The Englischer Garten is an all-season recreation park. Winter brings out cross-country skiers, skaters, snowmen and snowwomen builders, and the paths are plowed for year-round running and bicycling. The colors of autumn are best viewed, perhaps, by standing in on of the open fields to capture that panoramic view of the surrounding trees. And park lovers don’t shy away from spring rains. I love to wander through parks in the rain (that’s “rain,” not “lightning-bolt-dodging”), listening to the drops pelt the umbrella, or if I’m daring, a hat and rain slicker. Who doesn’t enjoy a rainy day in the park? (Well, lots of people, which means you’ll find solitude.)

Food and Drinks in Englischer Garten
Englischer Garten is a huge park, and leaving it to eat lunch means a long walk and, basically, ending your park visit. The developers have found a better alternative to letting hotdog carts feed its visitors.

The Biergarten sits at the heart of Englischer Garten. If you find yourself on a path that doesn’t lead there, just look for the Chinese tower. The cafeteria-style layout lets you pick’n’chose among a dozen or more meat dishes, vegetables, and salads. When you buy your beer or wine (of course there’s some good German reislings and spateleses), you’re given a plastic coin. Keep it. This is your deposit token for the beer stein. A few specialty-food carts sit outside the cafeteria, including a smoked sardine and whitefish wagon. Otherwise, you’ll find an ice cream tent and another offering bagged salty snacks & water and soft drinks as you leave the main area.

The Neues Seehaus is on the eastern bank of the Kleinhesseloher See, a short walk from the boathouse. It has both a beer garden with cafeteria, and an indoor/outdoor restaurant. The beer garden/cafeteria serves the tables near the water’s edge (don’t forget your tokens!). The restaurant is set back from the water, but still has a nice view from its outdoor tables. Both eateries are a good value and quality, as park food goes, and the beer is less expensive than you’ll find in an Old Town brauhaus.

Outside Englischer Garten
What you find mostly around Englischer Garten are residential neighborhoods. If you’re staying in Munich for an extended visit, plan on going to university here, or are thinking about moving to Munich, housing around the park would be a good choice. Restaurants are plentiful, shopping is nearby, and the area is quiet.

As for tourist-sites and hotels, you need to cross over to Old Town, where the architecture and museums around Odeonsplatz, and the historic Marienplatz, are central destinations for tourism. You can find a list of tourist sites at the Munich city page.

Directions to Englischer Garten
The four-square-kilometer park is northeast of Odeonplatz and Marienplatz, just across Prinzregenten Street and the parkway that surrounds Munich’s Old Town. Since the Old Town is a walking—and walkable—area of Munich, you’re never far from Englischer Garten.

If you stay outside central Munich and have a car, the Isar-ring takes you through the northernmost end of the park. Iffland Strasse runs north-south along the park’s eastern border. Koniginstrasse borders the park’s western perimeter, where a high concentration of residential living offers possibly the best parking options. A large parking garage sits at the park’s southern entrance, and a small lot near the Biergarten can be entered from Tivolistrasse on the east.

(return to Englischer Garten’s main page) 

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