And the Winner Is…

After 7 months of travel I believe we have found the winner of  “The Most Family Friendly City”.

Munich.

No doubt the rest of Germany could measure up just as well, which could well make Germany the best family destination in Europe!

So what’s so special about Munich, you ask?  Well for starters, it’s cheap for families.

We stayed at the A&O Hostel on Arnulfstrasse (there is another near the Hauptbahnhof, as well as throughout Germany).  The good news is that kids under 18 stay for free at these hostels!  That means that we stayed in a 6 bed dorm room with ensuite or a 5 bed family room with ensuite and fridge, for €25 each adult! 

Then there’s the public transport.  Kids are classed as aged 6 to 16.  Under 5’s are free.  There’s also a “partner” ticket that covers up to 5 people who travel together (2 kids are classed as 1 “person”), which lets you take as many buses, trams or trains in the inner city as you like.  €22.50 got us a 3 day pass for all of us.

Then we discovered that Europe Tours were here.  We first came across these guys in Jerusalem, where we did one of their free walking tours.  They also offered a number of great paid tours we would have loved to do but they were just too far outside our budget.  Not so in Munich!  Kids under 14 were free on all their tours!

We did the brilliant free walking tour again and then also went out to Dachau as well as the all day tour to the Neuschwanstein Castle.

We splurged one night and ate out at the Augustiner Brau Haus (€82 for the 6 of us including dessert.. and beer) but we also had the occasional take-away bratwurst for a mere €2.50 or shock horror.. Burger King.  The reason being that in Munich, kids meals are free with every “king whopper value meal”.

Much to our delight, there were also wonderful supermarkets throughout the city – conveniently for us there was one right next door to the hostel.  Prices are way cheaper than Australia – including fruit & vegies.

We stayed in Munich for just over a week and our budget was just that little more healthy.

The other thing that we love about Munich (and Germany), that we think is severely lacking in other countries, is how organised it is. 

The Hauptbahnhof (central station) is so well set out it’s impossible to get lost.  None of this following signs that go nowhere like in Rome.  The tourist information centre staff who can in fact speak fluent English, are happy to help you and try their best to do just that!  Instead of being lost and stressed, Munich starts you off being organised and in control! 

Germany is also green.  Apparently one of the most environmentally friendly countries in Europe – a claim I’d easily believe.  We saw so many farm houses and barns covered in solar panels – in fact we even saw whole fields covered in solar panels.  Wind turbines dot the horizon, bins are available for recycling in public areas, machines give you credit for bringing back your plastic bottles and my all time favourite – recycling. 

McDonalds and Burger King don’t have bins.  Instead you slide your tray with all your rubbish on it into a big holder.  We couldn’t work out why they didn’t have bins!  Then we saw staff out the back sorting the rubbish off each tray and making sure they got everything that was recyclable.  Love it!

Trains run on time, the streets are clean, the people are friendly and quite a large percentage speak English. 

Really.. what more can you ask for.  It’s a great start, anyway..