There's more to Munich than beer

Holidaymakers travelling to Munich this year will find much more to do than sample boozy beverages at Oktoberfest.

A new guide from Lonely Planet highlights the many historical, cultural and downright bizarre things travellers can see and do in and around the city.

Munich itself hosts an artificially created wave that avid surfers love to visit, the "pocket-sized" Schloss Linderhof palace and the Frauenkirche church, which, according to myth, was visited by the devil himself.

Tourists could use Munich as a base from which to visit attractions such as Pope Benedict XVI's hometown, Marktl am Inn, as well as the numerous fresco-clad homes in the Bavarian Alps.

Meanwhile, the Konigssee lake area in south-eastern Bavaria is home to some beautiful mountain scenery that is also the setting for a legend in which a violent king was cursed by one of his victims and swallowed up by the earth.

Munich celebrates its 850th birthday this year and will be holding a number of festivals to mark the occasion, including the City Foundation Festival in June, the Old Town Ring Road Festival in July and the Isar Bridge Festival in August.

• Bmibaby confirms new flights to Prague
• Flybe 'the UK's leading domestic airline'
• EasyJet confirms extra winter flights
• Oyster cards to be sold on easyJet flights to London
• Formula One season continues tour of Europe
• British Airways to launch extra flights to Istanbul, Warsaw
• Catch flights to Edinburgh for a feast of culture
• Heathrow Express named top rail operator
• World class golf course opened in Muscat
• EasyJet to launch new flights to Copenhagen