Worldtravelerr, a very warm welcome to FT. You've found a fantastic resource which will help you plan a lot of trips - there's vast experience here - and I hope that perhaps you'll be able to offer the same help to people visiting your own location.

Munich is a great city, and the region has some of the best scenery in Germany. Go just a little bit out of the centre - but within the limits of the Munich transport system - and you'll find small towns and villages with their own charm and a lot less people. Parts of Munich like Marienplatz (pronounced Marine-platz if you need to ask) are very, very busy because it's a major shopping area combined with some prime tourist attractions.

As others have said, the reach of the Munich transport system is fantastic, and when travelling on a group ticket can be incredibly cheap. Zones run from M (the centre) to 12. You're incredibly unlikely to get beyond Zone 5, which is where the airport is. A ticket allows you to use S-Bahn, U-Bahn, bus and regional trains which start with RB or RE (but not the high-speed ICE trains). U-Bahn will currently be more reliable than S-Bahn or the regional trains - Deutsche Bahn has some timekeeping issues right now - but you'll likely not notice if you're on vacation and not trying to plan everything to the minute. If buying a ticket from the machines, some will auto-stamp them with an issue/expiry date but some won't - it depends on if you use a local or national Deutsche Bahn machines, I think, and I can't remember which way round it is. If there's no auto-stamp (it'll be at the top of the ticket) then pop the ticket into the small red boxes which will either be on the stairs/escalators leading to the platform or on the platform itself. They're very obvious.

The one thing I'd say is that whilst English is spoken very extensively if you have even a tiny amount of German vocabulary then the locals are very appreciative of you trying to use it, even if you don't quite get the grammar right. Even a simple "Guten Morgen" (frequently shortened to "Morgen") at breakfast or "Guten Tag" during the day go a long way. The most important phrase you'll probably need is "Ein/Zwei/Drei/Vier Bier, bitte"!.

As others have said, Germany has a strong beer culture going back many centuries and their purity law still applies today. If you're a beer drinker there are three main styles for you to try - Helles (light), Weiss (cloudy) and Dunkel (darker, but not a stout). There are regional variations in Cologne, Dusseldorf and Berlin. You'll also find the odd Schwarz (black) beer which is sweeter and darker than Dunkel, but again not as dark as a stout. If you do drink alcohol, like others I'd strongly encourage you to try different types and immerse yourself in the German tradition.

Not sure how early you have to be at the airport, but if you stay in Munich by the train station, it is a 40 minute train ride (S8) to the airport. And the trains run pretty much around the clock. More time in the city in the evening. Just a thought.

Hey all, thank you so much for the suggestions! And for the welcome messages! I just discovered that Sundays are a resting day for Munich so supermarkets and restaurants are pretty much closed! That means I am out of dining options if I stay at an hotel near MUC.

However, I still prefer staying near the airport because I need to arrive at the airport at around 7am to join the tour. And, it costs less, the hotels in the Old Town Area are expensive. I’m searching online and I don’t see many options for rooms that fit 3 people.

I’m looking at the traveling time from airport to old town area and it is quite far via public transit! It will take 1.5 hours.

Do you guys know the approximate cost to call a taxi to that area (Marienplatz for example)? I read online that the cost varies, some say $70, some say $110! That is also quite expensive for one way.

My last question is, are there any attractions near the lot of airport hotels (Ramada, Atomis for example) that is convenient and quick to access? I’m looking at Google Maps and don’t see anything near the hotels.

I would like to visit Old Town Area but the transit time is a little long and since I will be visiting the area in the tour, I’m just a little hesitant to travel 3 hours to go there. Plus, I need to make multiple transfers throughout the journey.

Any thoughts guys?

The Lufthansa Bus also departs from just outside Hauptbahnhof (Central Station) at regular intervals and is currently probably more reliable than the S-Bahn if you're trying to maximise your time in the City. You don't have to be flying with any of the Lufthansa Group airlines to use it. It's also slightly cheaper than the train, and it's a comfortable ride in a modern, air-conditioned coach. https://www.airportbus-muenchen.de/en.

The OP may also want to be aware of recent security wait times at the airport and plan ahead:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/germ...suspended.html
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/luft...-business.html

I'm not sure where you're getting the information from, but - from your perspective - I'm pleased to say it's inaccurate!

From the airport to Marienplatz, the S8 line takes 34 minutes. In 90 minutes you could nearly travel 50 miles out of the city! I'd expect an Uber to fall around the middle of the two prices you've been given. A zoned ticket for the day on public transport would be 15.50 Euros.

Restaurants are certainly also open on Sundays, and plenty of them. Shops will indeed be closed, but actually for a tourist Monday is a more difficult day because some of the museums close (whereas by contrast 1 Euro admission is possible on Sundays, again at some but not all).

There really is nothing for you to see around the airport. The strong advice you've been given to stay downtown (you can get hotels with a 15-minute public transport ride to a lot of attractions for well under 100 Euros a night, e.g. around Harras station/Westpark) is well-placed.

That was my first thought. With the exception of the Hilton, airport hotels in Munich make no sense at all. Depending on how the shuttle runs, it is even faster from the main station. Without traffic, it sometimes takes 15 minutes by car from the "airport hotel" to the terminal. Some place in the middle of nowhere ("am Arsch der Welt" on German) is called an airport hotel (or "Messe-hotel", also very popular) so that someone who doesn't know their way around can come. But then it takes forever to get into the city.
If you want to look up cab prices, https://www.taxi-rechner.de/taxikosten-münchen/59 is a good place to start.

Thank you for the replies, I did more research and found a neighborhood called Freising. Seems like that area has a number of restaurants and sights to see but it’s not as far as Old Town. I think we will be booking a hotel near Freising.

The thing though is, I want to ask:

1. How is the traffic during the morning hours (6am) in Munich? I don’t want to be stuck in traffic during the morning rush hour.

2. How is the safety in Freising? I read that it’s ok but not sure if there’s a lot of homeless people.

3. I would like to buy some magnets/postcards as souvenirs. Are there any good places of recommendation in Freising?

Thanks all!

Restaurants are open on Sundays, supermarkets are not. Freising is as safe as a Bavarian town gets: no homeless roaming the streets (not that homeless people pose a threat...). From Freising to Munich you take the S Bahn (light rail) no one really uses the car.

Freising has a few souvenir shops in old town.

I have good friends who live in Hohenschaftlarn and so I get to the Munich area at least every 2 years and I try annually. I was there in May and we did a day trip to Freising. There is a beer garden at the university there; we walked along the river, which is pleasant; there is a little old town area and a church on a small hill. There's a museum or two that we didn't go to. Actually a nice afternoon visit. We were there on Saturday and so there was a market in the center.

Obviously Freising is not a major tourist destination but I've been to all of the major and most minor places in the greater Munich region. Each visit we try to see a new place, which was new to my friend, who grew up in Bavaria.

Edit: The brewery at Freising is 'the oldest brewery in the world":
https://www.braeustueberl-weihenstep.../en/index.html

Imagine the safest town in America (a real town, not 10 houses with 2 sheriffs), imagine it even safer and you're in Freising. Honestly, who told you about the homeless? There may be some (as there are in every major city outside of North Korea), but they are not a problem (I didn't mention a single one during my last stay) nor are you affected by them.

Hey all, want to ask, is there any preferable car service that you all take from the airport? I am planning on taking the airport taxi or Uber to Freising but any other recommendations?

Freising, the San Francisco of Bavaria. When I thought I have seen it all on flyertalk there is still something that completely catches me by surprise.

No, Freising is a small, boring (in a good way) bishop town with a nice old town the world famous Weihenstephan brewery and a nice cathedral. And the worst part of to town is safer than the main street of your typical US Midwestern town where you have to be worried to get gunned down by some self proclaimed law and order vigilante. And I'm not even sure Freising has a bad part.

Everything is correct, with one small caveat: Freising is no longer an independent diocese, but the co-cathedral of the Archbishop of Munich and Freising. However, this does not detract from its security😉

On a recent trip with an early departure out of MUC, I quite enjoyed spending the day and overnighting at a local hotel in Oberschleissheim, <25-minutes away from the airport by direct S-Bahn on a good day for the S1. There's a beautiful palace and Baroque garden complex nearby and a handful of pleasant biergartens and restaurants all within short walking distances.

This might be my new choice of "airport hotel" when flying out of MUC again in the future, but I've lived in Germany before and visited Munich in the past so didn't necessarily need to see the more classic tourist sights elsewhere in Munich.

Hi all, how is tipping in Munich/Eastern Europe? I’ve read conflicting information online, some say tipping is around 10%, some say tipping is not needed(?)

May someone kindly advise on how much tips to give when - Dining out? Taxi driver?

Thank you!