This is a post about day trips from Munich.
Munich is a brilliant base for exploring stunning Bavaria and you don’t need a car to make the most of it. Between the S-Bahn, regional trains and a handful of well-run bus tours, some of the most striking castles, lakes and mountains in Germany are within reach of a single day out.
Some of these are easy half-day trips, others need an early start or a guided tour to make the most of your time, so I’ve included travel times for each one to help you plan.
If you’re spending some time in Munich, I’ve also got a Munich travel guide with added itinerary here.
Quick Guide: Day Trips from Munich
📍 Base: Munich Hauptbahnhof is your starting point for almost everything on this list
🚆 Getting around: Regional trains (RB/RE) and the Bayern Ticket cover most of these; a couple work better by car or organised tour
🗓️ Best time to visit: Spring to early autumn for the lakes and mountains, any time of year for the towns and castles
🎟️ Book ahead for: Neuschwanstein Castle tickets, especially in summer
⏱️ Shortest trip: Dachau, under 30 minutes from central Munich
⏱️ Longest trip: Hallstatt or Rothenburg ob der Tauber; both can push past 4 hours each way by train with connections, so a direct guided tour (2.5–3 hours) is worth it for either
Neuschwanstein Castle and Füssen
This is the one everyone pictures when they think of a Munich day trip and I’ve been a couple of times now. You take the train to Füssen, then a bus to the castle area. There’s then a mini bus up to the castle itself if you don’t want to walk up.
Both times I spent some time exploring the castle grounds, going for little hikes around the gorgeous area and lake and then wandering around Füssen’s old town. Füssen is worth building proper time into your day for rather than treating as an afterthought. Stop for cake and coffee somewhere in town and try the Schneeballen, a Bavarian pastry sold all over Füssen. Personally, I didn’t love it, I thought it was too hard and dry but I’m recommending you try because it’s a local delicacy. Who knows, maybe you’ll like it better?!
Trains from Munich to Füssen take around 2 to 2.5 hours, so this is a full day out rather than a quick half-day trip. Booking your castle entry slot in advance is worth doing, especially in summer when it sells out.
You can book a guided Neuschwanstein tour with skip-the-line tickets through GetYourGuide. If you prefer to skip figuring out the logistics of getting from Munich to the castle you can join a tour that picks you up from Munich and includes a stop at a Bavarian cheese farm! (please note the tour price does not include the ticket to get into Neuschwanstein. That one you pay the guide in cash for.)
Dachau Memorial Site
Dachau is the fastest trip on this list, under 30 minutes from central Munich by train, which makes it easy to combine with a half-day back in the city if you want to.
It’s a difficult visit by design. The site is the former Dachau concentration camp and walking through it is a heavy, sobering experience rather than a typical day trip. I’d recommend going in with that expectation rather than treating it as a box to tick.
If you’d rather not navigate the history alone like my friend and I did, a guided tour adds useful context you won’t get from just walking through.
Book a Dachau Memorial guided tour through GetYourGuide.
Salzburg, Austria
Salzburg is one of the most popular day trips from Munich and it has the advantage of putting you in a different country. Trains take around 1.5 to 2 hours each way and the city is compact enough to see a lot in a day: the old town, Mozart’s birthplace, Salzburg Cathedral and the Sound of Music filming locations if that’s your thing. I literally went to Salzburg for the day once…travelling from LONDON!!
If you’re short on time, an organised day tour takes care of the logistics and usually includes a guided old town walk. You can book a Salzburg day trip from Munich through GetYourGuide.
Nuremberg
Nuremberg is around an hour from Munich by train, which makes it one of the easiest longer trips on this list. The medieval old town was carefully rebuilt after being badly damaged in the Second World War. It’s worth a wander in its own right, alongside the city’s WWII history sites for anyone interested in that sad period.
You can also book a Nuremberg day trip with train ticket and guided tour through GetYourGuide.
Regensburg
Regensburg is one of Bavaria’s best-preserved medieval cities and a quieter alternative to Nuremberg if you want somewhere that feels less like a typical tourist stop. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage old town that survived the Second World War largely intact, which is rare for a German city this size.
Direct regional trains from Munich take around 1 hour 20 minutes to 1.5 hours, running roughly every hour, so it’s an easy one to plan around without booking anything in advance. Once you’re there, the main sights sit close together: the Steinerne Brücke (Old Stone Bridge) over the Danube, Regensburg Cathedral’s twin Gothic spires and Wurstkuchl, said to be the oldest sausage kitchen in the world, right by the bridge. Walk across to the opposite riverbank for the best view back over the old town skyline.
If you’re a regular reader you’ll know I LOVE a free walking tour. And you can book Regensburg one here!
Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Rothenburg ob der Tauber is the most famous stop on Germany’s Romantic Road and one of the country’s best-preserved medieval towns, with half-timbered houses, a walkable town wall and cobbled lanes that look like a film set. It’s every bit as picturesque as the photos suggest.
It’s also the trickiest to get right as a genuine day trip, so it’s worth understanding your options rather than just booking whatever comes up first. There’s no direct train from Munich: the regional route via Treuchtlingen and Steinach involves two changes and takes around 2 hours 45 minutes to 3 hours if the connections line up, but delays on any one leg can push that past 4 hours each way, which barely leaves you an afternoon in the town. Driving is more reliable at a flat 2 hours 45 minutes via the A9. An organised day tour is usually the better call here: it’s typically a direct coach route with no transfer risk and it often bundles in a stop at Harburg Castle along the Romantic Road, so you get more for the same amount of travel time rather than losing hours to waiting on platforms.
If you do go it alone by train, leave Munich as early as possible and check your connections the night before with the DB Navigator app, since a missed transfer at a small station can easily cost you an hour. I’ll be honest though, train service in Germany has changed a lot…it used to be flawless, nowadays delays and cancellations are a bit more common so I wouldn’t rely on it unless you could stay overnight and head back slowly the next day.
As usual, you can book a Rothenburg ob der Tauber day tour from Munich, often combined with a stop at Harburg Castle, through the trusted GetYourGuide.
Hallstatt, Austria
Hallstatt is the fairytale lakeside village in Austria’s Salzkammergut region that shows up on every “most beautiful places in Europe” list. It definitely earns the hype, if you can get there early enough to beat the crowds.
This is the one to think hardest about before booking, since the difference between transport options is huge. The public transport route (train to Salzburg, then a bus or regional train on to Hallstatt, then a short ferry across the lake) usually takes 3.5 to 4.5 hours each way once you account for connection waits, which turns your “day trip” into more travel than actual time in the village. An organised day tour, by contrast, typically runs a more direct route and gets you there in around 2.5 to 3 hours, because it’s not built around public timetables and transfer waits the way the train route is. For a destination this far out, it’s the difference between a good day and an exhausting one, so I’d lean tour over DIY train here unless you’re planning to stay overnight and turn it into two days instead of one.
I almost didn’t include it in this list! But since it’s a popular destination and there is a day trip option, I thought I’d add. The day trip is private though so it’s more expensive than the others on this list.
Once in Hallstatt, the market square, the lakeside promenade and the viewpoint above the village are the main draws and the Hallstatt Salt Mine is worth adding if you want more than a walk around.
Book a Hallstatt day trip from Munich, including transport, through GetYourGuide.
Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the Alps
For anyone who wants mountains rather than towns, Garmisch-Partenkirchen is the easiest base for that from Munich, with direct regional trains taking around an hour and a half.
The big draw is the Zugspitze, Germany’s highest peak, reachable by cogwheel train and cable car for a view over four countries on a clear day. Closer to town, the Partnachklamm gorge is worth the detour: a dramatic 700-metre gorge carved into the rock, with walkways and tunnels running right along the water. If you’d rather hike than ride, there are well-marked trails straight out of the train station, with mountain hut restaurants serving Bavarian classics like Käsespätzle and Kaiserschmarrn along the way.
You can book a Zugspitze guided day trip from Munich through GetYourGuide.
Tegernsee
If you want a slower day rather than a packed itinerary, Tegernsee is a lakeside town easily reached from Munich by train, around an hour each way with trains running roughly every half hour. It’s a popular spot for locals rather than a tourist-heavy stop. It’s one of the easiest day trips from Munich.
The train actually stops twice at the lake: first at the quieter town of Gmund, then at Tegernsee itself. Once there, walk the lakeside Seepromenade, visit Tegernsee Abbey (a Benedictine monastery over a thousand years old, now also home to a well-known brewery) or take the ferry across to Bad Wiessee if you fancy extending the day. In summer it’s a proper swimming spot; the surrounding hills also have well-marked hiking trails straight from the station if you’d rather move than sit by the water.
FAQ: Day Trips from Munich
No. Most of the destinations on this list, including Neuschwanstein, Dachau, Salzburg, Nuremberg and Regensburg are easily reached by train from Munich Hauptbahnhof. Rothenburg and Hallstatt are technically doable by public transport too, but the train connections can push each way past 4 hours, so a direct guided tour is the better option for either if you want a proper day trip rather than a travel day with a quick stop.
Dachau, at under 30 minutes by train from central Munich.
Yes. It’s a popular day trip,with the full round trip including train, bus and castle visit taking most of a day given the roughly 2 to 2.5 hour train journey each way. I’ve done it twice! Once by train (AND the train stopped halfway, we had to get a replacement bus) and once by car stopping by the side of the road to take photos of the gorgeous Bavarian countryside scenery.
Yes and it has the bonus of being in a different country. The train takes around 1.5 to 2 hours each way.
Neuschwanstein Castle and Füssen, since it’s the most iconic and easiest to plan around, with plenty of tours available if you’d rather not sort trains and buses yourself. Also Dachau for the sad, rich history we should never forget.
Technically, but it’s a stretch. The Black Forest is around 3.5 to 4 hours away by train or car, which leaves very little time to actually explore once you arrive. It’s a better fit for an overnight stop on a longer Germany road trip than a single day out from Munich.
Also technically possible but not really recommended. Even the closest Swiss cities like Zurich are around 3.5 hours away by train, so you’d spend most of the day travelling. If Switzerland’s the goal, it’s worth planning as its own trip rather than squeezing it in from a Munich base.
It’s possible, at around 3 hours each way by car or train plus a local bus, but it’s a long day for a country you can walk across in an afternoon. If you’re planning to see Liechtenstein properly, it works better paired with a wider Alpine road trip than as a rushed day trip from Munich.
The Romantic Road is a signposted scenic route through Bavaria, running roughly from Würzburg to Füssen. Two stops on this list sit on it: Rothenburg ob der Tauber, its most famous town and Füssen, where it ends at Neuschwanstein Castle. You won’t drive the whole route in a day trip from Munich, but a guided tour covering one or two stops along it is a good way to get a taste of it.
Everything on this list is doable there and back in a single day. If you’d rather slow down and stay overnight, places like Rothenburg or Hallstatt are worth turning into a proper weekend instead of rushing them into a single day.
Final Thoughts
You could spend a week in Munich and still not run out of day trips worth taking. Just writing this post makes me want to go back. I LOVE Germany! It’s one of my favourite countries in the world! I had such an amazing (and formative!) time living there as an au pair many years ago and I’ve since gone back to visit many times, especially Berlin and Munich.
If you want more Germany travel tips, I’ve got a bunch of other posts about it such as these ones:
This was a post about day trips from Munich.
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