Bavarian BistroBavaria, explained. Served warm.

Is the Munich CityTourCard Worth It? The Math for Two Days

In brief

The Munich CityTourCard bundles unlimited MVV transit in Zone M with discounts at more than 100 partners, and a 48-hour single card costs €26.50, checked live at the card’s own ticket shop. Two ordinary MVV single-day tickets, back to back, cost €20.20, so the card’s transit half alone runs about €6 more for the same two days. Its discount list covers smaller museums, the Frauenkirche tower and the FC Bayern Museum combo, but not the Deutsches Museum or the BMW Museum, the two priciest single tickets most visitors actually buy. Whether that €6 pays for itself depends entirely on which of those smaller discounts you would have used anyway. This page runs the actual numbers rather than repeating the card’s own “save up to 50%” line.

munich citytourcard
Image by Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay

Every Munich tourist pass claims to save you money, and the honest answer for any of them is “it depends what you were going to do anyway,” which is not a very satisfying thing to read before you buy one. So here is the arithmetic instead of the marketing: what the CityTourCard costs, what plain MVV transit costs on its own, and exactly which of the card’s discounts are big enough to close that gap. For everything else about getting around the city, my MVV explained guide covers the tickets this card is competing against, and the first-trip guide is the place to start if you have not yet decided what your two days will actually include.

What the card costs, checked live

These prices were captured directly at the card’s own checkout, not its marketing page, which quotes ranges rather than figures1.

Duration Zone Type Price (incl. VAT)
24 hours M (city only) Single €18.50
48 hours M Single €26.50
3 days M Single €30.50
4 days M Single €35.90
5 days M Single €42.90
24 hours M-6 (+ airport, Starnberg, Ammersee, Bad Tölz) Single €29.50
24 hours M-12 (+ Alpine foothills) Single €41.50
24 hours M Group, up to 5 adults €29.90

Source: shop.easycitypass.com, the CityTourCard’s own ticket shop1.

Zone M covers the complete city with no internal boundaries, so unless your two days include a day trip to somewhere like Starnberg or the airport, Zone M is the tier that applies. The group ticket is a flat total for up to five adults, with two children aged 6 to 14 counting as one person and only one name required on the card, which makes it a clearly better deal than five single tickets the moment your group is three or more1.

The transit math against a plain MVV ticket

A single MVV day ticket runs from €10.10, unlimited travel within your chosen zones until 6 a.m. the next day. Two of those, for a two-day stay, cost €20.20. The 48-hour CityTourCard is €26.50. That is a gap of roughly €6.30 for the same two days of transit, before you have used a single discount12.

Resi says If your two days are mostly walking between sights already inside the old town, with transit only for the trip in from the airport and one or two longer hops, the plain MVV day tickets almost always win. The CityTourCard has to earn that extra €6 back through its discounts, not its transit.

What the discounts actually cover, and what they do not

The card’s partner list, checked directly rather than taken from its own “up to 50% off” summary, includes: the Alpines Museum at 50% off, the Beer and Oktoberfest Museum at €1.50 off, the FC Bayern Museum and Allianz Arena combo ticket at €2 off, the Jewish Museum Munich at 20% off, Kunsthalle München at 20% off, MUCA at 20% off, the Munich Residenz and Treasury at €1 off a single ticket or €2 off the combo, Nymphenburg Palace at the same €1/€2 tiers, the Nymphenburg Botanical Garden at €1.50 off, SEA LIFE Munich at 20% off, the Toy Museum at €1 off, the Frauenkirche South Tower climb at €2.50 off, and the UMADUM Ferris Wheel at 20% off one ride1.

What is missing from that list matters more than what is on it: neither the Deutsches Museum nor the BMW Museum appears among the card’s discount partners1. Those two are exactly the sights most likely to make up the bulk of a paid-admission day for a first-time visitor, at €16 and €17 respectively, and the CityTourCard does nothing for either one.

Running the numbers for a real two-day stay

Say your two days include the Frauenkirche tower climb, one afternoon at the Residenz, and transit throughout, but not the Deutsches Museum. The Frauenkirche discount saves €2.50, the Residenz single-ticket discount saves €1, for €3.50 in savings against a card that costs €6.30 more than plain day tickets. You are still behind by about €2.80, before counting whatever convenience the single card offers over juggling two tickets.

Now add a second partner discount you would have used regardless, like the Nymphenburg combo at €2 off, and the math flips to roughly even. The card only clearly wins once you are stacking three or more of its smaller discounts on top of transit you needed anyway, which in practice means a visitor doing several museum half-days rather than one or two big-ticket sights.

Resi says If your two days center on the Deutsches Museum, the BMW Museum, or a single big day trip, skip the CityTourCard and buy MVV tickets directly; neither of those flagship sights is discounted, and you are paying extra for a stack of smaller savings you may never use. If your plan already includes three or four of the smaller museums on this list, the math works in the card’s favor, and the single-card convenience is a real bonus on top of that.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Munich CityTourCard worth it?

It depends on your itinerary. Its transit costs about €6 more over two days than buying two plain MVV day tickets, and it needs two or three of its smaller museum discounts to close that gap. It does not discount the Deutsches Museum or the BMW Museum.

How much is the 48-hour Munich CityTourCard?

€26.50 for a single Zone M card, checked live at the card’s own ticket shop as of September 2026.

Does the CityTourCard cover Munich Airport?

Only the M-6 and M-12 zone tiers include the airport; the base Zone M tier, the one most visitors need, does not.

Does the CityTourCard discount the Deutsches Museum or BMW Museum?

No. Neither appears on the card’s own current partner discount list.

Is the group CityTourCard a better deal than single tickets?

Yes, for three or more adults traveling together. The group card is a flat price covering up to five adults, with two children aged 6 to 14 counting as one person.

What is the cheapest way to cover MVV transit for two days?

Two plain MVV single-day tickets, from €10.10 each, generally beat the 48-hour CityTourCard on pure transit cost.

Which CityTourCard zone do most visitors need?

Zone M, which covers the entire city of Munich. The wider M-6 and M-12 zones only matter if your trip includes destinations like the airport, Starnberg or the Alpine foothills.

Sources

  1. CityTourCard Munich, online shop — CityTourCard München / easycitypass.com. Accessed 2026-09-27.
  2. Ticket and price guide — MVV. Accessed 2026-09-27.