4 Things that will dissapoint you when coming to Munich

Munich is one of the most popular travel destinations in Germany. Millions of tourists visit the city every year. And maybe you have already planned to book a trip to Munich or you’re thinking about it. Surely you have already found some information and many good things about Munich while searching the Internet. But every destination has a few things that are not necessarily great or wonderful. Be it a weather-related limited travel time, environmental factors or simply completely crowded streets and squares. For this reason you should also learn a little bit about annoying things about Munich. I think this is part of a complete travel.

Annoying Thing #1: Everything feels packed during the high season

Especially during the summer months, when the weather conditions allow outdoor activities, you will definitely feel that everything is packed, full and dense in Munich.

Try to get a seat in a Café in the inner city – I wish you good luck. Also shopping in Munich’s main shopping streets (Neuhauser St., Sendlinger St.) on a Saturday in the summer feels like training for Oktoberfest as all shopping streets and shops are overcrowded and you can’t even take your time to do window-shopping.

And don’t think you can flee into a calm beer garden and have some „Gemütlichkeit“ as the well known beer gardens will be packed and crowded as well on nice summer days which will give you a hard time finding an empty seat.

You might think you just have to flee the city and do a day trip in your rental car. The rural part of Bavaria will be calm. You’re right, but the interesting spots for tourists like the towns of Garmisch, Füssen, Tegernsee, etc. will also be crowded and if you don’t start your trip early, you will find yourself in a heavy traffic jam on the motorway to the south. Well, at least it is a traffic jam in a nice and beautiful region and sometimes you get really great views of the Alps and the Alpine Foreland

Annoying thing #2: Bavarian culture is nearly extinct in Munich

When you search the web about traveling to Munich and Bavaria, you will find lots of articles, pictures, and videos praising the Bavarian culture, the traditional clothes, and the beer and roast pork impregnated air in the beer halls and restaurants where brass bands always perform.
Unfortunately, the truth looks completely different. In Munich, there is hardly a living Bavarian culture anymore. What you will experience as a tourist is actually almost completely organized just for you. Some restaurants will even exaggerate so much and thus exclusively serve existing stereotypes about Bavarian culture.
This sometimes goes so far that you might speak a few words of German and want to order from the waitress in lederhosen or dirndl and she will tell you that she has a hard time understanding German because she herself comes from Russia or Bulgaria and you may prefer to order in English.

It is also a fact that the Bavarian dialect, which was spoken by 60-70% of all inhabitants in the 1950s and 1960s has decreased. Today only 0.9% of the inhabitants of Munich speak Bavarian. Therefore, the dialect can be found on the UNESCO list of dying languages since 2009.

Annoying thing #3: There is a lot of road rage on the streets

In countries like the USA, driving a car is (in my opinion) much more pleasant and less stressful than in Germany. In my opinion, this is certainly due to the fact that there is much more space available, for example on the motorways. But I firmly believe that there is also a certain driver mentality – and this mentality is quite aggressive in Germany.
As a driver of a rental car, you should therefore always be prepared for the fact that many German drivers will have no patience at all. They will honk at you aggressively when you start a millisecond late at the green traffic light. They will curse, gesticulate wildly and flash their lights when you turn too slow or too fast or drive strangely in their eyes.

Annoying thing #4: Citizens of Munich always seem to be stressed

I don’t know what the reason is, but in Munich and actually in all other German cities it feels as if all inhabitants are stressed. This leads to increased aggression and stupid, sometimes insulting comments when you „interact“ with the locals like standing in their way, bumping into them accidentally, or not doing something that fits into their worldview or moral image, which is very different from person to person.

This factor is also linked to #1 on this list. The more crowded the city is, the more unfriendly and rude the people are. Therefore in articles about the different months to visit Munich (for example „The best time to visit Munich – April?„) I added a „stress-o-meter“ so you can check the average patience of the citizens.

The Best time to visit Munich – April?

When is the best time to visit Munich? Whenever you go to a destination abroad where you’ve never been to before, you will ask yourself: When should I go there? Are there “good” or “bad” months? Of course, every city looks far better on a nice sunny day than in heavy rain. There are only a few places in the world where it doesn’t matter when to go, as the weather conditions are always perfect. Unfortunately, Munich is not such a place. Also, hotel prices vary throughout the seasons. Here I will tell you about the best months of the year when you should visit Munich, and of course when you should avoid visiting Munich. This time I will tell you about the things you can expect throughout April in Munich

April in Munich

April is the month where spring finally arrives in Munich. People go out and enjoy the long missed warmer temperatures. Usually during April you will also find the Easter celebrations in Munich, especially the Easter weekend (Good Friday until Easter Sunday).

The weather can change quickly in April and there may be days where you have rain, sun, snow and wind during 24 hours. Often there are also the first warmer periods with nice spring weather. The Easter Holidays are the first peak of tourism in Munich, with lot’s of tourists from Germany and its neighbouring countries.

My recommendation: April is an ideal month for a trip to Munich. The weather conditions are better than in march, but try to avoid the week before and after Easter. As many parts of Europe and especially Germany and its neighbouring countries will have school holidays here, Munich sees significantly more tourists. Also the hotel prices start rising and are higher during the two weeks of the Easter Holidays

Weather in Munich – April

In April the weather is generally unstable and can change quickly. However, this depends on the general meteorological situation over Europe. If you’re lucky, April is already warm and spring-like with temperatures that invite you to sit in one of the many beer gardens. But sometimes it has been snowing around Easter. The nights get noticeably warmer and the thermometer less and less often drops below the freezing point.

At the end of April there is also a chance to enjoy summer-like temperatures around 20-25°C (68-77° F)

How is April in Munich?

National Holidays and festivities during April in Munich

Learn about the National Holidays during this month as well as other festivities you will encounter when travelling to Munich in April.

Easter (German: Ostern)

Easter is a Christian festival that celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Besides Christmas, it is the most important religious festival in particularly Catholic Christian countries. The religious Easter holidays begin on Holy Thursday (German: Gründonnerstag) and end on Easter Monday (German: Ostermontag). While Holy Thursday is not a public holiday in Bavaria, Good Friday (German: Karfreitag) and Easter Monday are public holidays. In the week before and after Easter there are school holidays in Bavaria.

The Easter holidays are so-called moveable feasts, which are not based on the regular calendar, but on the lunisolar calendar. This means that Easter can be anywhere between 22 March and 25 April, depending on the particular year. If you like to find out when Easter in Bavaria is celebrated this year, you can find the dates on this specific wikipedia-website

Asparagus Season

The foodies love April as it is also the beginning of the asparagus season in Bavaria. In case you didn’t know, Bavaria is famous for its white asparagus and every year the same hype sets off. You’ll hardly find restaurants in Munich not offering asparagus (soup, plain, salad, and every meal you can imagine). It’s like the pumpkin hype in the USA. Fortunately I did not see an aspargus-flavoured coffee yet, but who knows what will come in the future. If you love white asparagus, then Munich and the greater Munich area is the place to be in late April

Would I recommend travelling to Munich in April?

I would definitely recommend you to come to Munich in April.

But maybe you should avoid the week before and after Easter, because prices for flights and hotels will be above average during that time and there will be many day trippers in the city, especially when the weather is fine. I would therefore rather recommend you to come at the end of April. The temperatures will rise significantly and if you are lucky you will experience some summer moments. Nature is also in full bloom and you can enjoy all kinds of outdoor activities. The first of April is also the date when most beer gardens officially open. Before that, the beer gardens are only open when it is really warm. So if you want to visit Munich and you have a beer garden on your to-do list, you should come not earlier than April.

Travel weather Munich in April?

When I plan to travel abroad, I always check the average weather conditions for my desired travel time. Everything is better when the weather is right, especially when travelling. Sometimes even a week back or forth can statistically show significantly different weather. Therefore I also would recommend you to check the temperature and sunshine of the last three years to get an idea of how the weather is statistically looking like at your destination. Of course, statistics don’t give you a 100 percent certainty that the weather will be the same again, but the probability is higher.