Guide to Visiting Dachau Concentration Camp

Dachau is one of the concentration camps erected during the Second World War. Today, it has been converted into a museum to honour the victims and to remember the horrors committed during this historic period with the aim of never repeating them. Read on to find out about the different options for visiting Dachau.

The best option

Dachau Concentration Camp Day Trip from Munich

Learn about Germany's history with this expert-guided tour to Dachau.

For about 5 hours you can visit the cells and gas chambers that were used in the Dachau concentration camp, the closest concentration camp to Munich, which you can reach with this guided tour with train transport included.

From £36 at Hellotickets

Touring a concentration camp as important as Dachau in Munich at your own pace is all well and good. But it's certainly not complete without a specialised guide to put everything that happened there into context. That's why I recommend you book a guided train tour of Dachau, which will explain how the prisoners lived while you visit the barracks or the memorials that were erected there.

Moreover, the comfort of the train that takes you directly to the concentration camp means you won't have to look for other ways to get there.

Recommended if... You prefer to have the history behind this concentration camp explained to you in order to better understand its importance.

If you're staying in Munich, it's easy to get to the remains of the Dachau concentration camp, as it's only 13km from the city, a half-hour drive by car and about 20 minutes by train. You can get there and back in a day and you have the option of doing it on your own or as part of an organised tour.

Note that admission to the Dachau camp museum is free, so an organised tour will provide you with transport from Munich and the services of a specialised guide who will accompany you on your tour of the camp. Considering the enormous historical significance of this place, my recommendation is that you take the tour with someone specialised to help you put into context everything you are seeing.

The Dachau concentration camp tour is considered to be one of the most popular guided tours for all visitors to Munich. With the guidance of a guide, the tour of the Dachau camp is a history lesson that you will hardly forget once you have finished your trip.

What this tour consists of

You can book your place on this tour online by selecting the day you would like to visit. If you change your mind later or if you have any problems, don't worry, you can cancel free of charge up to 24 hours before the scheduled date of the tour.

This experience is available in English and Spanish and lasts for half a day. You will have lunch in Munich and spend the afternoon in the city. The procedure is as follows: you will meet your guide early in the morning near Munich's main train station, from where the local train will take you to Dachau.

Itinerary

Once you arrive at Dachau station, a bus will pick you and your group up and take you to the concentration camp memorial museum. Once there, your guide will show you around the camp for approximately three and a half hours. At the end of the tour you will return to Munich by train.

Remember that children under the age of 14 are not allowed to visit the camp and please note that although photography is not forbidden, it is a place where respect is always requested when taking photographs.

Make no mistake: a tour of the Dachau concentration camp may not be suitable for the most sensitive visitors because of the connotations of this place. In fact, children under the age of 14 are not allowed to enter. This does not mean that the experience is not recommendable from both a historical and human point of view, but it is advisable that you know what you are going to see there.

The tour is organised to give a historical overview of the entire history of the camps, including how and for what purpose the first camps were set up, how many of them developed into what the Nazis called "the final solution", how the prisoners arrived at the camp and how they were distributed, how they were punished and the way of life they received there and, finally, how in 1945 this and other camps throughout Europe were liberated.

Areas included in the visit

The Dachau concentration camp is about half an hour's drive from Munich and about 25 minutes on the S2 commuter train which runs regularly every day from Munich Central Station. Please note that if you arrive at Dachau train station you will have to take the 726 bus to the camp.

As for the opening hours, the Dachau concentration camp is open daily from 9am to 5pm, but since admission is free, you may encounter a high number of visitors especially on weekends, so I recommend choosing the early morning hours.

Once you get there, you can book a guided tour or rent an audio guide in several languages if you haven't booked a guided tour from Munich. The tour will take about three and a half hours, so I recommend comfortable shoes and clothes.

The most important thing to remember during the visit is that you are in a place with a very hard history behind it. My advice is that, out of respect, you should avoid taking photos as much as possible and maintain a respectful attitude towards the victims and other visitors.

The Dachau camp and most of the remaining camps in Europe are a history lesson in themselves and are best enjoyed with a guide who will explain the details of how they were built, what happened and how, at the end of the war, the prisoners were released and the remaining officers were tried.

If you choose to organise your own visit to Dachau I recommend that you do your own research before visiting the camp and purchase an audio guide at the entrance for around 3 euros. Entrance is free and to avoid crowds it is best to go on weekdays and early in the morning. You can expect to spend around three hours visiting the whole complex.

How to get there

As for how to get to the Dachau concentration camp from Munich, if you don't have a transport contract, the best option is the local train. The train is the S2 and departs from Munich Central Station. Each journey can cost around 6 euros, but you can buy a one-day tourist pass which will cost around 8 euros and will pay for the return journey to Dachau alone.

After about 25 minutes you will arrive at Dachau station and take bus 726 towards Saubachsiedlung which will drop you directly at the camp gate.

The Dachau concentration camp tour is not the only one you can do from Munich. A very popular excursion that I recommend you include in your trip and whose character contrasts greatly with the harshness of the Dachau camp is a visit to Neuschwanstein Castle.

This castle is one of the most famous in Bavaria and it is said that it inspired Disney to create the famous Sleeping Beauty castle. Moreover, the surrounding landscape is an ideal contrast for a change of scenery and relaxation after remembering the horrors of the Dachau camps. Here is a link to my article on How to Visit Neuschwanstein Castle.