Englischer Garten

My favorite place to go when the suns out for a picnic, or a great place to also go for a walk when it is over cast. It is dog friendly which is great, and offers a relaxed out of city feeling.

Big natural park in the city. It's a nice place to get away from the traffic and city life. There's a lot of private areas as well as two popular biergartens and food courts with relatively cheap and good German food and bevies. The maps and signage could be seriously improved, though.

Comment: Lord Rumford and the Englischer Garten or English Garden…and how it all began.
Lord Rumford, who worked and lived in Munich, convinced the lord under whose jurisdiction his property was, to convert his hunting ground in the city into an English lawn with various facilities surrounding it.
To this day, rulers and ordinary people alike owe their Sunday ‘pilgrimage’ to the Englischer Garten to him.
This was the first urban public park in Europe, which opened its doors to private individuals, to Joe public as it were. Situated in the heart of Munich, its great expanse and greenery exudes peace. The people of Munich, be they rich or poor, love this expansive park. The well to do, tend to dine in the sophisticated ambiance of the Seehaus Restaurant on the banks of the grounds’ Kleinhesseloher Lake.
Others take the simpler approach and sprawl themselves out on the lawns with a sandwich, while some make their way to the massive beer garden surrounding the Chinesischer Turm or Chinese tower, which is actually an old wooden pagoda, and is definitely one of Munich’s favourite and biggest beer gardens. It can accommodate at least 3,000 visitors at a time and the prices are far more reasonable than any in the area, which definitely doesn’t do any harm to its popularity.
Anyone would feel at ease here, whether you just want to dangle your feet in the water, take your dog for a walk (which is still allowed), or whether you want to be driven through the area by cycle rickshaw. And, if you happen to be a student from the nearby university, you’ll be forgiven for bringing along your books.
You’ll still find old-fashioned fellow visitors here holding hands while taking in the fresh air.
This huge garden complex is accessible from just about any part of Schwabing, there is no cost involved, what you’re getting is nature at its best, unless you count the Chinesischer Turm, and a Japanese Garden. All in all a beautiful and well looked after establishment.
The park’s value in terms of the relaxation it provides the residents of Munich’s inner city is virtually incalculable, which I’m sure anyone living adjacent to it will bear testimony to. What is worth mentioning is that a remarkable number of citizens make full use of it and visit it frequently. Some even do so excessively.