Joining DAV's Family Mountaineering Program in Munich

The Official Rule

Munich families who want their kids doing mountain sports as an ongoing club activity, not just a one-off cable car day trip, have three genuinely different DAV München & Oberland tracks to pick from, and knowing which one fits before you start applying saves months of confusion.

A DAV family membership is the prerequisite for all three tracks. The section’s 2026 fee schedule sets the family rate, two adults plus all children and teens born 2008 through 2026, at 157 euros a year, with kids and teens included at no extra charge. Joining independently instead of through a family membership costs 17 euros a year for a child under 14 or 33 euros for a teen aged 14 to 18, both of which drop to zero once folded into a family membership. Mid-year joiners get a pro-rated discount: 10 percent off after March 1, 30 percent off after June 1, and 50 percent off after September 1.

The long-term, ongoing option once you’re a member is joining a Familiengruppe. DAV München & Oberland lists more than 20 of these groups, names like Alpenwichtel, Berg und Zwerg, Murmeltiere, and Steinadler among them, each organized around a specific birth-year cohort so the kids in a group are roughly the same age. The flagship Munich family group meets every three months, rotating between the city’s different DAV climbing halls, where the adults catch up while kids play in the hall’s kids’ area, on top of its own separately scheduled hikes, hut weekends, paddling trips, and winter sledding or ski outings through the rest of the year. Joining means submitting a group membership application (“Antrag auf Gruppenmitgliedschaft”) describing your family directly to that group, subject to the group leader’s approval. Since every single group is founded and run by volunteer leaders in their own spare time, demand regularly outstrips capacity.

If a standing group isn’t available yet, or you’d rather try single events before committing to one, the Familienprogramm is the other track, built around courses and tours where kids join their own parents or grandparents: sledding, igloo building, canoeing, alpine via ferrata courses, multi-day hikes, and family bike tours, alongside indoor climbing and bouldering. Course prices are charged per adult, with children paying half price, while tours and multi-day trips are free for kids entirely.

A third, separate track exists for kids who go without their parents at all. The Kinder-/Jugendprogramm covers ages 6 to 17 with structured courses in indoor and outdoor climbing, kayaking, via ferrata, ski touring, and mountain biking, each booked and priced individually rather than as a package.

Waitlists are the norm rather than the exception once a child is past early elementary age. The section’s own waitlist page is blunt about it: up to age 11 gives the best chance of being contacted when a new group forms, between 11 and 14 it becomes less likely since usually only joining an existing group with an open spot is possible, and past 14 groups rarely take on new members at all. Response times aren’t guaranteed either, the section directly tells applicants to expect a wait, or in some cases no response.

For English-speaking families, DAV München & Oberland explicitly supports non-German speakers. The section offers English-language membership information and an English application form, and its International Mountaineering Group (IMG) runs hiking, via ferrata, and ski-touring trips in English, including family hikes explicitly open to all family members regardless of age. IMG requires DAV Munich section membership or Oberland Plus membership to join as a regular participant, but non-members can try a single event first for a 2.50 euro daily guest fee, without insurance coverage.

What Real People Say

DAV München & Oberland’s own member magazine, alpinwelt, has interviewed several of its family group founders directly, and the same practical wisdom comes up group after group. Leaders consistently describe kids staying motivated by having other kids along on the trail, not by bribing them toward a summit, with one group’s founders putting it as “the journey is the goal,” scenic detours matter more to a young child than actually reaching a peak. A second recurring theme is letting go of trying to satisfy every family member equally on the same route: leaders describe tricks like older kids leading “animal games” for younger siblings during the descent, or sending the smallest hikers up by cable car while the rest of the group walks. Multiple group founders independently gave new parents the same advice: don’t rush it, and if a hike doesn’t go well, it’s completely fine to just try again a year later.

On the membership side, English-speaking newcomers researching DAV membership online, including on general expat travel forums, consistently land on the same practical conclusion: join the Munich/Oberland section specifically because it’s the largest section and offers English-language support, and the membership fee pays for itself quickly through discounted overnight stays at DAV’s network of alpine huts, a handful of hut nights’ savings alone can cover the annual fee. The most common friction point families actually report isn’t the membership cost, it’s capacity: the section’s own youth and family group waitlist page acknowledges plainly that demand regularly outstrips what its volunteer-run groups can absorb, and that the odds of getting into a group drop off sharply once a child passes about age 11.

Step by Step

1. Decide which track fits first. A long-term Familiengruppe suits families wanting an ongoing community and regular outings, the Familienprogramm suits families who want single courses or tours without a standing commitment, and the Kinder-/Jugendprogramm suits a child old enough (6-17) to attend courses without a parent.
2. Take out a DAV family membership before applying to anything. All three tracks require an active membership with Alpenverein München & Oberland (or another local DAV section); the 2026 family rate is 157 euros a year, pro-rated if you join partway through the year.
3. Browse the Familiengruppen list and contact the specific group matching your child’s birth year directly, submitting a group membership application describing your family. If the matching group is full or doesn’t yet exist for your child’s age, register on the central waitlist and plan for a wait, odds are best under age 11.
4. In parallel, book a single Familienprogramm course or tour (a via ferrata course, a canoe day, a family hike) without waiting on a permanent group spot, using the Kinder-, Jugend- und Familienprogramm booking page filtered to Familienprogramm.
5. If your child is old enough to attend without you and interested in a specific skill, book directly into a Kinder-/Jugendprogramm course (climbing, kayak, via ferrata) instead of, or alongside, the family track.
6. English-speaking families should reach out to the section in English and consider the International Mountaineering Group’s family hikes as a lower-commitment starting point; non-members can join a single IMG event for the day-guest fee before committing to full membership.

Compliance Note

This page describes membership fees, program structure, and group availability at DAV München & Oberland as of mid-2026. Fees, age brackets, specific groups, and waitlist conditions can change from year to year. Confirm current prices, availability, and application procedures directly on the official Alpenverein München & Oberland website before applying or paying for membership.