The right hotel in Munich…
 

Hi—

I'm the official vacation planner for my family, and I'm putting together a trip to Munich and Florence next year, for my wife and I, our two kids, and her parents. My wife and I have been to both cities before, and are looking forward to enjoying them with our family.

On our last trip to Munich, we stayed at the Meridien, and we had a poor experience due to noisy neighbors on our floor. So, my main hotel requirement for this trip is quiet. My second requirement is to be close to Munich center, so that my in-laws don't have to walk far to enjoy the Marienplatz, etc. We'll probably bike to the Englischer Garten, and use the tram for getting to Nymphenburg. Hopefully these two requirements aren't mutually exclusive.

I'm having trouble finding the right hotel, mainly using TripAdvisor, but picking up reviews from many other sites. I figure FT folks will have the best advice.

The Mandarin Oriental looks to be too pricey. I'm hoping to keep the rooms under 250€ per night, since we'll be using three rooms, unless some hotel has a large enough room that we could put the kids in with their grandparents. :-)

The Cortiina Hotel might be noisy, and I'm not crazy about being across the street from places I'd rather not expose the kids to at their ages.

The Platzl has some reviews that mention noise, and no WiFi? Perhaps we could bring a small access point…

The Torbrau has some reviews that mention hearing noise in the hall and in adjacent rooms. Argh.

The Louis sounds good, but some reviews say that the market side is noisy, while others say that the courtyard side is noisy due to the restaurant there.

Are there rooms in these hotels that provide a good night's sleep? That sounds like a silly question. Are there other hotels I should be considering?

I appreciate any help and feedback. Thanks!

Look at staying in the Hilton City or Holiday Inn above the Rosenheimer Pl S-Bahn station. No need to stay downtown when you can hop on a S-Bahn below your hotel and be at Marienplatz within 3 minutes. the hotels you list are pricey and in the midst of the 'action' part of town. I stayed once at the Cortiina because there was nothing else available during Oktoberfest, and was clearly underwhelmed.

You will find cheaper and good hotels outside city center. And Munich has a fantastic public transportation system and Marienplatz is easily reached from almost any line (U-Bahn, S-Bahn, Tram). I would try to book a hotel close to a station of the public transport.

Pls. keep in mind that there are further construction works planned for the S-Bahn during next summer which will cause S-Bahn lines to be closed down during certain days. In case you talk German, you might want to have a look into the article from Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Did you check the Kempinski? A standard room there can go for around 200 euros without breakfast. The additional cost for breakfast is not worth it; you can go to a nearby cafe (there are many options) for much less.

I second Oliver. The City Hilton is a very decent choice with it's own subway station taking you two marienplatz every two or so minutes.

And rooms are very quiet as well. This hotel is certainly a hidden secret in Munich!

Well, there might be no outside noise, but I had a couple fight and make up at 1 am next door once (in may be a dozen stays) and the gypsum board separating rooms was not very efficient in containing the noise the various emotions created ;)

Thanks for the input. The reviews I've read for the hotels above the Rosenheimer sound like those rooms could be noisy. I really don't want to hear my neighbors coming in at 1 a.m. again, which is what happened at the Meridien. I don't see how you can avoid that, in a hotel with long corridors of rooms.

The Kempinski sounds great, but I can't find a room at anything close to 200€ per night. Am I looking in the wrong place?

Right now I'm leaning towards the Louis, or possibly the Torbrau.

I love the location of the City Hilton but the soundproofing is not good. If the people next door start moving stuff in the closet the hangars banging against the wall is really loud. That being said it's positives far outweigh any negatives and I always stay there if the price isn't ludicrous like the €299/night they wanted for a standard room for my upcoming stay which I used Hilton points for instead.

The Kempinski (not the airport location) is in the nicest part of town, all of the designer shops are on this street. It's like 5th Ave in New York. If you can get the Kempinski for anywhere in the 200-300€ range, I would do that. It is the nicest property in town along with the Mandarin. We couldn't find rates even close to that.

If MariaSF could tell us where she found those rates, I would love to stay there next time as well.

We just got back from Munich and Florence. Details in our trip report Our BMW European Delivery Trip Report. We really enjoyed the price to benefit ratio at the Le Meridien. We didn't have noisy neighbors. The breakfast buffet was really nice. If your an SPG Platinum, breakfast is included. We also liked that it was right across from the train station. It was easy to zip around town.

The doormen were great as well. They were always asking if we had questions, directions, etc. They were pro-active.

I would email the Le Meridien and ask them what could be done if you have noisy neighbors. Explain your last situation and what you are looking for on this trip. I think they would try and accommodate you.

That's a non-starter, unfortunately.

When we stayed at the Meridien, on the 2nd night there was a family a few doors down the hallway that returned to the hotel around 1 a.m., opening and closing doors for 10 minutes. The next morning, we asked the manager to be moved to another floor, but he said that he knew which family it was, and that he'd speak to them. That night, the same family arrived at 1 a.m. and quietly opened and closed doors for 5 minutes, still waking us. Again we spoke to the manager, but he said that the family was leaving that day so it wouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately, another family took over their 1 a.m. duties that night. The interruptions in sleep took its toll over our entire trip, including a following leg in Paris. We swore we'd never return to the Meridien, despite the pleasant room, great location, and other niceties. I wish we had insisted on being moved after the first incident, but we didn't.

If MariaSF can reveal her secret for getting the 200€ rate at the Kempinski we'd be interested. :-)

Hi Flenser, Just saw this post about hotels in Munich and Florence.

I tried to get into a SPG hotel downtown Munich but it didn't work out. But now I am staying at Hotel Schlicker http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...h_Bavaria.html with the recommendation from a friend. The hotel is not too big but it is located right at the city center by Marienplatz. I got a room at the back side so I don't hear any street noises at all. The hotel offers a quint Germany breakfast with the stay. I am paying avg 96 euro a night for staying here. The price is not bad at all compared to SPG hotels and for the location you can't go wrong either. The hotel is wedged between a BK and McDonald's. I don't think I've seen anything like that even in North America. There's also a huge grocery store across the street called Rewe City. You can get all of your snacks and water there. I walked to the BWM Welt and Museum from the hotel. That's because I like walking. There is an outdoor market just around the corner from the hotel and not to mention the nice shopping plaza at Marienplatz. If you are spending the weekend here just remember every places are closed on Sunday (today!) :(

As for Florence, I stayed at a family owned hotel called Hotel Lorena. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...e_Tuscany.html It was also quite nice, located in the middle of the city center. I had a room which looked out to the Duomo and it was not noisy at all. The staff at the hotel were extremely nice and accommodating. Again, I walked from the hotel location all the way to the top of the Piazzale Michellangelo. What can I say? I can't really walk much when I am in Florida. Europe is a much friendly and fun place to walk around.

I've had good luck staying at local hotels from my European travels. If you don't mind put a pause to collect hotel pts during your Euro vacation then it's definitely worth it. Both hotels are in centralized locations with lots to offer. The one thing I look for is when traveling in Europe is convenience. We North Americans take that for granted when visiting Europe.

Safe travels!

Jane

Another vote for the Hilton City. I've never had an issue with noise there,

I don't think any one can guarantee a 100% noise free stay at any hotel with interior corridors.

Thanks for the recommendation for the Hotel Schlicker; I'll check it out.

While I agree with Flymsy that you can't guarantee a quiet room, I do want to avoid a hotel that is noticeably noisy for whatever reason.

In Florence, we've stayed at the Laurus a couple of times. I love their location, their balcony, and their service. The rooms are split up so there's only a half-dozen per hallway, rather than the long echoing hallways I'd like to avoid.

can someone advise if there is a big supermarket anywhere near the hauptbahnhof in munich?

Google is your friend :)

https://local.google.com/maps?q=supe...markt&t=m&z=17

Rewe and Tengelmann are the regular supermarkets, Aldi & Lidl the predominantly no-name discounters.