Built for the 1972 Summer Olympics, Munich's Olympiapark is an 85-hectare park in the northern Milbertshofen-Am Hart district that has evolved into one of the city's most-used public spaces. The park combines landmark architecture, a concert venue, recreational green space, and one of Munich's best panoramic viewpoints, all accessible within 15 minutes of the city centre by U-Bahn.
Located in Munich
Olympiapark is Munich's most ambitious piece of post-war urban design: a former airfield transformed into an Olympic campus that, more than five decades later, still anchors daily life in the city's north. Where many Olympic sites around the world have faded into disuse, Munich's has kept reinventing itself, hosting everything from Champions League finals to open-air rock concerts while remaining a free, open park on any given Tuesday afternoon.
Olympiapark sits in Munich's northern Milbertshofen-Am Hart district, roughly 4 kilometres north of Marienplatz. The park occupies the former Oberwiesenfeld, a flat glacial plain that served as a military parade ground, early aviation field, and wartime rubble dump before being reimagined entirely for the 1972 Games. That layered past is literally visible: the Olympiaberg, the park's artificial hill, is built from millions of cubic metres of World War II rubble.
The park covers approximately 85 hectares and is bounded loosely by Spiridon-Louis-Ring to the south and east, with the Mittlerer Ring (Landshuter Allee) forming a western boundary accessible via the Sapporobogen interchange. To the immediate north and east, the BMW headquarters and BMW Welt sit just across Georg-Brauchle-Ring, making this corner of Munich feel like a planned district of its own: part sports campus, part corporate showcase, part public park.
The park connects naturally to the broader northern arc of Munich. Schwabing, the city's historically creative quarter, lies to the southeast, and Maxvorstadt's museum district is about 2 kilometres south. The Englischer Garten begins just east of Schwabing. Olympiapark therefore works well as a northern anchor on any itinerary that moves through the cultural belt of central Munich.
The mood here shifts dramatically depending on when you arrive. On a weekday morning, the park is almost entirely local: dog walkers circling the Olympiasee, cyclists cutting through on the way to work, older residents doing laps on the paths that wind around the hill. The water is still, the tented roof of the Olympic Stadium catches the light in geometric patterns, and the whole site feels less like a tourist attraction and more like an unusually well-designed city park.
By early afternoon on sunny days, the atmosphere shifts toward leisure. Students from the nearby universities spread out on the slopes of the Olympiaberg. Families rent pedal boats on the lake. The paths around the stadium fill with joggers. The architectural signature of the park, the sweeping acrylic tent roof designed by Frei Otto and Günter Behnisch, casts rippling shadows across the grass below, one of those genuinely rare moments where ambitious architecture actually improves a public space rather than overwhelming it.
Concert and event evenings transform the park entirely. When the Olympic Stadium or the Theatron amphitheatre hosts a major show, the approaches fill with crowds moving from Olympiazentrum station toward the gates. The Theatron, a semi-circular open-air stage on the lake's western edge, hosts free music festivals during summer, meaning on certain weekends the park becomes one of the liveliest outdoor venues in Bavaria without charging a single euro for entry.
ℹ️ Good to know
The park is open year-round and free to enter. Individual venues within it, including the swimming hall, charge separate admission fees.
The Olympic Tower (Olympiaturm) is the park's most visible landmark and, when open, one of the best viewpoints in Munich. At 291 metres, its viewing platform and revolving restaurant (around 185 metres) offer a clear 360-degree panorama that stretches south to the Alps on clear days, north across the flat Bavarian plain, and down over the tent-roofed stadium below. Important for 2026 visitors: the tower has been closed for a full renovation since 1 June 2024 and is expected to reopen in late 2027 (Q4 2027). The observation deck cannot be visited during your trip, but the surrounding park remains fully open.
The Allianz Arena gets more attention as a football venue, but the Olympic Stadium remains a significant piece of sports history. Note that the stadium has been closed for a major renovation since September 2025 and is expected to remain shut for roughly two to three years, so stadium tours and the tent-roof climb are unavailable during your visit; the park and surrounding architecture are still fully accessible from the outside. For a deeper read on what happened here in 1972, the park connects directly to one of modern history's most studied events: the 1972 Munich Olympics, including the tragedy that overshadowed the Games.
The Olympic Swimming Hall and the Olympic Hall (Olympiahalle) still function as active sports and event venues. The swimming hall is used for public swimming on selected days, which makes it one of the more unusual ways to use an Olympic facility as a tourist. The Olympiahalle regularly hosts concerts, ice shows, and sporting events; check the Olympiapark's official event calendar before your visit.
The Olympiaberg itself rewards a short climb. At around 56 metres, it is modest by any measure, but the views across the tent roof, the lake, and the stadium below are excellent for photography. On the north side of the hill, you can see the BMW towers framed against the park, one of those accidental compositions that makes Munich's northern district feel coherent in a way that most Olympic neighbourhoods do not.
💡 Local tip
Combine Olympiapark with a visit to BMW Welt and the BMW Museum just across Georg-Brauchle-Ring. Both are within easy walking distance of the Olympiazentrum U-Bahn exit and make for a natural half-day pairing.
If you are planning a full day in this part of Munich, the BMW Welt and BMW Museum sit immediately adjacent to the park's northern boundary and are worth factoring into your route.
Eating options within the park itself are functional rather than exceptional. The rotating restaurant inside the Olympic Tower is closed while the tower is under renovation (expected reopening late 2027), so during your visit you are limited to the kiosks near the lake and stadium and seasonal food stalls that appear during festivals and concerts. On a regular day, the lake-side kiosks sell the expected range of pretzels, grilled sausages, and cold drinks. Prices are reasonable by Munich standards, and the setting, sitting on the grass with the tent roof overhead, compensates for the lack of culinary ambition.
For proper sit-down meals, the surrounding streets north of the park offer a more local selection. The Neuhausen neighbourhood to the southwest along Nymphenburger Strasse has a denser concentration of cafés, bakeries, and mid-range restaurants serving standard Bavarian and international food. This is also where you will find supermarkets and boulangeries useful for assembling a picnic to bring back into the park, which is one of the most pleasant ways to spend an afternoon here.
During major events, food trucks and temporary stalls appear around the stadium gates, typically offering a broader range of options. The Theatron festival periods in particular bring a market-like atmosphere to the western lakeside. If you are attending an evening concert, eating before you arrive from nearby Schwabing or the Neuhausen area is generally faster and cheaper than relying on in-park catering.
For a broader sense of where and what to eat across Munich, the Munich eating guide covers the full city. For specifically Bavarian dishes worth seeking out, the Bavarian food guide gives useful context on what to order and where.
The most direct connection is U-Bahn line U3, which stops at Olympiazentrum, directly adjacent to the park's eastern entrance near the BMW complex. Line U8 also serves Olympiazentrum. From Marienplatz, the U3 journey is short. From Munich Hauptbahnhof, take the U1 or U2 one stop to Sendlinger Tor and change to U3 northbound, or take the U3 directly from Marienplatz. The station exit deposits you on Georg-Brauchle-Ring, from which the stadium and park entrance are visible within a short walk west.
Tram and bus options provide additional access points around the park's perimeter. Services stop near different edges of the park, including Olympiapark West, Petuelring, Spiridon-Louis-Ring, Olympiasee, Olympiaberg, and Olympia-Eissportzentrum, making it possible to enter the park from different sides depending on which venue you are heading to. This is particularly useful during major events when Olympiazentrum gets congested.
The park itself is well-suited to cycling. Munich has an extensive bike infrastructure, and the routes from Schwabing and Maxvorstadt into the park are straightforward. The Munich cycling guide covers the city's bike network in detail. Within the park, paths are wide and clearly marked, and the flat terrain around the lake is accessible to all levels.
⚠️ What to skip
On concert nights and major event days, Olympiazentrum station can become very crowded immediately after events end. If you want to avoid the crush, walk 10 minutes south to Georg-Brauchle-Ring and take the tram, or wait 30 to 45 minutes in the park before heading to the U-Bahn.
All public transport in Munich operates under the unified MVV ticket system. A single ticket can cover U-Bahn, tram, and bus connections depending on zones and ticket type. For a full overview of how to navigate Munich by public transport, the getting around Munich guide has current zone information and fare details.
Olympiapark is not a primary accommodation district. There are no hotel clusters within the park itself, and the immediately surrounding streets are predominantly residential. That said, staying in this area makes sense for specific types of travellers: those attending multi-day events at the stadium or Olympiahalle, visitors focused on BMW Welt, or anyone who wants to be away from the noise and tourist density of Altstadt without sacrificing transit access.
The Neuhausen and Schwabing neighbourhoods within 1 to 2 kilometres of the park have hotels ranging from budget-oriented options near Petuelring to quieter mid-range properties along residential streets. Both areas have good U-Bahn connections into the city centre and are generally calmer at night than the hotel zones around Hauptbahnhof or Marienplatz.
For travellers whose main interest is the broader city, staying in Altstadt, Maxvorstadt, or Schwabing and day-tripping to Olympiapark is usually more practical. The Munich accommodation guide gives a full breakdown of which neighbourhoods suit which types of trip.
The park is open year-round and free to enter. Individual venues, the swimming hall, Sea Life, and some stadium tours, charge separate fees that are subject to change; verify current prices directly with Olympiapark München before your visit. The park's own website (olympiapark.de) maintains an up-to-date events calendar, which is essential reading if you are visiting in summer when the programme changes weekly.
The site is family-friendly across all seasons. In summer the lake and hill attract picnicking families; in winter the Olympiaberg occasionally has enough snow for sledding, and the ice rink at the Olympia-Eissportzentrum (adjacent to the main park) opens for public skating. The park is well-lit along main paths after dark and on concert nights there is a strong security and stewarding presence.
Olympiapark sits within a broader northern Munich itinerary that pairs naturally with Schwabing to the southeast. For travellers with three days in Munich, the 3-day Munich itinerary shows how to fit the park into a logical route through the city.
The BMW Museum sits beside the company's iconic four-cylinder headquarters near Olympiapark, tracing over a century of automotive and motorcycle design through original vehicles, interactive displays, and striking architecture. It rewards car enthusiasts and design lovers alike, but knowing what to expect beforehand makes the visit significantly better.
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