The Hofgarten: the part of the Residenz that costs nothing

I grew up two tram stops from Odeonsplatz and I still cut through this garden rather than walking round it, which is the most honest recommendation I can give it. The Hofgarten sits behind the palace, it has no ticket, no gate charge and no turnstile, and it is not inside any of the three admissions sold at this address. You can walk into it having bought nothing and having planned nothing.

Free, and not on any ticket. The Court Garden costs nothing. The palace administration’s own tariff lists it at no charge, and it is not part of the Residence Museum ticket, the Treasury ticket or the Cuvilliés Theatre ticket — it is simply open. The one timetable published for it is the fountain machinery, which runs from April to October, daily between 10 am and 2 pm. At its centre is the Dianatempel. Nothing on this page is something you have to buy (what does cost money at this address).

AdmissionFree

On any of the three ticketsNo

Fountain machineryApril – October

Machinery hoursDaily 10 am – 2 pm

At its centreThe Dianatempel

ReservationThere is nothing to reserve

The Dianatempel pavilion at the centre of the Hofgarten in Munich — The Dianatempel at the centre of the Hofgarten, which costs nothing to walk into. Photograph by AuHaidhausen / CC BY 4.0

It is not part of the palace ticket, and that is good news

This gets stated the wrong way round constantly, usually as though the garden were a bonus thrown in with admission. It is not in any of the three tickets, because it does not need to be in anything. There is no admission to be included in. A visitor who buys nothing at all can spend an afternoon here, and a visitor who has just paid for all three parts of the palace has paid nothing extra for the garden either.

The practical consequence is about timing. The museum and the Treasury stop selling tickets an hour before they close, at five in the summer season and four in winter, and they shut an hour after that (both timetables). The garden is not on that clock. Arriving at this address late in the day with no chance of a museum visit is not a wasted trip; it is a walk through the Hofgarten to Odeonsplatz.

The one timetable out here

The operator publishes hours for the Court Garden fountain machinery: April to October, daily between 10 am and 2 pm. That is a narrower window than most people expect and it is worth knowing if the fountains are the reason you are coming, because the middle of the day is exactly when a lot of visitors are inside the museum.

No other opening or closing time for the garden itself appears on the pages this site works from, so no other time appears here. If you want a guarantee about the garden at ten at night, I do not have one to give you and neither does anybody quoting this page.

What is free at the Munich Residenz

People arrive at this question from a wider search — what is free in Munich — and most pages answering it are a list somebody assembled from other lists. Here is the part I can actually source, which is the part about this address:

Costs nothing here

The Hofgarten. No ticket, no gate charge, not inside any of the three admissions
The audio guide. Free with the museum and Treasury ticket, in nine languages: German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese and Arabic
Admission under 18. Complimentary, in the operator’s own word, at all three parts
Admission for students over 18 holding a valid card from a general or vocational school
The cloakroom. Free and supervised, which is where your rucksack is going anyway
Photography and video for personal use, without flash and without a tripod

Costs money here

The Residence Museum, the Treasury and the Cuvilliés Theatre, which are the three ticketed parts
A live guide, which is what every listing on this site is actually selling
An evening concert in one of the halls, which is a seat and not an admission
The annual and 14-day Bavarian passes, whose price this site cannot print because the operator publishes none

That list is deliberately short. I am not going to pad it out with free things elsewhere in the city that I have not checked this year, because a page that mixes sourced facts with remembered ones makes both look the same (the tariff, and who pays nothing).

The listing with the garden in its title

One guided listing is called the Residenz Palace and Hofgarten Skip-the-Line Tour, and it is worth being straight about what that means. The garden costs nothing, so the garden is not what you are paying for. What its own inclusions name is a guided tour of the Residenz Palace Museum, a licensed official Munich guide, skip-the-line tickets, and tickets to the Treasury and the Cuvilliés Theatre — which makes it the one listing in our catalogue whose ticket reaches all three parts of the address. The Hofgarten is the walk at the end of it, and a good one, and free either way (the guided tour, reviewed).

The version of this visit that costs nothing

If you have half an hour and no ticket, come up at Odeonsplatz, walk down through the Hofgarten to the palace, look at the Residenzstraße front from the outside and go on into the old town. It costs nothing, it takes in the free half of this address, and it tells you whether you want to come back and pay for the inside of it. How to reach the block.

The guided one

Check dates for the guided visit that ends in the Hofgarten

Free cancellation up to 24 hours before departure on most tours — book now, decide later.

Around the garden: how to reach this block, what is open when inside it, whether the ticketed parts are worth buying, and what the museum route contains.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Hofgarten in Munich free?

Yes. The Court Garden costs nothing, has no gate charge and is not part of the Residence Museum ticket, the Treasury ticket or the Cuvilliés Theatre ticket. The palace administration’s own tariff lists it at no charge. You can walk through it having bought nothing.

What are the Hofgarten opening times?

The only timetable the palace administration publishes out there is for the fountain machinery, which runs from April to October, daily between 10 am and 2 pm. No opening or closing time for the garden itself appears on the pages this site works from, so none is printed here.

What is free at the Munich Residenz?

The Court Garden, the audio guide in nine languages, admission for everyone under 18, admission for students over 18 with a valid card from a general or vocational school, the supervised cloakroom, and photography for personal use without flash or tripod. What costs money is admission to the three ticketed parts. The tariff.

Is the Hofgarten included in the Residenz ticket?

No, and it never was. It is not inside any of the three admissions because there is no admission to it at all. A visitor who has bought the ticket for all three parts has paid nothing extra for the garden, and a visitor who has bought nothing can walk in just the same.

What is the temple in the middle of the Hofgarten?

The Dianatempel, at the centre of the garden. It is the pavilion in the photograph on this page, taken by a Wikimedia Commons contributor and credited under it. Like the rest of the garden, it costs nothing to walk up to.