The best districts to live in Munich

Hi All,

I am an Australian Engineer who has been working in England and Germany for the past 12 months (the last 6 near Bonn). I have just accepted a new posting near Pasing in the west of Munich. I have been there twice before and it didn't look like a bad place to live, but it is not exactly what I am looking for. Can anyone help me form a short list of places to check out when I arrive?

I am looking for...

1) Somewhere very quiet
2) High average income (i.e. nice houses/apartment buildings and no problem parking a nice car on the street, yes I realise that Munich is not Newcastle )
3) Not many foreigners (not that I don't like my fellow Australians and I do love a good Döner but I would rather live with Germans while in Germany)
4) Good transport to Hbf and Pasing (transport to Hbf is more important than Pasing as don't know where my GF will work when she joins me in a few months)
5) An area close to the Englische Garten would be great.
6) A central area would be a plus...
7) ...but not if it is invaded by drunk Italians/Americans/Brits/Aussies every September.
8) Price does not matter so much

Thanks for your help

Bogenhausen.

I'd go for some nice altbau building in haidhausen...

Oberschleissheim

The nicest class of Germans live in Grunwald, they are very friendly and it is also very quiet there. You will need a car though.
Why do you have to be near the Englische Garten?

I just thought that the Englische Garten was a nice place to run ect. last time I was in Munich. To be honest though, I have not seen much of the city so maybe there are better.

Grunwald has lots of forests to run in and no traffic fumes (in the forests).

It is. Especially for long distance running! The park itself is quite big, but also there is a foot/bike path that goes up the Isar all the way to Freising. You could easily take the S-bahn out and then run a full marathon back home.

Bogenhausen is perfect. Very near the park, nice, professional area, and we NEVER have to worry about parking. It's ideal. Near the city, about 6 mins by tram. I run as well, and I love running in the area, and through the park from here.

Er given you will be working in Pasing how about Pasing, Laim or Obermenzing.
If you want something more central Laim is good.

Bogenhausen is not really a good option for you since you have to cross the entire city, also price wise its not cheaper and actually many parts of it are not that well connected transportwise. Laim/Pasing/Obermenzing are relatively cheap. If you want to live out in the sticks then Aubing and Lochhausen would also be worth a look.

Did you miss this bit?


None of those areas really match any of the above criteria.

Bogenhausen does.

which is why ER suggested Bogenhausen.

If you live close to either Prinzeregentenplatz, Böhmerwald or Richard-Strauss-Straase Bahn stations, you can be in Pasing with only a 20-odd minute ride (Hauptbahnhof in only 10). The area between these stops is roughly what you are looking for; high income, German professionals; quiet green suburb with nice big houses and spacious apartments; street parking is not a problem but most places will have private parking.

another suggestion of Bogenhausen.
Close the the Garten, Ubahn to Hauptbahnhof is 10min, then 10 min Sbahn to Pasing, lots of green places, quiet, and parking is only a problem at Oktoberfest time at Arabellapark station.

Münchner Freiheit.. next to the Garten, a few good Döner places, on the U/3-U/6, average to high income, it ticks all the boxes..

People will always say wherever they live is best, but if you are going to be working in pasing and want to live in a snobby quiet area, then that would rule out Haidhausen and Münchenerfreiheit.

Parkstadtbogenhausen, away from the Ubahns and towards the river, is nice, but not really near Pasing.
Obermenzing is a nice residential area, near Pasing with access to the Nymphenberger castle grounds, too far out for my tastes though.
Schwabing NorthWest is probably too international for you, but very easy access to the main train station and close to the Luitpold and Olympic Parks. Schwabing north (towards Freiman) on the other hand further from Pasing time-wise though quiet and "germanic" and closer to the English garten.

Just my 2 cents before coffee

Lehel?
Fails on the easy on street parking but I'm not sure an extra 50-100 for a parking space is going to be a problem for the OP.

does it really tick all the boxes? Did you miss the bit about being quiet and having on street parking? Münchner Freiheit is neither quiet nor has street parking.

Bogenhausen for sure.

I have to agree with many of these posts, that Bogenhausen does indeed fit a lot of your criteria, but also consider Nymphenburg (though it's not close to the Englischgarten, you have the grounds of the Nymphenburg Castle).

Oh yes, parts of Neuhausen are just beautiful!

The South West of Pasing, towards Gräfelfing (around Maria-Eich-Strasse, Stadtpark), is a quiet, higher end area. Pasinger Stadtpark is a lovely area, - (much) smaller than the Englisher Garten, but good for a jog/walking the dog etc. Not too many foreigners from what I've managed to find (though I live here).

The only non-box ticked is that it's not in the centre of town. Pasing is on the Stammstrecke, so there are frequent S-Bahns in (every 3/4 mins, takes about 12 mins to Hbf). If you meeting places are in walking distance of any of the S-Bahn stops its OK, - but its a bit more of a trek to Schwabing as you have to change to the U-Bahn. But this doesn mean parking and traffic is better.

You can trade off town living for a pleasant cycle/walk to work - depends how much you want to be in town, or just near it...

Oh yes, Nymphenburg ist a lovely area too!

Pasing... I never think of Pasing as an area where people with high average income live. Bogenhausen and Nyphenburg - yes. Definitely expensive areas with wealthy people living there!
Pasig is more middle class, or maybe I'm wrong...

I am a bit surprised that so many people suggest Bogenhausen. Of course Bogenhausen is very nice, upscale and residential. But it's really far from Pasing, and it is by no means the only upscale, residential area in Munich.

Having worked in the west of Munich for a while, I would suggest taking a look at Neuhausen, particularly the area around Rotkreuzplatz, and also at Westend/Schwanthalerhöhe, the area around Heimeranplatz. Both have excellent subway connections, a good mix of quiet residential streets and places to go out, and they are in the same half of town as Pasing, doing away with the need to cross downtown in one way or another every day.

Schwanthalerhöhe!!
Isn't that where that guy shot that woman then himself this morning. Nice place.

As far as I understand you are looking for a suburban-style area with small, tree-lined streets, no thru traffic, etc... I would highly recommend Allach, Obermenzing and Untermenzing for you. Especially the area around Menzinger Straße, you can type that in on Google Maps and see the satellite view of the area: Menzinger Strasse, Munich, Germany. This is an upper middle class, residential-only area of Munich with lots of green, small streets, absolutely no noise and only small housing with some small (that is, a max. of 3 floors) condos mixed in here and there. One of the parts of Munich with high income where doctors and managers live, no public housing, no youth gangs etc. It definitely matches your points 1 thru 3.

It matches your point 4 as well, because S-Bahn (suburban rail) line S2 is stopping in Allach, Untermenzing and Obermenzing, offering a one-seat ride to Hauptbahnhof within 10 to 15 minutes. You can easily reach Pasing by S-Bahn as well; it's a 10 to 15 minute-ride including one change at Laim station.

OEZ, Bavaria's biggest shopping mall, is only 10 minutes away by car.

As for the central area: it's as close to the city as you will get a high-scale, quiet part of Munich. There are some "better" parts of Munich very close to the city, like Schwabing, but they have lots of thru streets, restaurants, businesses and offices, thus also lots of noise. If the first thing you wanna hear after waking up are the birds and the thing you least desire is to go to bed listening to drunken party crowds on the street, forget the more central areas.

And as for Englischer Garten: well, Allach and Menzing are not near to Englischer Garten, but you would have both Hartmannshofer Park and Schlosspark Nymphenburg practically in front of your door. I like to think Englischer Garten is totally overestimated by people moving to Munich, it might be Munich's biggest park but in my eyes it's not the most beautiful one...

As for the other recommendations mentioned here: forget Laim and Pasing, they might have some higher-scale areas as well, but only very small ones. Many parts of Pasing and especially Laim are public housing, and both Laim and Pasing are full of noisy thru streets. I also don't see the point in recommending you Bogenhausen; there's only a small upper-class area which is also lined by noisy main streets (Ismaninger Strasse, Prinzregentenstrasse) and it's exactly on the other side of the city as Pasing is.

Nonsense, you can have peace and quiet - complete with birdsong, squirrels in the garden, etc. - in Sendling, for example, just three or four U-Bahn stops from Marienplatz. Nowhere near posh enough for the OP, though!

I think Grünwald is the nicest place to live in munich, just 15 mins. by car to the city. So near to perlacher wald and also the Isar, quiet ,people are friendly and i think anywhere u go people can speak to u in english. But since u want a place near english garten as the other suggested bogenhausen is better. Obermenzing is also quiet a nice place so near to schloß Nympehnburg.

I agree with the suggestion of Bogenhausen as a nice place to live. Pasing is nice, too.

You do realize that Munich is approximately 20% non-German? If you do a search of some other topics here, you will find that Germans have a reputation for not being the most open to meeting new friends, especially if you don't speak German. You might reconsider volunteering to be the only foreigner in your neighborhood.

True... sometimes even I am waking up to the songs of the birds here in Berg am Laim True also, practically every part of Munich has some nice areas. It depends on what degree of "very quiet" the opening poster needs. If neighbours in a bigger apartment building are a no-go, then he won't get happy in Sendling - all I've seen around Poccistraße and Implerstraße is apartment buildings.

Hi,

I would also like to ask you to offer your opinion. I am looking for a new living place closer to my new workplace, which is south of Munich, Neubiberg. My two main viewpoints is to have a direct public transport link to the workplace (for rainy days it is indispensable), and as I am young, I would like to live near to a night line. Therefore I have chosen the following areas:
1, Ostbahnhof/Rosenheimerplz/St-Martin-Str area
2, Mangfallplz/St-Quirrin-plz area
3, Neuperlach/Perlach area
(4, Gieising would be also good, but sadly I couldn't have found any nightline there)

Although I have lived 9 month, I don't really know too much about these areas. Which would be better choice? Where and why should or shouldn't I move? Thanks!

Hello, Giesing unfortunately does not have a nightline, and neither is there one serving the Mangfallplatz/St. Quirin-Platz area. Neuperlach and Perlach are served by the N45 night bus, but that one's only running on weekend nights.

As for the areas: 1, Ostbahnhof/Rosenheimerplz/St-Martin-Str area: very convenient when it comes to shopping, food, and bars/restaurants. An abundance of stores of all kinds, to-go-food and good restaurants everywhere. A big plus, too: many stores (books/magazines, convenience market) and food places in Ostbahnhof are open Sundays and late evenings, too. Very good transportation and nightlines. St. Martin-Str area has few shops but is only one station away from Ostbahnhof.

3, Neuperlach/Perlach area: Neuperlach (around Quiddestrasse/Neuperlach Zentrum/Neuperlach Süd U-Bahn stations) is 100% high-rise apartment blocks (8- to 12-story) from the 1970s, many of them renovated. Some of the blocks are public housing and it might be a bit more dangerous than other parts of town at night. Neuperlach Süd (around the same-named U-Bahn/S-Bahn station) is a lot nicer, with clean and well-maintained 4- and 5-story condos from the 1990s. Many apartments for rent by owner here. Perlach (also called "Altperlach" in contrast to "Neuperlach") is the area around the same-named station of the S6; many town houses and a few smaller condos, thus a very quiet and safe area. Might be a little bit more expensive here.
Shopping: PEP shopping mall at Neuperlach Zentrum; some stores around Pfanzeltplatz (center of Altperlach) and next to the Neuperlach Süd station. Not much to do here at nighttime, only McDonald's at PEP is open until 1am or so and there are 2 restaurants/bars at Pfanzeltplatz.

Sorry I can't tell you much about the Mangfallplz/St-Quirrin-plz area, but I can definitely say it has the poorest public transport connections and the fewest shops/restaurants of all the areas you mentioned.

Have you considered living in Neubiberg? The N45 (I think) nightline stops in Waldperlach, which is a 10 minute walk from Neubiberg (depending on where you live there it may be more). I have to admit I would never take the nightline and walk back home as that walk goes through a forest but you're a guy according to your profile, and I don't think anything has ever happened there.
Other than that, Neuperlach Süd is nice with good public transport. Neuperlach Zentrum isn't that bad of an area, though admittedly one of Munich's worse areas (but that doesn't really say much as it is generally a safe city), but yeah the buildings there ain't all that pretty. I would probably prefer Neuperlach Süd over Perlach, because it has U-Bahn and S-Bahn, and buses. And the PEP is very close too.

hi,
I would recommend Neuhausen or Nymphenburg. It is a quiet area , close to Nymphenburg palace and only 2 S-bahn stations away from Hbf or you can take the U-bahn as well from RotKreuzPlatz.
You can check this website : http://mrlodge.de/app/mrlodge_stadtteile/eng/19.htm
where you will find a detailed description and Info about all munich's districts.

Hallo Pete

Pasing is somewhat dull, its had been incorporated into Munich in the 30is and they still dont like to be Munichers. Nice are "Villenkolonien", art nouveau high level lodging in the northern part of Pasing.

If u want to be closer to real life and a big historical garden in the west go to Nymphenburg or Neuhausen - its not the Englische all tourists are aware of, but garden and chateau of Nymphenburg are wonderful. Bogenhausen and grünwald are famous as well in germany, you pay for the name but west of the Isar you find a lot of hidden quality quartiers, from Blütenring in Freimann till parts of Biederstein which fullfill your requirements.

BR
P

isch bin westend. bist du westend?

man i love westend to bits. theres about 30 germans in the whole area, and its full of little mini gangsters. great dodgy bars and good connections to the rest of the city, both with the MVV and by car.

its not at all what youre looking for. but i love it. even when some lunatic shoots a mother and her daughter 150m from my house.

not cool.

Munich Westend is the new black!

Noooooooooooooooo! It's boring as hell that place.

could you imagine cruising around westend in this?

1985 Chevy Caprice.

(youd be cruising for hours looking for a parking spot for the beast, and youd have to go to a petrol station every 100 meters. im seriously considering buying it.)

Anyway I vote for Maxvorstadt. Awesome area, mostly cos I live there tho, I admit.

Police will pull you over every five minutes berny cos they'll think you are a pimp and / or dealer.

thats ok, itll help build my rep up in Westend. and seeing as im neither a pimp nor a drug dealer/user, the cops wont find nothing. but because of my rep in Westend theyll want to use me as an undercover agent. and ive seen donnie brasco, so im up for it.

[quote name='AUSPete' date='Jan 28 2008, 5:24 pm' post='1183934']
Hi All,

I am an Australian Engineer who has been working in England and Germany for the past 12 months (the last 6 near Bonn). I have just accepted a new posting near Pasing in the west of Munich. I have been there twice before and it didn't look like a bad place to live, but it is not exactly what I am looking for. Can anyone help me form a short list of places to check out when I arrive?

I am looking for...

1) Somewhere very quiet
2) High average income (i.e. nice houses/apartment buildings and no problem parking a nice car on the street, yes I realise that Munich is not Newcastle )
3) Not many foreigners (not that I don't like my fellow Australians and I do love a good Döner but I would rather live with Germans while in Germany)

From my experience German neighbours tend to keep themselves to themselves. I very rarely speak to my German neighbours. If I pass them on the stairs then maybe a hallo or so is passed, but thats about it. BTW I live in an Altbau in Haidhausen. Haidhausen IMO is one of the better parts of Munich. It tends also to have alot of non Germans living there. But these are of professional types.

No one said to stay there 24/7. I just think I would prefer living close to work and not close to where I want to go out. And Nbb. isn't really that far out. Takes me about 25 minutes to Marienplatz and 20 to Ostbahnhof from my doorstep.