Germany's most beautiful city is a thriving centre for art and culture with fine museums and galleries and a wonderful opera house. Legendary Bavarian hospitality can be enjoyed in the many excellent restaurants and beer halls. Marienplatz, where the main pedestrianised streets converge, is the undisputed centre of the city.

Many of the city's main attractions are in the immediate vicinity, so sightseeing can easily be done on foot or by hopping on and off trams.

Worth seeing are the 16th-century Michaelskirche, with its imposing barrel-vaulted interior, and the Asamkirche, considered a masterpiece of south German Rococo architecture. The oldest part of the city is the area to the east of Marienplatz, including the Alter Hof (the original royal residence) and the world-famous Hofbräuhaus. The Residenz complex lies to the north.

The wide boulevard and grand palatial architecture of Ludwigstrasse and Leopoldstrasse stretches north of Odeonsplatz to the Siegestor.