Heart of Munich Tours (2025)

21/03/2025

This morning I had a really fun private city tour with these lovely people from Montana, USA.

It was a work trip. Turns out they are dentists going to a conference in Cologne, but stopped for a few days in Munich first.

I had such a nice time that I ended doing a 3 hour tour. My tour times are never strict on a private tour anyway. I often go a bit longer as there is so much to talk about and see!

Today I learned that Montana has a great coffee culture, they are known for their fly fishing and of course the famous Yellowstone national park.

Thanks again for joining and supporting local.

Jake Slisz (Jax)
Owner
Heart of Munich tours

- - - ❤️🥨 - - -

16/03/2025

After many requests over the last 3 years, we’re finally starting our own Third Reich group tour.

For 2025, we are running the tour from May till December, starting with every Monday, Thursday and Saturday at 10am.

We want to create an environment for open discussion and questions, so we’ve decided to make the groups smaller. Therefore, the maximum group size will be 20 people.

Those aged 12 - 17 will receive a discount and children under the age of 12 can join the tour for free!

As an introduction offer, the tours will be discounted for the next few months, so reserve now to take advantage of this.

The idea of doing the tour in the morning means you can compliment it with joining our free city tour in the afternoon at 2.15pm. The Third Reich tour will finish about 12.30pm, giving you time for a nice lunch and then the afternoon to explore the rest of Munich’s history on our fun and informative free tour.

All the best,

Jake Slisz (Jax)
Owner
Heart of Munich yours

- - - ❤️🥨 - - -

15/03/2025

Did you know that we also offer private tours? This can be a great option if you have a large group or would like a custom tour plan.

This is perfect for school and corporate business trips to Munich or if you want a small private experience with your friends and family.

We currently offer the following tours as private experiences:

Private city tour
Private Third Reich tour
Private Dachau memorial site tour
Private Munich suburbs tour

Tours can be customised, so if you want to do a city tour but stop and do a beer trial, we can organise that for you! You’re always welcome to make requests ad we’ll do our best to adapt the tour for you. Here are some benefits of booking a private tour with us:

- Tour start times are flexible
- Groups over 10 people receive a discount
- We can organise hotel pick up for you
- You’ll get a list of recommendations for Munich

Interested in booking a private tour with us? Send me a message or use the contact sheet on my website. (Click the link in the bio).

Jake Slisz (Jax)
Owner
Heart of Munich tours

- - - ❤️🥨 - - -

14/03/2025

If you are looking for the best introduction to the wonderful city of Munich, then why not join one of our free city tours?

The tours run daily at 10.45am and 2.15pm from Marienplatz, the heart and center of Munich’s old town.

We have the highest rated free tour in Munich with an average rating of 5 stars and hundreds of reviews across platforms such as Google and Tripadvisor.

We are known for making the tours informative, fun and interactive. We want you to have a good time and feel involved in the learning experience. We like to tell stories as much as teach history!

The concept is simple, it’s free to reserve a space. We’ll do our best to make sure you have a great experience during the tour and at the end, you decide how much you want to pay. Simple! It’s performance based and we do rely on the honesty and trust of our guests to pay fairly to support our local, independent tour company and guides.

To reserve a space on our daaily free tour, just click the link in the bio and we’ll see you soon in Munich!

Jake Slisz (Jax)
Owner
Heart of Munich tours

- - - ❤️🥨 - - -

08/02/2025

Yesterday, I had a super fun private tour. The group was a mix of journalists from around the world. They were invited by Adidas to Munich for the launch of new golf equipment.

The timeframe was tight. We only had about 75 minutes to do a whirlwind tour of Munich.

It was a lovely sunny winter day and there was a relaxed and fun vibe amongst the group.

It’s great fun, being challenged to create a custom tour for those who want to book a private tour!

If you would like to book a private tour with me then send me a DM!

Jake Slisz (Jax)
Owner
Heart of Munich tours

07/01/2025

2024 is over and what a year it was for Heart of Munich tours.

We are at almost 600 reviews on google at 5⭐️’s.

On Tripadvisor, we are currently rated 2nd of 370 for tours in Munich. Amazing! 5⭐️’s as well.

Now, I didn’t think we would be busier than 2023, as it was the first full tourism year after covid but somehow we were a bit busier. We trialed two guides on some Saturday mornings and ran more free tours during Oktoberfest and during the Xmas markets, all with great success! 🙏

In 2025, one of my guides Peter will be leaving 🥲 and although he’s only been with us just 1.5 years, he did a fantastic job! Anyone who took his tours, knows how passionate he was as a Bavarian local and had a great storytelling style. To replace him, I am currently training another local, so look out for him later in the year 😄.

In 2024, we discontinued the Private Neuschwanstein Castle tour but will replace it with a new group tour this year, so watch this space! 🤔

Last year we were invited to join the ‘Free tour community’, a not-for-profit organisation where you can book with local independent free tour companies. The idea is to promote each other and have a space where tourists can book directly, which cuts out the middle men. Companies like guruwalk and freetour.com are actually marketing companies and charge us a lot of money per person that we get through their websites. So, we are trying to slowly become more self sufficient.

SO, If you want to only support companies like mine directly, then head over to freetourcommunity.com.

To anyone who joined our tours or recommended us to others in 2024, thank you! Myself and my small team of guides are very grateful to be able to do what we love on a daily basis.

Good luck for 2025 and I’ll see you in Munich!

Jake Slisz (Jax)
Owner
Heart of Munich tours

- - - ❤️🥨 - - -

26/11/2024

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of meeting Ehsan, a tour guide from Tehran, Iran.

Ehsan is also a member of the ‘Free tour community’, which was set up a few years ago to create a place where you can only book with local, independent tour companies around the world.

They only choose one company per city, so I am proud to be heading up Munich.

The idea of the community is to help and promote each other.
If you book via the FTC then you know that your money goes directly to the guide and not through a third party website like guruwalk or Free tour (dot) com, who are just marketing companies that charge us a lot of money to advertise on their platforms.

We are trying to help tour companies move away from these platforms and set up our own place where there is no money involved. It’s just about supporting each other.

So, if you enjoyed my tour and want to continue supporting local then go to:

www.freetourcommunity.com

All the best,
Jake Slisz (Jax)
Owner
Heart of Munich tours

10/10/2024

Another year of Oktoberfest is complete.

It’s always the busiest time of the year for tourism in Munich with an estimated 7 million visitors each year.

This year we were able to run two city tours, twice a day and a lot of them were fully booked! We also had a lot of private tours as well.

It’s wonderful to see more people recommending my company to others ans an increase in organic visitors to the website. Word of mouth is one of the best ways we like to advertise. Just do the best job you can everyday and people will share their experience with others.

Once again, thank you to my amazing team for doing a great job This Oktoberfest and thank you to anyone you joined our tours. We appreciate it a lot!

All the best,

Jake Slisz (Jax)
Owner

- - 🥨❤️- -

21/02/2024

I finally did it! I am now fully licensed to run tours at Dachau concentration camp memorial site.

I’ve wanted to do this since 2019 but the memorial site rarely run their license course.

Luckily, my application was accepted and I got onto the 2022/23 course, which lasted 6 months!

I then spent the next 6 months researching, writing and rewriting my tour many times until I was happy with it.

This morning I did my test tour and got my licence straight after. I certainly feel like a combination of success and relief. I’ll be celebrating tonight for sure.

Today is also International tour guide day!

Now I’ll be making some small changes to my tour to make it even better and ready for the start of the tourism season in April.

All the best,
Jake Slisz (Jax)
Heart of Munich tours ❤️🥨

10/01/2024

Stolpersteine.

Translating to ‘stumbling stones’ and found all over Europe today. As of 2023 there are 100,000 stones installed.

Each one shares the name of a victim of national socialism. The project started in Germany back in 1992 and was originally set up as a memorial for individual Jewish people who were victims of the holocaust. This has since been expanded to other groups of people who was also victims during this time in history.

For many years the stones in Munich were installed in the floor but the decision was made to place future stones on private property. This meant they were now out of reach and view of the public.

The decision was made to put them back in the public sphere. I The new ones will now be placed on poles at eye height, so even easier to spot now.

Learning about the time of national socialism is an ongoing project in Germany. Changing and updating the ways we learn about it is a challenge. New things are discovered all the time and how to memorialise them is always the big question.

As a guide who teaches this part of Munich’s history, it’s also an ongoing process of learning and making changes to deliver the best possible tour. What I think is important, is making it easy to understand and cover not just what happened but understanding why and how it happened.

We always include one stop about this period on our daily free tours but if you would like to learn more than contact me to discuss booking a private 3 hour Third Reich tour.

All the best
Jake Slisz (Jax)
Owner
Heart of Munich tours

- - - - -
🇩🇪

01/01/2024

Happy new year everyone!

Another year done for us at Heart of Munich tours. I say ‘us’ because I now have a small team of 12 great local guides, who I am luckily enough to also call my friends!

2023 has been very busy for us as a business and this only looks to continue next year.

There’s been a few changes this year as well. Two guides are leaving us due to moving house/ going travelling. We wish Ben and Charlie all the best on their future ventures!

On the positive side, I have two new local guides to replace them, so look out for Peter and Alex in the future. They both come from Bavaria, so will have a unique local experience to share.

One thing that’s great about working in Munich as a guide is that the community is small. Everyone knows each other and we are all friendly. I’d like to wish our friends over at Explora Munich, Todo tours and Radius tours a great 2024 as well.

And lastly, you guys!

I am eternally grateful for all of you that decided to join one of our free tours or book a private tour with us this year and even take the time to leave a review. You are part of the reason for our continued success in this industry.

I wish you all a good start to 2024.

Jake Slisz (Jax)
Owner
Heart of Munich tours ❤️🥨

- - - - -

07/10/2023

Fun facts about Oktoberfest this year 🍺

It was super busy with 7.2 million visitors.

Obviously they were thirsty as 6.5 million litres of beer was consumed. This was less than 2019 and we saw a 50% increase in non alcoholic drinks sold.

This year there were water fountains installed. Around 100,000 litres of water was consumed.

Also, the lost property office logged 3,250 items! This was a bit less than last year.

115,600 people attempted to steal beer mugs 😂. Again this was less than last year.

The most popular souvenir were the silly chicken hats with the moving legs.

It was a fun Oktoberfest this year! Slowly the tourists have left Munich now. I’ll be enjoying the rest of October and then I‘m off to Mexico on holiday in November. Then we have our last busy period of the year…

…Christmas markets!!

- - - - -
🍻

27/09/2023

A full day of Private city tours.

On Monday I started the day with a big group from Australia 🇦🇺/ USA 🇺🇸. They were from two different continents because they were wedding guests! 💍

Jamie and George met at Oktoberfest in the past and decided to get married during the festival this year. How cute is that!

They’ll also be showing their guests a bit of Munich and the Bavarian countryside, including Neuschwanstein Castle 🏰. I wish them all the best in the future.

In the afternoon I had a lovely couple from Chicago 🇺🇸 aka the windy city. Brian had just completed the Berlin marathon and would be spending the next few days in Munich with his wife. We had a relaxed and easy going tour together and finished in time to watch the glockenspiel at 5pm.

A big thank you to everyone who booked a private tour with us in September! It’s been a busy but wonderful month with perfect weather 🌞

Enjoy the last 7 days of Oktoberfest everyone! 🎉

Jake Slisz (Jax)
Heart of Munich tours

- - - - - ❤️🥨

12/09/2023

Riesen Eiswelt/ Giant Ice world ❄️

I recently took a day trip for a friends birthday up into the Austrian Alps to explore an ice cave inside the mountains.

It took about two hours to drive there then you have to do some hiking and ride a VERY steep and kinda scary lift part way up the mountain. Once you arrive there is a lovely restaurant with incredible views!

Another short hike and you arrive at this big hole in the side of the mountain. After sweating in the heat we then had to put on all our winter clothes because the temperature inside in 0c!

We took a tour through the mountain lasting around 70 mins with a guide. We stopped often for a break while he shared a bit of the caves history. Coming outside after was a weird experience as my body was cold for a while even though it was 27c outside.

We finished off with a beer and some Bavarian food to warm back up.

I can highly recommend this experience as a day trip from Munich. Go rent a car and visit. Buy your tickets online as they are a bit cheaper and will cost you 35€ per adult and less for children. They do alternating tours in German and English.

https://www.eisriesenwelt.at/de

- - - - -

07/09/2023

I had an early private tour this morning at 9am. A company had booked a tour for 10 people and 3 showed up. The rest were suffering from jet lag.

Luckily for us, the sun was shining and we had a nice relaxed tour of Munich. The guests especially liked all of Munichs hidden alleyways.

The photo shows one of my favourite ones. It takes you directly through the courtyard of the Hugo bar. The area is always nicely decorated!

We even stopped today for a nice coffee at one of my favourite local places: ‘Omcafe’, opposite the Pfistermühle restaurant with its beautiful foliage.

I love doing Free Tours but I get some nice variety from doing the private tours as well. It’s always a more personal dynamic and very relaxing.

If you would like to book a private tour with me then get in touch!

Jake Slisz (Jax)
Heart of Munich tours

- - - ❤️🥨 - - -

01/07/2023

I recently had the pleasure of spending time with a lovely family from Nashville, Tennessee in the US. One part of my job I love, is getting to meet people from all over the world and learn a little bit about where they come from.

Nashville is known as ‘Music city’ due to its famous nightlife and country music. Local food consists partly of hot chicken/fish and something called ‘Meat & Three’, where you choose one meat dish and 3 sides.

The family have a nice cycling trip planned from Passau to Vienna and back to Munich.

They were very friendly, open and relaxed but I suppose thats the southern hospitality!

If a private tour sounds like something you would love to experience, then feel free to send me a message.

All the best,
Jake Slisz (Jax)
Heart of Munich tours

- - - ❤️🥨 - - -

26/06/2023

The price of Beer at Oktoberfest this year has just been announced.

Looks like the price has gone up again since last year. You will be looking to pay 12,60 - 14,90€ per litre. This depends on if you are drinking ‘Helles’ (Light beer) or the more expensive ‘Weissbier’ (Wheat beer).

It looks like the price increased overall by 6%, which is a lot considering it was already increased last year.

Don’t forget that it is customary to tip on top of the beer cost, so expect to pay around 15€ per litre of beer this year!

The price varies depending on the tent/beer hall you visit as the city does not control beer prices. The Breweries decide for themselves.

This year the Augustiner Beer hall will be the most reasonable at 13,50 (15€ with a tip)…so I’ll be seeing you there ;).

Less than 3 months to go now. I have a feeling it’s going to be extra busy (and extra expensive) this year.

PROST

Jake Slisz (Jax)
Heart of Munich tours

- - - - - ❤️🥨

🍻

21/06/2023

Our first award 🏆

I started Heart of Munich tours during the pandemic not knowing how long we would have to wait for tourism to return to Munich.

Luckily, here we are now in Summer 2023 and things are going great. We’ve grown a little during this time and now we offer lots of daily free tours and many different private tours.

I keep setting myself small goals to achieve along the way. Recently we received an award for consistently high reviews and being part of the top 10% best performing companies on Tripadvisor!

A big thank you to everyone who took the time to leave us review. I’m really happy that all the guides that I work with are also performing tours at a high level every single day.

Thanks to anyone who recommended our tours as well!

Up and onwards!

Best regards,
Jake Slisz (Jax)

- - - - - ❤️🥨 - - - - -

Monday	10:00 - 17:00
Tuesday	10:00 - 17:00
Wednesday	10:00 - 17:00
Thursday	10:00 - 17:00
Friday	10:00 - 17:00
Saturday	10:00 - 17:00
Sunday	10:00 - 14:00

Heart of Munich Tours