Munich Tourist Traps
Posted by admin | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on 11-05-2011
By Yuli Linssen Kaminitz, guest blogger from EasyToBook.com
Munich, Germany is a city filled with culture, green parks, amazing shopping experience and vibrant nightlife. When people think about Germany, they mostly associate it with another capital which is of course, Berlin. However, no matter how popular Berlin is, Munich certainly doesn’t fall flat when you compare both of these interesting German cities. Munich is totally suitable and tailored for tourist’s needs and desires; unfortunately, sometimes the over awareness for the tourist’s cash, creates a lot of tourist traps and overpriced places. In order for you to stay on the safe side, check out the list below to learn about the most common Munich tourist traps. Just don’t forget to enjoy the city and try not to get too paranoid when choosing a spot to visit, eat or
shop at.
1. Oktoberfest -
For those of you who are not familiar with the concept, the Oktoberfest is a three- week festival which occurs in Munich once a year (during end of September- beginning of October). This legendary festival is basically a one big fiesta which includes a lot of partying and way too much beer. The festival started in 1810 and its intention was to celebrate the wedding of the great prince of Munich. Even though many years have passed since the famous royal wedding, the citizens of Munich thought it would just be a shame to quit with this fun party and quickly decided to keep the festival as a yearly tradition. So far it all sounds pretty nice no? Well, wait until you actually get there: the Oktoberfest is packed with drank people, overpriced drinking stalls, horrible food and not so much moving space. Aside from that, Oktoberfest’s nearby hotels get fully booked extremely quick and that gives these hotels reasons to sell their rooms for ridiculously high prices.
2. Marienplatz-
Marienplatz is probably one of the busiest areas in Munich. Strolling around there you will be able to find plenty of clothing shops, different restaurants local bars and small cafes. In the Middle Ages Marienplatz used to be the center for everything that was important for the people; government events, sport tournaments, huge markets and more. Today, the Marienplatz is mostly an extremely hectic location with too many people and too many tourist traps. Pick pockets, restaurants with bad service, expensive rickshaw’s drives and other elements, all make the Marienplatz not the most inviting or special spot in Munich.
3. Money Exchange-
There are plenty of money exchange spots around Munich and some of them are not as reliable as the others. When you wish to buy some Euro’s there are few tips that will help you avoid rip-off situations:
- Don’t exchange money in places that just don’t seem right. Exchange counters inside clothing shops, no currencies description on the wall or “too good to be true” rate cases, are all best to skip.
- Ask at your hotel for a good advice on which exchanges shops around town are known to have good rates.
- If you have the chance, always try to exchange your money at the bank, (“Bank of America” for example, is a good choice).
- Exchanging money at the airport is always safe and mostly means good rates.
4. Sea Life Center-
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Sea Life centers and different aquariums around the world are considered to be a very popular attraction always. Whenever the weather gets cloudy, once your children look a bit board or just when you feel like exploring some beautiful nature, this activity always seems like the best possible choice. However, no matter how nice and educative it is to visit a sea life center, it is always overpriced and many times full with too many people, an aspect that ruins a bit the fun of it. The Sea Life Center in Munich is no different than that; the entrance fee somehow manages to top almost any other nature park/aquarium entrance fee in Europe, there are almost no coral reefs or exotic fish in the showrooms and basically according to past visitors the Sea Life Centre falls flat compare to amazing Munich zoo. Save your money and time and just go to the zoo, not only the entrance fee is cheaper, it is also larger and much more impressive.
As you can see, there is a way to avoid different tourist traps. You just need to do some homework prior to your holiday and ask around some local people on where are the best places to go. The most important thing is to enjoy the city as much as you can and always remember one thing: just because it was mentioned on your city guide book, it doesn’t mean it worth a visiting.
To book your hotel in Munich, visit EasyToBook.com