We picked these eight beer gardens for what actually happens on site, not just a nice photo: how old the venue is, what’s genuinely on tap, seating capacity, and whether it’s a destination in its own right rather than a pub with a few outdoor tables. Every fact below is sourced from the venue’s own site or a local tourism authority, not a copy-pasted “best of” list.
Munich, Germany
Hirschgarten. Opened in 1791 around a former royal deer park (a small herd of deer still lives on site), Hirschgarten seats roughly 8,000 people and is widely cited as the largest beer garden in the world.
Augustiner-Keller. Munich’s oldest beer garden, first shown on a city map in 1812. Under more than 100 chestnut trees it now seats 5,000, with Augustiner Edelstoff served straight from wooden barrels rather than steel kegs.
Chinesischer Turm. Built around the 1790 Chinese Tower in the Englischer Garten, this is the most-photographed beer garden in the city and one of the few with a small oompah band playing from the tower most summer afternoons.
Planning a trip: see Best Beer Tours in Munich for bookable brewery and beer-history tours in Munich.
Vienna, Austria
Schweizerhaus. Run by the same Kolarik family since 1920, in the Prater park. Around 800 seats spill out under the trees, and the kitchen’s stelze (pork knuckle) is as much the draw as the beer.
Berlin, Germany
Prater Garten. Berlin’s oldest beer garden, in the courtyard of Kastanienallee 7-9 since 1837. The attached restaurant brews its own Prater Pils and Prater Schwarzbier, on tap year-round even when the garden itself is closed for winter.
Golgatha. Tucked into Viktoriapark in Kreuzberg since 1977, on the site of a former restaurant serving the old Katzbachstadion. Free wifi and a quiet daytime crowd give way to a proper evening scene once the sun drops.
Planning a trip: see Best Beer Tours in Berlin for bookable brewery and beer-history tours in Berlin.
Prague, Czechia
Riegrovy sady (PARK). A beer garden inside one of Prague’s best-known parks in Vinohrady, with room for more than 1,000 guests around a renovated historical stage that still hosts live bands. Pilsner is served straight from the tank rather than a keg, and a rotating lineup of food trucks covers everything from Czech classics to whatever cuisine is on that week.
Planning a trip: see Best Beer Tours in Prague for bookable brewery and beer-history tours in Prague.
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Hannekes Boom. A waterfront terrace a short walk from Centraal Station, built from individually decorated tables under fairy lights, with a small swimming spot right off the deck in summer. Order by QR code and the bar food arrives to your table on the water’s edge.
Planning a trip: see Best Beer Tours in Amsterdam for bookable brewery and beer-history tours in Amsterdam.
Brussels, Belgium
Brussels Beer Project: Port Sud. The brewery’s canal-side taproom in Anderlecht, open from roughly mid-May to mid-September. Beers brewed inside the building are poured a few metres from the tanks, alongside natural wine and food-truck rotations, with bike racks so you can cycle the canal path in.
Copenhagen, Denmark
Mikkeller Baghaven. Mikkeller’s waterfront venue on the old naval island of Refshaleoen, with a large outdoor terrace looking over the harbour. The pours lean toward wild ales and saisons rather than standard lagers, which fits the shipyard-turned-creative-district setting.
Planning a trip: see Best Beer Tours in Copenhagen for bookable brewery and beer-history tours in Copenhagen.
Budapest, Hungary
Szimpla Kert. Not a traditional beer garden but the original ruin bar, opened in 2002 in a condemned apartment building in the Jewish Quarter. Its open courtyard, salvaged furniture and rotating craft beer taps started an entire genre that’s since been copied across the city and beyond. Go at opening time or on a weekday; by late evening on weekends it is genuinely packed.
Planning a trip: see Best Beer Tours in Budapest for bookable brewery and beer-history tours in Budapest.
Based in the UK? We also cover Best Beer Gardens in London, with more UK city guides on the way.
UK city guides: London and Glasgow, with more on the way.
And Liverpool.
Try a Classic German Beer Garden Lager
Munich’s beer gardens revolve around a handful of classic styles. Weihenstephaner’s Original Helles, from the world’s oldest working brewery, is the everyday lager you’ll find poured across most of them.
More Beer Travel
This list covers Europe. For the full worldwide roundup of cities worth visiting for beer, see the Beer Cities: 100 Cities to Drink Before You Die hub, which links out to city-by-city bookable tour guides for Munich, Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam, Budapest, Copenhagen and dozens more.
FAQ
What makes a beer garden different from a regular pub terrace?
A true beer garden (Biergarten) is an open-air space, usually under shade trees, historically tied to breweries storing beer in cool cellars beneath the trees’ roots. Munich still enforces a legal right to bring your own food (Brotzeit) to its traditional beer gardens as long as you buy drinks from the venue, a rule that dates back to the 19th century.
Is Szimpla Kert really a beer garden?
Not in the traditional sense; it’s a ruin bar with an open courtyard, which we’ve included because it’s the direct ancestor of Budapest’s modern beer-garden and craft-beer scene and remains the city’s most-visited outdoor drinking spot.
When do European beer gardens open for the season?
Most open from March or April through September or October, weather and location dependent. Waterfront and canal-side spots like Hannekes Boom and BBP Port Sud have the shortest seasons, typically mid-May to mid-September.
Also see: Best Beer Gardens in Munich, Best Beer Gardens in NYC, Best Beer Gardens in Manchester, Best Beer Gardens in Seattle, Best Beer Gardens in Amsterdam.
