air ice rink on Karlsplatz, the square locals call Stachus, at the edge of Munich's old town. Kids skate under Christmas lights to music, with themed evenings through the week.
Skates and helmets rent on site, so nobody needs their own gear. Between laps, the Schmankerl-Hütte and Glühwein-Alm huts serve hot food and drinks. It works for first-timers and confident skaters alike.
LUMAGICA turns the Showpalast grounds in Fröttmaning into a 1.5 km loop of glowing sculptures and light installations. This year's theme follows Phileas Fogg and Passepartout from Around the World in 80 Days, through light worlds for Asia, the Americas and Europe.
Kids can set off some of the installations themselves, pose at photo spots and catch a light and laser show along the way.
LUMAGICA is an outdoor light park, a walking loop of about 1.5 km through light installations after dark. This season's theme is Around the World in 80 Days.
It suits kids who are happy to walk a while on a cold winter evening. Younger kids who tire quickly may need a carrier or a ride on your shoulders for part of the loop.
A touring kids' musical where five costumed dinosaurs, led by T-Rex Leo, set off for a fire volcano and need the audience's help to get there. Kids shout warnings, solve riddles, sing and dance along.
It's staged as a full theater production with LED walls, spotlights, fog and amplified music. That suits kindergarten and early primary kids well, less so a child who startles at loud noise or big costumes.
Artist Karin Traxler opens her print lab ahead of Christmas. You and your kid design postcards with winter motifs, print them yourselves and take the finished cards home.
It suits a kid who likes making things with their hands, and a family that would rather send its own cards than buy them.
Once a year the Olympia-Schwimmhalle turns into one big try-it day for water sports. Kids can swim like mermaids, paddle a kayak, try diving, jump from the diving boards or balance on a slackline strung over the water.
It suits families with a mix of ages: there is water play for the smallest, while confident swimmers can sample sports a normal pool visit never offers.
A Christmas market inside the Kaiserhof, the grand courtyard of Munich's Residenz palace, just off Odeonsplatz. More than 50 stalls sell handmade crafts, old Bavarian nativity scenes, mulled wine and homemade eggnog.
For kids, the draw is the Märchenwald, a fairy-tale forest where scenes come to life at the push of a button. It suits preschool and early primary kids most.
A Christmas market set inside the English Garden, with wooden huts around the lit-up Chinese Tower pagoda. Kids ride a historic 1913 carousel and a small kids' train, take a horse-drawn carriage loop through the park, and try Bavarian ice stock, a curling-style game, on two lanes. Brass players perform from the tower. It suits families who want a calmer market than the crowded Old Town ones.
Clown Pepe opens his magic suitcase and turns it into a traveling circus, with mime, acrobatics, magic and plenty of clumsy clowning. In the story, circus characters come to life: tightrope walkers balance and horses gallop through the ring.
Kids are invited to join in and help shape the story. Much of it is told through mime and acrobatics, so kids who don't speak German can still follow along.
Munich's oldest Christmas market fills Marienplatz and nearby streets with stalls of ornaments, gingerbread hearts and roasted almonds, under a giant tree outside the New Town Hall. Kids can hear brass bands and choirs on the town hall balcony, browse a huge nativity-figure market by St. Peter's, and catch the Krampus run if they like a scare. About three million people visit each season, so expect crowds.
An Advent market set up as a medieval Munich market scene, with detailed stalls, crafts and market food. Much of it ties back to the city's own history, such as the monk on its first city seal who later turned into the Münchner Kindl.
It suits kids who like knights, castles and old stories, and grown-ups after a more atmospheric Christmas market than the usual.
Tollwood is Munich's alternative Christmas market, set up in big tents and open-air lanes on the Theresienwiese. Around 200 stalls sell crafts, clothing and gifts, much of it fair trade, and more than 50 stands cook certified organic food from many countries.
Walk-acts roam the grounds, a performance stage runs shows, and there is a kids' program. It suits families who want shows and food alongside the shopping.
In a green three-story house, the Sound Merchant runs a shop where boxes, bottles, little sacks and drawers ring, creak, whistle, hum and squeak. Today's special offer: murmurs, giggles, clapping and amazement.
Two puppeteers from the Bremen puppet theater Mensch, Puppe! play this lively show, loosely based on Kathrin Rohmann's story. It suits kids who like to listen closely and enjoy a busy, noisy stage.
The award-winning percussion duo Double Drums performs a family concert featuring world percussion instruments, saws, power drills, and cardboard boxes transformed into musical instruments. The musicians interact with the audience through rhythmic storytelling: stampeding wildebeest, ocean waves, and desert storms rendered as "ear cinema." The program includes humor, audience participation, and explanations of diverse percussion traditions.
Students from the Munich Music Seminar and their guests perform Christmas melodies and classical pieces from various eras. The program includes a gift-giving ceremony as part of this musical St. Nicholas celebration.
Around 300 Krampus and Perchten in shaggy fur and hand-carved wooden masks rattle, clang and roar through the Old Town's Christmas market streets. The groups come from across the Alps, keeping a 500-year-old tradition alive.
The figures play with the crowd, snatch a hat and hand it back, and stop for selfies. Fun for kids who like a good scare; not for a child afraid of masks.
A family horse show built around a fairy tale. Robert, a boy who has lost his imagination, travels through a winter wonderland to win it back, with fairies, wizards and a few villains along the way. Ponies, Lusitanos and liberty horses share the stage with trick riders, fire effects, stunts and comic actors. It suits horse fans, and kids who simply like a big, bright show.
Timmy, a boy with a flute, goes to Vienna to learn what Mozart's Turkish March is about and meets the storyteller Scheherazade. Her storybook pulls them both into the Arabian Nights: a busy market, a contest of musicians, a conjurer, Sindbad the sailor and a grim palace guard. A chamber ensemble plays Mozart, Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky, while an acrobat and actress plays out the story with flying carpets and swirling veils.
Percussionist Samuel Wootton, one of Bergson's resident artists, takes the audience through the world of percussion, from a soft "ting" to a big "boom". Kids don't just listen: they drum, clap and laugh along and become part of the show.
It's Bergson's own production, staged in the Freiraum hall of the Bergson Kunstkraftwerk, a converted power station in Aubing. Good for kids who like noise and hate sitting still.
A Christmas ballet where professional dancers share the stage with students from German ballet schools. On Christmas Eve, Clara meets the brave Nutcracker, who saves her from the Mouse King, and the two set off into a night where dreams and secret wishes come true.
It suits families with kids who dance or love fairy tales, and grown-ups who want a classical Nutcracker.
Heavysaurus is a rock band of four dinosaurs and a dragon, played by five professional musicians in full costume. They play loud metal on real instruments, written for kids: big riffs, sing-along choruses and a dino roar the whole room shouts back.
Expect a proper concert show with lights, fog, sparks, balloons and confetti. Songs are in German, though little German is needed to jump along.
Dennis & Jesko Band are the trio behind the football songs on WUMMS, an online channel from NDR and Radio Bremen. Their concerts are a party: kids jump and sing at the front while surprisingly word-perfect parents stand further back.
Expect their big hit "Rambo Ramos" plus songs about Lewandowski, Mbappé, FC Bayern and Antonio Rüdiger. It suits football-mad kids who already know the songs.
Munich's official Fasching parade, the Faschingszug, is led by the Damische Ritter, a local carnival club. More than 50 groups wind through the Altstadt: brass bands, decorated floats, dance troupes, carnival societies and the city's Fasching prince and princess.
Thousands line the old-town streets to watch, many in costume, so kids get to see the floats up close from inside a crowd in fancy dress.
Once a year, the women who run the stalls at Munich's Viktualienmarkt trade their aprons for costumes and dance on a stage by the maypole. Each costume shows a stall, so kids can spot the baker, the butcher or the flower seller.
The Narrhalla guards and the Fasching prince and princess warm up the crowd first. It's a big outdoor crowd, so smaller kids see best from a parent's shoulders.
Rund is a new object theater piece built around things that roll, spin, wobble and tip over, then stand back up. Puppetry meets visual art: director Julika Mayer and Munich artist Olga Golos turn art objects into toys and tools, moved and turned in front of the audience. The Schauburg is building it in close contact with the youngest theatergoers it is made for.
The Auer Dult is one of Munich's oldest traditions, a market fair that fills Mariahilfplatz in Au three times a year. The spring edition brings about 250 stalls selling pottery, antiques, toys and kitchen gadgets, plus a ride area with bumper cars, a 1919 chain swing carousel, a Ferris wheel and throwing booths. It suits kids who like a few rides and parents who like to browse.
Twice a year, Leopoldstraße in Schwabing closes to cars and becomes one long festival street between the Siegestor and Münchner Freiheit. Stages along the way run from swing and salsa to Bavarian dialect bands, cabaret and electronic music, with art, dance taster classes and football courts in between.
The Corso Leopoldino kids' area has easel painting, crafts and movement games, a good base while the grown-ups browse.
A medieval festival on the grounds of Schloss Kaltenberg, a Bavarian castle west of Munich. Jugglers and musicians play on five stages, and a craft market, camps and food stands fill the site. The centerpiece is a staged jousting show in the arena, with horse stunts, sword fights and fire effects. On Family Sundays, kids then take the arena themselves in a children's tournament and are knighted at the end.
Thousands of people in dirndls and lederhosen fill the beer garden around the Chinese Tower in the Englischer Garten and dance Bavarian folk dances at sunrise. A dance master calls and demonstrates every step from the stage, so beginners and kids join in.
The ball revives a tradition of the city's cooks and maids, who danced here before work in the 1880s. It suits early-rising families who like music and a crowd.
The Wiesn is Munich's giant folk festival on the Theresienwiese: beer tents, yes, but also a full fairground. Kids ride the Ferris wheel, chair swings, the Toboggan's conveyor belt and wooden slide, and the Teufelsrad spinning disc.
The Oide Wiesn at the south end is calmer, with historic carousels, a marionette theater and high-wheel bikes. Weekday daytime suits families best; evenings and weekends get packed.
Kleine Sportgeister is a Turncafé (a gym café) in Schwabing set up for babies and toddlers. The movement room is laid out with gym mats, soft foam blocks, ramps, tunnels and climbing frames, and the setup changes regularly, so crawlers and new walkers can climb, slide and balance.
A play and café corner serves coffee, waffles and cake, and parents stay with their child the whole time.
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.
Maximiliansanlagen is about 2 km of wooded parkland on the high east bank of the Isar. Paths run under old trees past the Friedensengel column and the Maximilianeum, with views across to the old town and down to the river's weirs.
After a snowfall, the short slopes near the Maximilianeum are one of the most central sledding spots in town, with steep runs and gentle ones for small kids.
Aubinger Lohe is a forest recreation area on the western edge of the city, crossed by woodland paths for walking and cycling. Its main hill rises about 25 meters above the surrounding fields and becomes a sledding run when snow falls, with plenty of smaller slopes where young kids can try their first runs.
In summer, families come for the two Böhmerweiher ponds and the playgrounds.
A traditional beer garden on Wiener Platz, shaded by old chestnut trees. The self-service section is walk-in, with Hofbräu beer, Brotzeit plates and Bavarian dishes, and a separate area has table service. Kids get a small playground with a slide, and a sweets stall sells gingerbread hearts, sugar-bead necklaces, candied almonds and popcorn.
A traditional Bavarian beer garden with 2,500 self-service seats under old chestnut trees. A large, shaded playground with climbing frames, slides and swings sits right beside its own block of benches, so parents can sit and still keep the kids in sight.
Families can bring their own picnic food, while drinks come from the bar. Local bands play the garden stage in summer.
Die Hirschau is a historic beer garden in the English Garden, with seats for around 1,800 under old chestnut trees. Next to the tables is a large adventure playground with climbing frames, a zip line and a pirate ship, so parents can sit within sight of it.
The food runs from roast chicken and Obazda to salads, coffee and cake, plus an organic ice cream hut.
A self-service Bavarian beer garden under old chestnut trees on the high bank of the Isar, with a mix of sunny and half-shaded tables. Kids get open space to run around and a playground, while adults pick up Obazda, pretzels and grilled dishes from the counters.
In the summer season, live jazz bands play every day. A sit-down restaurant serving traditional Bavarian food is on the same grounds.
Munich's oldest beer garden, first marked on a city map in 1812, seats 5,000 under more than 100 chestnut trees. Kids head for the raised playground with a sandpit, swing, climbing tower and slide, and tables sit right around it so parents can watch.
In the self-service area, families can bring their own picnic, as Bavarian tradition allows, or buy pretzels, roast chicken and fish grilled on a stick.
Aumeister is a traditional beer garden at the north end of the Englischer Garten, with close to 3,000 seats under old chestnut trees. Kids get a large playground with swings and climbing frames, a vintage carousel and a kids' menu, and free face painting runs from May. The inn has stood here since 1810, and the indoor restaurant serves Bavarian dishes year-round.
Königlicher Hirschgarten has been an inn since 1791 and calls itself the largest beer garden in the world, with more than 8,000 outdoor seats split between a served section and a self-service area. A deer enclosure borders the garden, and kids can buy feed from a machine for the herd.
In winter, nine natural ice lanes open for Bavarian curling (Eisstockschießen).
Michaeligarten is a self-service beer garden under old chestnut trees that runs down to the shore of the Ostpark lake. The counters serve Löwenbräu on tap, Bavarian snacks and hot dishes, from an ox-meat roll to Obazda and a vegan Schupfnudel pan.
A large fenced playground sits right next to the tables, so kids can run while parents eat. Seating is first come, with no reservations.
A 750-square-meter open-air ice rink set up each Advent on Karlsplatz, the square locals call Stachus, under festive lights in the middle of the old town. Kids skate on a big open sheet of ice, with music playing on most days.
Sunday daytime sessions are family days with children's entertainment and face painting. Food and hot drinks come from the Schmankerl-Hütte and Glühwein-Alm huts beside the rink.
Three underground ice rinks sit beneath the SAP Garden, the Olympiapark arena where Red Bull Munich plays hockey, so public skating runs all year. Rental skates come in hockey and figure styles from EU size 25.
From October to April, Thursday to Saturday evenings bring an ice disco, and a monthly inclusive session lends skating aids and ice gliders. Jumps and figure-skating moves are not allowed in public sessions.
An outdoor ice rink, 60 meters long, with music playing and floodlights for skating after dark. Kids can do laps, play ice hockey, or join the Münchner Eistanz on the ice.
It opened in 1933 as the first open-air artificial ice rink in southern Germany. In summer the same site becomes the Prinzregentenbad outdoor pool.
The Krone-Bau is the permanent home of Circus Krone, which tours Germany in summer and comes back here for its winter season. Shows fill the ring under a 3,000-seat roof, mixing classic circus (acrobats, clowns, animal acts) with modern routines.
A life-size statue of the clown Charlie Rivel stands at the entrance. Outside circus season, the building hosts concerts and other productions.
A city farm and adventure playground on about 15,000 m², more than two soccer fields, with ponies, goats, sheep, pigs, rabbits and cats. Kids roam the grounds on their own: a treehouse, a play hill, fire pits, a woodworking shop, a garden and a pond for chilling out.
Staff run hands-on projects and seasonal parties, and regulars can sign up to help with stable and animal care.
A small pottery workshop near the Englischer Garten, run by ceramicist Désirée Oberländer for about 40 years. Kids build with clay in groups of up to 10, with no set models: they shape their own pieces and group projects, then glaze and paint them themselves after firing.
Older kids can learn the electric potter's wheel, and the studio also hosts weekend theme workshops and birthday parties.
Dream-Bowl Palace is a big bowling center just outside Munich, with 52 lanes, an 18-hole blacklight minigolf course, 11 pool tables, darts and table soccer. Every lane has bumpers that staff switch on for kids up to 1.37 m tall.
A bistro and lounge serve fries, burgers and nuggets. Weekend evenings turn into Palace Party Night with blacklight and louder music, so families with young kids tend to come earlier.
A 22-lane bowling center in Giesing, open since 1986 and long known as Isar Bowling. Twelve of the lanes have automatic bumpers for young bowlers, and the cosmic lanes glow under black light. House balls are free and computers keep score, so nobody needs to know the rules.
A billiards and snooker hall sits one floor up, and the center also has darts and a restaurant.
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.
Munich's largest climbing forest has more than 110 elements over 13 courses, strung through 21,000 square meters of woods. Expect wobbly nets, rope bridges and flying foxes up to 11 meters high, with a continuous safety line that can't come unclipped. The smallest climbers get a low course 1 to 2 meters off the ground.
On the ground: a playground, a forest nature trail and the Fater Alm hut restaurant.
A large climbing center run by the German Alpine Club (DAV), with roped walls up to 15 m high inside and out, plus a bouldering hall. Kids get their own routes and boulders, marked with a monkey sign and set with small holds, and a ten-problem kids' course.
Upstairs, an enclosed play area has climbing walls and a slide. Outside there's a playground with a sandbox and a big trampoline.
A German Alpine Club (DAV) climbing center with 5,100 sqm of rope walls (about 500 routes), a separate bouldering hall, and outdoor walls under a wide roof overhang that keeps them climbable in rain.
Kids' routes and boulders carry a small monkey sign and use holds sized for small hands. Downstairs, a play area has a pirate ship, a knights' castle and thick crash mats.
Boulderwelt München Süd is a bouldering gym in Brunnthal, just south of Munich. Kids under 14 climb in the Kinderwelt, a separate area with kid-sized holds, a hand-painted Alpine scene, a slide and tunnels, or in a mixed area with marked kids' routes beside the adult walls.
Parents can wait in a lounge with coffee. It is not a drop-off: an adult supervises kids the whole time.
Boulderwelt München Ost is a bouldering gym on the upper floors of a building by München Ost station, with 6m walls climbed without ropes.
The 4th floor holds a Kinderwelt just for kids: hand-painted underwater walls with a castle, crawl tunnels and a slide for climbers from about age 2. Kids 6 and up can also use the mixed area, where routes marked with a hand have closer holds.
A large bouldering gym: climbing low walls over crash mats, with no ropes or harness. Upstairs is a kids' climbing world with child-sized holds, a parcours zone modeled on the adults' hall, and a hand-painted underwater and Inca jungle area for toddlers.
Three wall sections are reset every week, so regulars keep finding new routes. A café sits by check-in.
Dantebad is a city-run outdoor pool that stays heated through the winter, so kids can swim outside in any season. There is a 50-meter lap pool at about 30°C and a warmer leisure pool with bubble loungers, a bubble grotto, a current channel and a water mushroom.
Table tennis, a restaurant and a separate sauna area for adults round it out.
Prinzregentenbad is a public outdoor pool with a 25 m lap pool, a leisure pool with water features, 1 m and 3 m diving boards and a 50 m water slide. Younger kids get a paddling pool with a water play area.
Families spread out on a big lawn under old trees, and there are beach volleyball courts, a restaurant and a kiosk with a beer garden.
A city-run outdoor pool by the Isar in Giesing, with a 50-meter pool (three lap lanes), a non-swimmer pool and a paddling pool with play features for small kids.
Around them sit a wide slide, a playground, table tennis, an outdoor chess board and a big lawn under old trees.
Naturbad Maria Einsiedel is a natural swimming pool in the Isar meadows, open since 1899. The Isar canal runs almost 400 meters through the grounds, and the water in the 50-meter pool, the non-swimmer area and the large kids' paddling pool is cleaned by microorganisms instead of chlorine. Kids also get a playground, a soccer lawn, table tennis and giant ground chess, with old shade trees over the lawns.
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.
Michaelibad is a public pool run by the city utility SWM. Its 84-meter adventure slide drops into a separate landing pool, and there is a 1-meter diving board, a learner pool and a water play area for small children with mini slides and a spray shower.
Outside, a warm pool stays open all year, with a current channel, bubble loungers and underwater lights after dusk.
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.
Munich's first indoor pool opened in 1901 and still runs in its original Art Nouveau halls. The big hall has a 31-meter pool under a painted, vaulted ceiling; the smaller hall has an 18-meter pool that is quieter and suits easy laps.
There is no paddling pool or learner pool, so it suits kids who already swim. Adults can add the sauna and the Roman-Irish steam bath.
A large water playground on the former grounds of the 2005 Federal Garden Show (BUGA). Kids pump water by hand, scoop it into wooden channels, dam the streams and dig in the mud areas. Around the water zone are climbing structures, monkey bars, swings and slides, plus shady lawns for a picnic. Riemer See, in the same park, has swimming and pedal boats.
A large water playground in the eastern part of Westpark. A shallow stream runs through it, and kids dam it with stones, wade and splash.
Stone slides, a wooden climbing tower and plenty of play equipment fill the rest, so the dry side stays busy too. There is enough shade for parents to sit out of the sun while kids play.
Viktualienmarkt is the Old Town's open-air food market, with more than 100 stalls selling fruit, cheese, bread, honey and flowers around a blue-and-white maypole.
Kids can snack their way through the stalls, spot the six statue fountains of Munich comedians and folk singers, and sit in the central beer garden, where families may bring their own food.
A groundwater-fed swimming lake of nearly 8 hectares, ringed by about 5 hectares of lawn and sandy shoreline in the Dachauer Moos north of Munich. A shallow beach is set aside for small children, with a sand playground near the water rescue station.
Older kids can play beach volleyball on two courts or table tennis by the beer garden. A grill zone allows small family grills.
A groundwater-fed swimming lake dug as a gravel pit in the late 1930s, with about 11 hectares of water ringed by roughly 7 hectares of lawn. A swimming platform floats in the middle, rare for lakes around Munich, and the water reaches about 5 meters deep.
The north shore has a playground, a small soccer field, ping-pong tables and a beer garden, plus a marked barbecue zone.
Langwieder See is an 18-hectare swimming lake, up to 8 meters deep, and the largest of the three Langwieder lakes alongside Lußsee and Birkensee. Wide lawns around the shore leave room for picnics and ball games, and a restaurant with a beer garden sits by the water.
Barbecues are allowed only in the signed grill zones. Divers have a marked area at the north end, away from the swimming lawns.
Feringasee is a 32-hectare former gravel-pit lake, up to 7 meters deep, ringed by 21 hectares of lawns. In season the south third is the buoyed swimming zone, with a step-free entry on the south shore.
Kids can walk or bike the 2 km loop path, try the beach volleyball court and fitness trail, or explore the wetland on the north shore. A restaurant with beer garden is open year-round.
A 21-hectare botanical garden, opened in 1914, beside Nymphenburg Palace park. Indoors, a chain of greenhouses runs from a tall palm house to a giant cactus hall, a tree fern house on lava rock, an orchid house and the Victoria house with its huge water lilies.
Outside, kids can follow paths through an alpine rock garden with over 2,000 species, an arboretum and pond areas.
Flaucher is the stretch of the Isar between the Flauchersteg footbridge and the Braunauer railway bridge, where the river splits into shallow side channels around wide gravel banks. Kids wade and splash in alpine water that rarely tops 20°C, even in midsummer.
The banks double as a grilling and meeting spot, so summer weekends get crowded, though quieter corners turn up along the branching channels.
Riemer See is a swimming lake dug for the 2005 federal garden show, which is why locals also call it Bugasee. It is about 700 meters long, up to 18 meters deep, and one of the cleanest lakes around.
Families head for the east shore, where a wide gravel beach runs into a big lawn. A playground sits on the north shore, plus swings and three volleyball courts.
Luitpoldpark spreads 33 hectares of open lawns around a 1911 obelisk and linden grove. North of the Bamberger Haus, a playground holds a winding hedge maze and the Pumuckl fountain.
The 37-meter Luitpoldhügel, a hill built from wartime rubble, is a quick climb with views to the Olympic Tower. In winter its shaded north slope is one of the city's steepest toboggan runs.
Ostpark spreads over 56 hectares around a lake with an island, quieter than the city's other big parks. Kids find Maulwurfshausen adventure playground at the east end, a skate park, table tennis and volleyball, and a barbecue zone by the lake. The Michaeligarten beer garden sits on the shore.
In winter the lake draws ice skaters, the hill becomes a sledding run, and a groomed cross-country ski trail follows the water.
Westpark is a 60-hectare park built for the 1983 garden show, with artificial hills, two lakes and a rose garden of 20,000 roses. The western half holds a Thai Sala, a carved wooden Nepal pagoda and Chinese and Japanese gardens.
Kids can push the 1.8-ton spherical fountain by the southeast entrance, splash at the water playground, and run the wide meadows. The Mittlerer Ring splits the park in two.
Königlicher Hirschgarten has been a deer park since 1780, and its two-hectare enclosure of fallow deer and mouflon is still the main draw: kids can feed them, following the signs on the fence.
The south end has the elephant playground, with a huge sandbox and elephant slide, plus a water playground with a water slide. There's also a climbing tower, a small skate park, sledding hills and Munich's largest beer garden.
Built for the 1972 Olympics, the park wraps around a lake and the 60-meter Olympic Hill, a grassy mound piled from wartime rubble with views over the city to the Alps. Kids climb the easy paths to the summit and run the open lawns, and there is boat hire on the Olympic Lake. SEA LIFE, minigolf and the Munich Action Park's climbing kids area sit inside the grounds.
The English Garden is a 376-hectare landscape park of flat paths, streams, more than 100 bridges and wide meadows. A historic children's carousel stands beside the Chinese Tower beer garden, and pedal and rowing boats rent on Kleinhesseloher See.
Kids can watch surfers ride the Eisbach wave, climb the Monopteros hill for a view over the city, and spot grazing sheep in the quieter north.
A 1,000 m² blacklight minigolf course where kids putt through glowing themed worlds, from jungle and dinosaurs to outer space and underwater scenes, wearing 3D glasses that make the neon pop.
A separate arcade zone has pinball and high-score machines, and TEAM-UP! runs game-show challenges in themed rooms for groups. It sits beside the Forum Schwanthalerhöhe mall, a short walk from Theresienwiese.
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.
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.
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 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.
A standing wave on the Eisbach, the fast creek that rushes out from under the Prinzregentenstraße bridge at the southern tip of the Englischer Garten. Surfers in wetsuits line up on both banks and drop in one at a time.
Kids watch from the bridge railing or the stone banks. The current is strong and the wave is for skilled surfers only, so this is a place to watch, not to paddle.
Munich's central square, with the Neo-Gothic New Town Hall to the north and the Old Town Hall to the east. In the town hall tower, the Glockenspiel's 43 bells ring while figures joust in a knights' tournament and turn in the coopers' dance. The Mariensäule column stands in the middle, and the Fish Fountain by the town hall is the classic meeting point.
Bavaria's Wittelsbach rulers spent their summers here. The main palace has frescoed state rooms, and the 180-hectare park around it has lakes, swans, squirrels and four small park palaces to peek into.
The Marstallmuseum, in the old riding stables, holds over forty royal coaches and sleighs, including King Ludwig II's gilded state coaches and the Rococo coronation coach of Emperor Karl VII.
The Frauenkirche's south tower is one of the cathedral's two onion-domed towers, and the one visitors can climb. Kids walk 86 steps up a narrow spiral staircase, then ride an elevator to the tower room 80 meters up, the highest point in the old town, with windows over the rooftops and the countryside beyond.
The tight stairwell doesn't suit anyone claustrophobic.
Alter Peter is the bell tower of St. Peter's, the oldest parish church in the city, beside Marienplatz. Kids climb 306 steps to a viewing platform over the old town rooftops, and on clear days the view reaches the Alps.
On the way up, windows at the belfry show the eight bells, including one cast for the city's 800th anniversary, and kids can watch them swing when they ring.
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.
A 57-hectare park of native European wildlife along a 4 km forest and meadow trail. Fallow deer and mouflon roam free and walk right up to visitors, and many animals can be petted or fed. The trail passes brown bears, wolves, lynx, wild boar and bison.
By the picnic meadow and kiosk, a big play area has a water playground and a western fort.
Hellabrunn sits on the Isar river meadows and was the world's first geozoo: since 1928 its animals have lived grouped by continent, so kids can walk from the African savanna to the polar world in a few steps. More than 500 species live here, from elephants and tigers to penguins and polar bears. A new jungle world covers Asia, and there's a petting area and playgrounds along the way.
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.
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.
The world's largest library of international children's books fills a 15th-century castle beside the Würm river. The children's library lends 20,000 books in 24 languages, from Arabic to Ukrainian, and runs courses and readings for kids and families.
Upstairs, the Michael Ende Museum shows the author's books, drawings and belongings, with Momo, Jim Button and Bastian from The Neverending Story. The James Krüss Museum Tower holds more exhibits.
The Volkssternwarte is a public observatory run by an astronomy society, with a solar-system exhibition, a Zeiss planetarium dome, and a rooftop platform nearly 30 meters up with five telescope domes.
Kids' planetarium shows tell space stories under a projected night sky. The children's tour visits all three stations and ends at the big telescopes, with views to the Alps on clear days.
The Residenz was the palace of Bavaria's Wittelsbach dukes, electors and kings, and has been a museum since 1920. Most rooms still hold their original furniture, tapestries and paintings, so kids walk through gilded halls as they were used. The Antiquarium, the oldest surviving room, is a long painted vault lined with marble busts. The separate Treasury shows the dynasty's treasures, and the Court Garden outside is free.
The MVG Museum is the collection of Munich's public transport operator, set in a listed former bus workshop of over 5,000 square meters. About 25 historic trams, buses and works vehicles from different eras stand side by side, each with a board on its maker, specs and working life.
Themed areas cover city history, how transport developed, uniforms, signage and advertising, and the control center.
The BMW Museum traces over 100 years of BMW cars and motorcycles through themed houses on design, technology, motorsport and the brand, in a bowl-shaped building next to the Olympiapark.
Kids walk past race cars, prototypes and the tiny Isetta bubble car, and at least one Art Car painted by artists such as Andy Warhol or Jeff Koons is always on display.
A museum of world cultures on Maximilianstraße, with objects from every continent. Permanent galleries cover Oceania's carved masks and boards, a Buddha hall, Myanmar's pagodas and spirit figures, Japan through a painter's travel souvenirs, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southwest Asia and North Africa, and Central and South America.
A free activity booklet from the ticket desk sends kids around every permanent gallery, and creative workshops turn what they saw into art.
The public museum of the Bavarian State Collection for Paleontology and Geology fills a glass-roofed hall with big skeletons. At the center stands the Mühldorf prehistoric elephant, surrounded by Plateosaurus (the largest dinosaur found in Bavaria), Allosaurus, Triceratops, the giant flying reptile Pteranodon, a giant deer and a cave bear.
Upstairs, a timeline runs through every era of Earth's history. The museum also shows the Munich Archaeopteryx.
The Munich Toy Museum fills four floors of the Old Town Hall tower on Marienplatz with the private collection of the Ivan Steiger family, spanning four centuries of play. Kids can look at model railways, steam engines, tin toys, teddy bears, dolls and dollhouses, wooden toys, Barbies and a wall of robots. The small tower rooms make it a short visit, and an audio guide can be downloaded in advance.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Not every family outing hinges on the language. These are the plans we'd pick when your kids don't speak German yet: things to see, ride, touch and watch, where the fun doesn't depend on following every word. Plays and other shows that lean heavily on German stay off this page.
Polarwelten is an indoor exhibition about the Arctic and Antarctic. Kids meet polar bears, penguins and whales through pictures and interactive stations.
The main draw is a 360° room with a show of about 25 minutes, where glaciers, icebergs, underwater scenes and northern lights surround you. It suits curious kids who like animals.
Two actors play with opposites: up and down, in front and behind, together and alone. They chase, hide and seem to vanish on a stage full of surprises, with fast moments and quiet ones. Director Simone Oswald, a pioneer of theater for the very youngest, developed the show with Munich nursery children.
A St. Martin's lantern walk from a farm at Munich's eastern edge. The loop runs about 2 km along field paths from Reitsberger Hof to the old village of Baldham-Dorf and back, with stops that tell the story of St. Martin sharing his cloak.
Stands at the farm and in Baldham-Dorf serve hot apple juice, sausages, pretzels and roast goose, so it doubles as an early dinner.
A 750-square-meter open-air ice rink on Karlsplatz, the square locals call Stachus, at the edge of Munich's old town. Kids skate under Christmas lights to music, with themed evenings through the week.
Skates and helmets rent on site, so nobody needs their own gear. Between laps, the Schmankerl-Hütte and Glühwein-Alm huts serve hot food and drinks. It works for first-timers and confident skaters alike.
LUMAGICA turns the Showpalast grounds in Fröttmaning into a 1.5 km loop of glowing sculptures and light installations. This year's theme follows Phileas Fogg and Passepartout from Around the World in 80 Days, through light worlds for Asia, the Americas and Europe.
Kids can set off some of the installations themselves, pose at photo spots and catch a light and laser show along the way.
LUMAGICA is an outdoor light park, a walking loop of about 1.5 km through light installations after dark. This season's theme is Around the World in 80 Days.
It suits kids who are happy to walk a while on a cold winter evening. Younger kids who tire quickly may need a carrier or a ride on your shoulders for part of the loop.
A touring kids' musical where five costumed dinosaurs, led by T-Rex Leo, set off for a fire volcano and need the audience's help to get there. Kids shout warnings, solve riddles, sing and dance along.
It's staged as a full theater production with LED walls, spotlights, fog and amplified music. That suits kindergarten and early primary kids well, less so a child who startles at loud noise or big costumes.
Artist Karin Traxler opens her print lab ahead of Christmas. You and your kid design postcards with winter motifs, print them yourselves and take the finished cards home.
It suits a kid who likes making things with their hands, and a family that would rather send its own cards than buy them.
Once a year the Olympia-Schwimmhalle turns into one big try-it day for water sports. Kids can swim like mermaids, paddle a kayak, try diving, jump from the diving boards or balance on a slackline strung over the water.
It suits families with a mix of ages: there is water play for the smallest, while confident swimmers can sample sports a normal pool visit never offers.
A Christmas market inside the Kaiserhof, the grand courtyard of Munich's Residenz palace, just off Odeonsplatz. More than 50 stalls sell handmade crafts, old Bavarian nativity scenes, mulled wine and homemade eggnog.
For kids, the draw is the Märchenwald, a fairy-tale forest where scenes come to life at the push of a button. It suits preschool and early primary kids most.
A Christmas market set inside the English Garden, with wooden huts around the lit-up Chinese Tower pagoda. Kids ride a historic 1913 carousel and a small kids' train, take a horse-drawn carriage loop through the park, and try Bavarian ice stock, a curling-style game, on two lanes. Brass players perform from the tower. It suits families who want a calmer market than the crowded Old Town ones.
Clown Pepe opens his magic suitcase and turns it into a traveling circus, with mime, acrobatics, magic and plenty of clumsy clowning. In the story, circus characters come to life: tightrope walkers balance and horses gallop through the ring.
Kids are invited to join in and help shape the story. Much of it is told through mime and acrobatics, so kids who don't speak German can still follow along.
Munich's oldest Christmas market fills Marienplatz and nearby streets with stalls of ornaments, gingerbread hearts and roasted almonds, under a giant tree outside the New Town Hall. Kids can hear brass bands and choirs on the town hall balcony, browse a huge nativity-figure market by St. Peter's, and catch the Krampus run if they like a scare. About three million people visit each season, so expect crowds.
An Advent market set up as a medieval Munich market scene, with detailed stalls, crafts and market food. Much of it ties back to the city's own history, such as the monk on its first city seal who later turned into the Münchner Kindl.
It suits kids who like knights, castles and old stories, and grown-ups after a more atmospheric Christmas market than the usual.
Tollwood is Munich's alternative Christmas market, set up in big tents and open-air lanes on the Theresienwiese. Around 200 stalls sell crafts, clothing and gifts, much of it fair trade, and more than 50 stands cook certified organic food from many countries.
Walk-acts roam the grounds, a performance stage runs shows, and there is a kids' program. It suits families who want shows and food alongside the shopping.
In a green three-story house, the Sound Merchant runs a shop where boxes, bottles, little sacks and drawers ring, creak, whistle, hum and squeak. Today's special offer: murmurs, giggles, clapping and amazement.
Two puppeteers from the Bremen puppet theater Mensch, Puppe! play this lively show, loosely based on Kathrin Rohmann's story. It suits kids who like to listen closely and enjoy a busy, noisy stage.
The award-winning percussion duo Double Drums performs a family concert featuring world percussion instruments, saws, power drills, and cardboard boxes transformed into musical instruments. The musicians interact with the audience through rhythmic storytelling: stampeding wildebeest, ocean waves, and desert storms rendered as "ear cinema." The program includes humor, audience participation, and explanations of diverse percussion traditions.
Students from the Munich Music Seminar and their guests perform Christmas melodies and classical pieces from various eras. The program includes a gift-giving ceremony as part of this musical St. Nicholas celebration.
Around 300 Krampus and Perchten in shaggy fur and hand-carved wooden masks rattle, clang and roar through the Old Town's Christmas market streets. The groups come from across the Alps, keeping a 500-year-old tradition alive.
The figures play with the crowd, snatch a hat and hand it back, and stop for selfies. Fun for kids who like a good scare; not for a child afraid of masks.
A family horse show built around a fairy tale. Robert, a boy who has lost his imagination, travels through a winter wonderland to win it back, with fairies, wizards and a few villains along the way. Ponies, Lusitanos and liberty horses share the stage with trick riders, fire effects, stunts and comic actors. It suits horse fans, and kids who simply like a big, bright show.
Timmy, a boy with a flute, goes to Vienna to learn what Mozart's Turkish March is about and meets the storyteller Scheherazade. Her storybook pulls them both into the Arabian Nights: a busy market, a contest of musicians, a conjurer, Sindbad the sailor and a grim palace guard. A chamber ensemble plays Mozart, Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky, while an acrobat and actress plays out the story with flying carpets and swirling veils.
Percussionist Samuel Wootton, one of Bergson's resident artists, takes the audience through the world of percussion, from a soft "ting" to a big "boom". Kids don't just listen: they drum, clap and laugh along and become part of the show.
It's Bergson's own production, staged in the Freiraum hall of the Bergson Kunstkraftwerk, a converted power station in Aubing. Good for kids who like noise and hate sitting still.
A Christmas ballet where professional dancers share the stage with students from German ballet schools. On Christmas Eve, Clara meets the brave Nutcracker, who saves her from the Mouse King, and the two set off into a night where dreams and secret wishes come true.
It suits families with kids who dance or love fairy tales, and grown-ups who want a classical Nutcracker.
Heavysaurus is a rock band of four dinosaurs and a dragon, played by five professional musicians in full costume. They play loud metal on real instruments, written for kids: big riffs, sing-along choruses and a dino roar the whole room shouts back.
Expect a proper concert show with lights, fog, sparks, balloons and confetti. Songs are in German, though little German is needed to jump along.
Dennis & Jesko Band are the trio behind the football songs on WUMMS, an online channel from NDR and Radio Bremen. Their concerts are a party: kids jump and sing at the front while surprisingly word-perfect parents stand further back.
Expect their big hit "Rambo Ramos" plus songs about Lewandowski, Mbappé, FC Bayern and Antonio Rüdiger. It suits football-mad kids who already know the songs.
Munich's official Fasching parade, the Faschingszug, is led by the Damische Ritter, a local carnival club. More than 50 groups wind through the Altstadt: brass bands, decorated floats, dance troupes, carnival societies and the city's Fasching prince and princess.
Thousands line the old-town streets to watch, many in costume, so kids get to see the floats up close from inside a crowd in fancy dress.
Once a year, the women who run the stalls at Munich's Viktualienmarkt trade their aprons for costumes and dance on a stage by the maypole. Each costume shows a stall, so kids can spot the baker, the butcher or the flower seller.
The Narrhalla guards and the Fasching prince and princess warm up the crowd first. It's a big outdoor crowd, so smaller kids see best from a parent's shoulders.
Rund is a new object theater piece built around things that roll, spin, wobble and tip over, then stand back up. Puppetry meets visual art: director Julika Mayer and Munich artist Olga Golos turn art objects into toys and tools, moved and turned in front of the audience. The Schauburg is building it in close contact with the youngest theatergoers it is made for.
The Auer Dult is one of Munich's oldest traditions, a market fair that fills Mariahilfplatz in Au three times a year. The spring edition brings about 250 stalls selling pottery, antiques, toys and kitchen gadgets, plus a ride area with bumper cars, a 1919 chain swing carousel, a Ferris wheel and throwing booths. It suits kids who like a few rides and parents who like to browse.
Twice a year, Leopoldstraße in Schwabing closes to cars and becomes one long festival street between the Siegestor and Münchner Freiheit. Stages along the way run from swing and salsa to Bavarian dialect bands, cabaret and electronic music, with art, dance taster classes and football courts in between.
The Corso Leopoldino kids' area has easel painting, crafts and movement games, a good base while the grown-ups browse.
A medieval festival on the grounds of Schloss Kaltenberg, a Bavarian castle west of Munich. Jugglers and musicians play on five stages, and a craft market, camps and food stands fill the site. The centerpiece is a staged jousting show in the arena, with horse stunts, sword fights and fire effects. On Family Sundays, kids then take the arena themselves in a children's tournament and are knighted at the end.
Thousands of people in dirndls and lederhosen fill the beer garden around the Chinese Tower in the Englischer Garten and dance Bavarian folk dances at sunrise. A dance master calls and demonstrates every step from the stage, so beginners and kids join in.
The ball revives a tradition of the city's cooks and maids, who danced here before work in the 1880s. It suits early-rising families who like music and a crowd.
The Wiesn is Munich's giant folk festival on the Theresienwiese: beer tents, yes, but also a full fairground. Kids ride the Ferris wheel, chair swings, the Toboggan's conveyor belt and wooden slide, and the Teufelsrad spinning disc.
The Oide Wiesn at the south end is calmer, with historic carousels, a marionette theater and high-wheel bikes. Weekday daytime suits families best; evenings and weekends get packed.
Kleine Sportgeister is a Turncafé (a gym café) in Schwabing set up for babies and toddlers. The movement room is laid out with gym mats, soft foam blocks, ramps, tunnels and climbing frames, and the setup changes regularly, so crawlers and new walkers can climb, slide and balance.
A play and café corner serves coffee, waffles and cake, and parents stay with their child the whole time.
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.
Maximiliansanlagen is about 2 km of wooded parkland on the high east bank of the Isar. Paths run under old trees past the Friedensengel column and the Maximilianeum, with views across to the old town and down to the river's weirs.
After a snowfall, the short slopes near the Maximilianeum are one of the most central sledding spots in town, with steep runs and gentle ones for small kids.
Aubinger Lohe is a forest recreation area on the western edge of the city, crossed by woodland paths for walking and cycling. Its main hill rises about 25 meters above the surrounding fields and becomes a sledding run when snow falls, with plenty of smaller slopes where young kids can try their first runs.
In summer, families come for the two Böhmerweiher ponds and the playgrounds.
A traditional beer garden on Wiener Platz, shaded by old chestnut trees. The self-service section is walk-in, with Hofbräu beer, Brotzeit plates and Bavarian dishes, and a separate area has table service. Kids get a small playground with a slide, and a sweets stall sells gingerbread hearts, sugar-bead necklaces, candied almonds and popcorn.
A traditional Bavarian beer garden with 2,500 self-service seats under old chestnut trees. A large, shaded playground with climbing frames, slides and swings sits right beside its own block of benches, so parents can sit and still keep the kids in sight.
Families can bring their own picnic food, while drinks come from the bar. Local bands play the garden stage in summer.
Die Hirschau is a historic beer garden in the English Garden, with seats for around 1,800 under old chestnut trees. Next to the tables is a large adventure playground with climbing frames, a zip line and a pirate ship, so parents can sit within sight of it.
The food runs from roast chicken and Obazda to salads, coffee and cake, plus an organic ice cream hut.
A self-service Bavarian beer garden under old chestnut trees on the high bank of the Isar, with a mix of sunny and half-shaded tables. Kids get open space to run around and a playground, while adults pick up Obazda, pretzels and grilled dishes from the counters.
In the summer season, live jazz bands play every day. A sit-down restaurant serving traditional Bavarian food is on the same grounds.
Munich's oldest beer garden, first marked on a city map in 1812, seats 5,000 under more than 100 chestnut trees. Kids head for the raised playground with a sandpit, swing, climbing tower and slide, and tables sit right around it so parents can watch.
In the self-service area, families can bring their own picnic, as Bavarian tradition allows, or buy pretzels, roast chicken and fish grilled on a stick.
Aumeister is a traditional beer garden at the north end of the Englischer Garten, with close to 3,000 seats under old chestnut trees. Kids get a large playground with swings and climbing frames, a vintage carousel and a kids' menu, and free face painting runs from May. The inn has stood here since 1810, and the indoor restaurant serves Bavarian dishes year-round.
Königlicher Hirschgarten has been an inn since 1791 and calls itself the largest beer garden in the world, with more than 8,000 outdoor seats split between a served section and a self-service area. A deer enclosure borders the garden, and kids can buy feed from a machine for the herd.
In winter, nine natural ice lanes open for Bavarian curling (Eisstockschießen).
Michaeligarten is a self-service beer garden under old chestnut trees that runs down to the shore of the Ostpark lake. The counters serve Löwenbräu on tap, Bavarian snacks and hot dishes, from an ox-meat roll to Obazda and a vegan Schupfnudel pan.
A large fenced playground sits right next to the tables, so kids can run while parents eat. Seating is first come, with no reservations.
A 750-square-meter open-air ice rink set up each Advent on Karlsplatz, the square locals call Stachus, under festive lights in the middle of the old town. Kids skate on a big open sheet of ice, with music playing on most days.
Sunday daytime sessions are family days with children's entertainment and face painting. Food and hot drinks come from the Schmankerl-Hütte and Glühwein-Alm huts beside the rink.
Three underground ice rinks sit beneath the SAP Garden, the Olympiapark arena where Red Bull Munich plays hockey, so public skating runs all year. Rental skates come in hockey and figure styles from EU size 25.
From October to April, Thursday to Saturday evenings bring an ice disco, and a monthly inclusive session lends skating aids and ice gliders. Jumps and figure-skating moves are not allowed in public sessions.
An outdoor ice rink, 60 meters long, with music playing and floodlights for skating after dark. Kids can do laps, play ice hockey, or join the Münchner Eistanz on the ice.
It opened in 1933 as the first open-air artificial ice rink in southern Germany. In summer the same site becomes the Prinzregentenbad outdoor pool.
The Krone-Bau is the permanent home of Circus Krone, which tours Germany in summer and comes back here for its winter season. Shows fill the ring under a 3,000-seat roof, mixing classic circus (acrobats, clowns, animal acts) with modern routines.
A life-size statue of the clown Charlie Rivel stands at the entrance. Outside circus season, the building hosts concerts and other productions.
A city farm and adventure playground on about 15,000 m², more than two soccer fields, with ponies, goats, sheep, pigs, rabbits and cats. Kids roam the grounds on their own: a treehouse, a play hill, fire pits, a woodworking shop, a garden and a pond for chilling out.
Staff run hands-on projects and seasonal parties, and regulars can sign up to help with stable and animal care.
A small pottery workshop near the Englischer Garten, run by ceramicist Désirée Oberländer for about 40 years. Kids build with clay in groups of up to 10, with no set models: they shape their own pieces and group projects, then glaze and paint them themselves after firing.
Older kids can learn the electric potter's wheel, and the studio also hosts weekend theme workshops and birthday parties.
Dream-Bowl Palace is a big bowling center just outside Munich, with 52 lanes, an 18-hole blacklight minigolf course, 11 pool tables, darts and table soccer. Every lane has bumpers that staff switch on for kids up to 1.37 m tall.
A bistro and lounge serve fries, burgers and nuggets. Weekend evenings turn into Palace Party Night with blacklight and louder music, so families with young kids tend to come earlier.
A 22-lane bowling center in Giesing, open since 1986 and long known as Isar Bowling. Twelve of the lanes have automatic bumpers for young bowlers, and the cosmic lanes glow under black light. House balls are free and computers keep score, so nobody needs to know the rules.
A billiards and snooker hall sits one floor up, and the center also has darts and a restaurant.
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.
Munich's largest climbing forest has more than 110 elements over 13 courses, strung through 21,000 square meters of woods. Expect wobbly nets, rope bridges and flying foxes up to 11 meters high, with a continuous safety line that can't come unclipped. The smallest climbers get a low course 1 to 2 meters off the ground.
On the ground: a playground, a forest nature trail and the Fater Alm hut restaurant.
A large climbing center run by the German Alpine Club (DAV), with roped walls up to 15 m high inside and out, plus a bouldering hall. Kids get their own routes and boulders, marked with a monkey sign and set with small holds, and a ten-problem kids' course.
Upstairs, an enclosed play area has climbing walls and a slide. Outside there's a playground with a sandbox and a big trampoline.
A German Alpine Club (DAV) climbing center with 5,100 sqm of rope walls (about 500 routes), a separate bouldering hall, and outdoor walls under a wide roof overhang that keeps them climbable in rain.
Kids' routes and boulders carry a small monkey sign and use holds sized for small hands. Downstairs, a play area has a pirate ship, a knights' castle and thick crash mats.
Boulderwelt München Süd is a bouldering gym in Brunnthal, just south of Munich. Kids under 14 climb in the Kinderwelt, a separate area with kid-sized holds, a hand-painted Alpine scene, a slide and tunnels, or in a mixed area with marked kids' routes beside the adult walls.
Parents can wait in a lounge with coffee. It is not a drop-off: an adult supervises kids the whole time.
Boulderwelt München Ost is a bouldering gym on the upper floors of a building by München Ost station, with 6m walls climbed without ropes.
The 4th floor holds a Kinderwelt just for kids: hand-painted underwater walls with a castle, crawl tunnels and a slide for climbers from about age 2. Kids 6 and up can also use the mixed area, where routes marked with a hand have closer holds.
A large bouldering gym: climbing low walls over crash mats, with no ropes or harness. Upstairs is a kids' climbing world with child-sized holds, a parcours zone modeled on the adults' hall, and a hand-painted underwater and Inca jungle area for toddlers.
Three wall sections are reset every week, so regulars keep finding new routes. A café sits by check-in.
Dantebad is a city-run outdoor pool that stays heated through the winter, so kids can swim outside in any season. There is a 50-meter lap pool at about 30°C and a warmer leisure pool with bubble loungers, a bubble grotto, a current channel and a water mushroom.
Table tennis, a restaurant and a separate sauna area for adults round it out.
Prinzregentenbad is a public outdoor pool with a 25 m lap pool, a leisure pool with water features, 1 m and 3 m diving boards and a 50 m water slide. Younger kids get a paddling pool with a water play area.
Families spread out on a big lawn under old trees, and there are beach volleyball courts, a restaurant and a kiosk with a beer garden.
A city-run outdoor pool by the Isar in Giesing, with a 50-meter pool (three lap lanes), a non-swimmer pool and a paddling pool with play features for small kids.
Around them sit a wide slide, a playground, table tennis, an outdoor chess board and a big lawn under old trees.
Naturbad Maria Einsiedel is a natural swimming pool in the Isar meadows, open since 1899. The Isar canal runs almost 400 meters through the grounds, and the water in the 50-meter pool, the non-swimmer area and the large kids' paddling pool is cleaned by microorganisms instead of chlorine. Kids also get a playground, a soccer lawn, table tennis and giant ground chess, with old shade trees over the lawns.
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.
Michaelibad is a public pool run by the city utility SWM. Its 84-meter adventure slide drops into a separate landing pool, and there is a 1-meter diving board, a learner pool and a water play area for small children with mini slides and a spray shower.
Outside, a warm pool stays open all year, with a current channel, bubble loungers and underwater lights after dusk.
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.
Munich's first indoor pool opened in 1901 and still runs in its original Art Nouveau halls. The big hall has a 31-meter pool under a painted, vaulted ceiling; the smaller hall has an 18-meter pool that is quieter and suits easy laps.
There is no paddling pool or learner pool, so it suits kids who already swim. Adults can add the sauna and the Roman-Irish steam bath.
A large water playground on the former grounds of the 2005 Federal Garden Show (BUGA). Kids pump water by hand, scoop it into wooden channels, dam the streams and dig in the mud areas. Around the water zone are climbing structures, monkey bars, swings and slides, plus shady lawns for a picnic. Riemer See, in the same park, has swimming and pedal boats.
A large water playground in the eastern part of Westpark. A shallow stream runs through it, and kids dam it with stones, wade and splash.
Stone slides, a wooden climbing tower and plenty of play equipment fill the rest, so the dry side stays busy too. There is enough shade for parents to sit out of the sun while kids play.
Viktualienmarkt is the Old Town's open-air food market, with more than 100 stalls selling fruit, cheese, bread, honey and flowers around a blue-and-white maypole.
Kids can snack their way through the stalls, spot the six statue fountains of Munich comedians and folk singers, and sit in the central beer garden, where families may bring their own food.
A groundwater-fed swimming lake of nearly 8 hectares, ringed by about 5 hectares of lawn and sandy shoreline in the Dachauer Moos north of Munich. A shallow beach is set aside for small children, with a sand playground near the water rescue station.
Older kids can play beach volleyball on two courts or table tennis by the beer garden. A grill zone allows small family grills.
A groundwater-fed swimming lake dug as a gravel pit in the late 1930s, with about 11 hectares of water ringed by roughly 7 hectares of lawn. A swimming platform floats in the middle, rare for lakes around Munich, and the water reaches about 5 meters deep.
The north shore has a playground, a small soccer field, ping-pong tables and a beer garden, plus a marked barbecue zone.
Langwieder See is an 18-hectare swimming lake, up to 8 meters deep, and the largest of the three Langwieder lakes alongside Lußsee and Birkensee. Wide lawns around the shore leave room for picnics and ball games, and a restaurant with a beer garden sits by the water.
Barbecues are allowed only in the signed grill zones. Divers have a marked area at the north end, away from the swimming lawns.
Feringasee is a 32-hectare former gravel-pit lake, up to 7 meters deep, ringed by 21 hectares of lawns. In season the south third is the buoyed swimming zone, with a step-free entry on the south shore.
Kids can walk or bike the 2 km loop path, try the beach volleyball court and fitness trail, or explore the wetland on the north shore. A restaurant with beer garden is open year-round.
A 21-hectare botanical garden, opened in 1914, beside Nymphenburg Palace park. Indoors, a chain of greenhouses runs from a tall palm house to a giant cactus hall, a tree fern house on lava rock, an orchid house and the Victoria house with its huge water lilies.
Outside, kids can follow paths through an alpine rock garden with over 2,000 species, an arboretum and pond areas.
Flaucher is the stretch of the Isar between the Flauchersteg footbridge and the Braunauer railway bridge, where the river splits into shallow side channels around wide gravel banks. Kids wade and splash in alpine water that rarely tops 20°C, even in midsummer.
The banks double as a grilling and meeting spot, so summer weekends get crowded, though quieter corners turn up along the branching channels.
Riemer See is a swimming lake dug for the 2005 federal garden show, which is why locals also call it Bugasee. It is about 700 meters long, up to 18 meters deep, and one of the cleanest lakes around.
Families head for the east shore, where a wide gravel beach runs into a big lawn. A playground sits on the north shore, plus swings and three volleyball courts.
Luitpoldpark spreads 33 hectares of open lawns around a 1911 obelisk and linden grove. North of the Bamberger Haus, a playground holds a winding hedge maze and the Pumuckl fountain.
The 37-meter Luitpoldhügel, a hill built from wartime rubble, is a quick climb with views to the Olympic Tower. In winter its shaded north slope is one of the city's steepest toboggan runs.
Ostpark spreads over 56 hectares around a lake with an island, quieter than the city's other big parks. Kids find Maulwurfshausen adventure playground at the east end, a skate park, table tennis and volleyball, and a barbecue zone by the lake. The Michaeligarten beer garden sits on the shore.
In winter the lake draws ice skaters, the hill becomes a sledding run, and a groomed cross-country ski trail follows the water.
Westpark is a 60-hectare park built for the 1983 garden show, with artificial hills, two lakes and a rose garden of 20,000 roses. The western half holds a Thai Sala, a carved wooden Nepal pagoda and Chinese and Japanese gardens.
Kids can push the 1.8-ton spherical fountain by the southeast entrance, splash at the water playground, and run the wide meadows. The Mittlerer Ring splits the park in two.
Königlicher Hirschgarten has been a deer park since 1780, and its two-hectare enclosure of fallow deer and mouflon is still the main draw: kids can feed them, following the signs on the fence.
The south end has the elephant playground, with a huge sandbox and elephant slide, plus a water playground with a water slide. There's also a climbing tower, a small skate park, sledding hills and Munich's largest beer garden.
Built for the 1972 Olympics, the park wraps around a lake and the 60-meter Olympic Hill, a grassy mound piled from wartime rubble with views over the city to the Alps. Kids climb the easy paths to the summit and run the open lawns, and there is boat hire on the Olympic Lake. SEA LIFE, minigolf and the Munich Action Park's climbing kids area sit inside the grounds.
The English Garden is a 376-hectare landscape park of flat paths, streams, more than 100 bridges and wide meadows. A historic children's carousel stands beside the Chinese Tower beer garden, and pedal and rowing boats rent on Kleinhesseloher See.
Kids can watch surfers ride the Eisbach wave, climb the Monopteros hill for a view over the city, and spot grazing sheep in the quieter north.
A 1,000 m² blacklight minigolf course where kids putt through glowing themed worlds, from jungle and dinosaurs to outer space and underwater scenes, wearing 3D glasses that make the neon pop.
A separate arcade zone has pinball and high-score machines, and TEAM-UP! runs game-show challenges in themed rooms for groups. It sits beside the Forum Schwanthalerhöhe mall, a short walk from Theresienwiese.
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.
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.
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 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.
A standing wave on the Eisbach, the fast creek that rushes out from under the Prinzregentenstraße bridge at the southern tip of the Englischer Garten. Surfers in wetsuits line up on both banks and drop in one at a time.
Kids watch from the bridge railing or the stone banks. The current is strong and the wave is for skilled surfers only, so this is a place to watch, not to paddle.
Munich's central square, with the Neo-Gothic New Town Hall to the north and the Old Town Hall to the east. In the town hall tower, the Glockenspiel's 43 bells ring while figures joust in a knights' tournament and turn in the coopers' dance. The Mariensäule column stands in the middle, and the Fish Fountain by the town hall is the classic meeting point.
Bavaria's Wittelsbach rulers spent their summers here. The main palace has frescoed state rooms, and the 180-hectare park around it has lakes, swans, squirrels and four small park palaces to peek into.
The Marstallmuseum, in the old riding stables, holds over forty royal coaches and sleighs, including King Ludwig II's gilded state coaches and the Rococo coronation coach of Emperor Karl VII.
The Frauenkirche's south tower is one of the cathedral's two onion-domed towers, and the one visitors can climb. Kids walk 86 steps up a narrow spiral staircase, then ride an elevator to the tower room 80 meters up, the highest point in the old town, with windows over the rooftops and the countryside beyond.
The tight stairwell doesn't suit anyone claustrophobic.
Alter Peter is the bell tower of St. Peter's, the oldest parish church in the city, beside Marienplatz. Kids climb 306 steps to a viewing platform over the old town rooftops, and on clear days the view reaches the Alps.
On the way up, windows at the belfry show the eight bells, including one cast for the city's 800th anniversary, and kids can watch them swing when they ring.
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.
A 57-hectare park of native European wildlife along a 4 km forest and meadow trail. Fallow deer and mouflon roam free and walk right up to visitors, and many animals can be petted or fed. The trail passes brown bears, wolves, lynx, wild boar and bison.
By the picnic meadow and kiosk, a big play area has a water playground and a western fort.
Hellabrunn sits on the Isar river meadows and was the world's first geozoo: since 1928 its animals have lived grouped by continent, so kids can walk from the African savanna to the polar world in a few steps. More than 500 species live here, from elephants and tigers to penguins and polar bears. A new jungle world covers Asia, and there's a petting area and playgrounds along the way.
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.
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.
The world's largest library of international children's books fills a 15th-century castle beside the Würm river. The children's library lends 20,000 books in 24 languages, from Arabic to Ukrainian, and runs courses and readings for kids and families.
Upstairs, the Michael Ende Museum shows the author's books, drawings and belongings, with Momo, Jim Button and Bastian from The Neverending Story. The James Krüss Museum Tower holds more exhibits.
The Volkssternwarte is a public observatory run by an astronomy society, with a solar-system exhibition, a Zeiss planetarium dome, and a rooftop platform nearly 30 meters up with five telescope domes.
Kids' planetarium shows tell space stories under a projected night sky. The children's tour visits all three stations and ends at the big telescopes, with views to the Alps on clear days.
The Residenz was the palace of Bavaria's Wittelsbach dukes, electors and kings, and has been a museum since 1920. Most rooms still hold their original furniture, tapestries and paintings, so kids walk through gilded halls as they were used. The Antiquarium, the oldest surviving room, is a long painted vault lined with marble busts. The separate Treasury shows the dynasty's treasures, and the Court Garden outside is free.
The MVG Museum is the collection of Munich's public transport operator, set in a listed former bus workshop of over 5,000 square meters. About 25 historic trams, buses and works vehicles from different eras stand side by side, each with a board on its maker, specs and working life.
Themed areas cover city history, how transport developed, uniforms, signage and advertising, and the control center.
The BMW Museum traces over 100 years of BMW cars and motorcycles through themed houses on design, technology, motorsport and the brand, in a bowl-shaped building next to the Olympiapark.
Kids walk past race cars, prototypes and the tiny Isetta bubble car, and at least one Art Car painted by artists such as Andy Warhol or Jeff Koons is always on display.
A museum of world cultures on Maximilianstraße, with objects from every continent. Permanent galleries cover Oceania's carved masks and boards, a Buddha hall, Myanmar's pagodas and spirit figures, Japan through a painter's travel souvenirs, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southwest Asia and North Africa, and Central and South America.
A free activity booklet from the ticket desk sends kids around every permanent gallery, and creative workshops turn what they saw into art.
The public museum of the Bavarian State Collection for Paleontology and Geology fills a glass-roofed hall with big skeletons. At the center stands the Mühldorf prehistoric elephant, surrounded by Plateosaurus (the largest dinosaur found in Bavaria), Allosaurus, Triceratops, the giant flying reptile Pteranodon, a giant deer and a cave bear.
Upstairs, a timeline runs through every era of Earth's history. The museum also shows the Munich Archaeopteryx.
The Munich Toy Museum fills four floors of the Old Town Hall tower on Marienplatz with the private collection of the Ivan Steiger family, spanning four centuries of play. Kids can look at model railways, steam engines, tin toys, teddy bears, dolls and dollhouses, wooden toys, Barbies and a wall of robots. The small tower rooms make it a short visit, and an audio guide can be downloaded in advance.
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.
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.
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.
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.
