If you visit Munich and you don’t like beer or you just need a break from it, there are plenty of other things to do outside the beer halls. We kept very busy exploring the other side of the city. Here are ways to spend your time in Munich outside the beer halls.
Walking Tour of Munich
Not much is open anywhere on New Year’s Day, so we signed up for a walking tour. I love doing walking tours when in a new city. You learn so much about the history and get tips from locals. As a big well visited city, Munich has multiple good walking tours. Our tour covered the downtown area and the history of the city, with a lot of focus on Hitler and beer.
Munich Tour – it was a big group for a cold New Year’s Day
More than any other place in the world, Munich is known for its beer halls. As beer drinkers, we had to try at least a few! So here’s what it’s like touring Munich beer halls.
Touring Munich Beer Halls
There are options to go on beer hall tours, but we found it very easy to do on our own. Find a beer hall, walk in, and find a seat and order. The hardest part was finding a seat. Seriously, a self-guided tour of Munich beer halls is easy.
I read that there are over 180 beer gardens in the city of Munich. Other towns in Germany have beer halls and breweries, but they are traditional to Bavarian culture, and as the capital of Bavaria, Munich carries the weight.
Here is a round-up of the beer halls we visited last weekend in Munich.
Munich is a wonderful place to spend New Year’s Eve, or Silvester, as they call it here, named after a Pope no less. We had a really fun and entertaining night out in this city. If you’re looking for a great European city to celebrate New Year’s, don’t miss New Year’s Eve in Munich!
Fireworks
Early Fireworks at Tollwood NYE – way before the fog set in
They love their fireworks here! Apparently, they are readily available for sale, which is why we started hearing them going off before sunset and all the time after. This also explains the debris in every street into New Year’s Day of firework remnants. The unfortunate thing was, the city was shrouded in fog before 12 midnight so it was pretty impossible to see any of the fireworks, no matter how near.
Before coming to Austria, and the Alps no less, I had imagined there would be good eats here. Fit for Alpine skiing, Austrian cuisine is hearty and delicious, and we’re trying to sample Austria’s best dishes. Plus, we can ski over to Switzerland and try their cuisine too! Good thing we are getting exercise skiing with all this good food. Here’s my guide to eating and drinking in Ischgl, Austria.
Christmas Dinner: Chinoise Fondue and Austrian Red Wine
I already mentioned our delicious first night’s dinner of fondue – which we ate at 6PM because we were so tired from all the travel LOL early bird special! The fondue came with totally unnecessary baked potatoes.
I took a lot of photos from the Ischgl Alps and the views are stunning. We had such a great 5 days skiing – the weather was beautiful, with blue skies and sunshine every day. The wifi in our hotel was not as good, so I didn’t get to post very much after our first day skiing.
The Ischgl Experience
Ischgl is a party town, but we thought the skiing was great too! I mean, there’s no shortage of bars, nightlife and restaurants, and we enjoyed all of them, on the slopes and in town.
Skiing the Ischgl Alps
Skiing the slopes, riding the chair lifts so high it takes hours to get back to the bottom, was an awesome experience.
Spending the day skiing between countries is another of the cool things about Ischgl. The resort is shared by Austria and Switzerland. We didn’t do it everyday, but we did have lunch in Switzerland. We just skied there and back like it was no big deal.
Ischgl alpsThe views!Ischgl Valley viewPhotos from beautiful Ischgl
Visiting ischgl
We flew to Munich and rented a car to drive to Ischgl, Austria. It’s about a 3 hour drive, through some lovely Bavarian villages and then into the mountains. Ischgl is serviced by buses also, and it is possible to go for the day if you don’t have lots of time.
It was hard to leave the Alps, but we had big plans for New Years in Munich.
Are you considering spending a week in the mountains? As you can tell, we loved the Austrian Alps. Take some inspiration from my photos from the Ischgl Alps.
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OkNo
You can revoke your consent any time using the Revoke consent button.Revoke consent
