Traditional Bavarian cuisine isn’t all sausage and sauerkraut – but not trying the sausage and sauerkraut would be a crime! Tuck into a giant pretzel and boiled weisswurst, a Bavarian breakfast sausage made from minced veal and bacon, before moving onto beer hall favorites: käsespätzle (a local mac n cheese consisting of spätzle – traditional pasta – layered with grated cheeses and fried onions) and another cheesy delicacy, obatzda – a rich mixture of aged soft camembert, butter, and beer. For something meatier, schweinshaxn (roasted ham hock) paired with a maß of frothy, freshly brewed beer will make you feel like royalty at a banquet, and for dessert? Sweet, spicy, flaky apfelstrudel is too good to resist.

In central Munich, at the very heart of historic Bavaria, food is rich, homely and hearty – and beer halls outnumber bars. Armed with nothing but an appetite and your local host, you’ll taste your way through the best of Bavarian heritage. In the medieval city center, you’ll have no trouble finding traditional food and beer at its finest, from the famously festive Hofbräuhaus München, a beer hall built in 1589, to the warm, wood-paneled Zum Dürnbräu – a traditional restaurant just around the corner. Dallmayr, a 300-year-old delicatessen packed with local treats, is perfect for coffee and dessert, while the iconic English Garden is just over a mile away, with rustic cuisine being served up at its Restaurant and Beer Garden.