Layover in Munich
 

We have a short layover in Munuch on a trip to Paris in February, and are wondering if that gives us enough time to get out of the airport to do anything interesting. We arrive on 16 February from Chicago at 09:50, and depart for Paris at 14:45.

12 hours in MUC

Chris

Assuming that you arrive on time and get through immigration quickly ... reaching the airport station by 10.15am, you can estimate one hour to get to Marienplatz, one hour to enjoy some sausage and beer, and one hour to get back. That puts you back at the terminal by 1.15pm, a comfortable 90 minutes before your departure.

I'd abandon the idea if I didn't make it to the airport station by 10.30am. Some people might be happy to cut things finer. Munich is a very efficient airport. (I recently did a 30 minute connection there - very impressive).

Is it all on LH, or AF? Either terminal for Schengen departures are fairly easy, and I would say that arriving back at 13:45 would be plenty of time. As long as you are already checked in and have your boarding pass, you should be fine. Aside from the long walks, MUC is a very user-friendly airport. If you are flying on AF, you depart from T1, which is older, and if you are on LH, it will be from T2, the nicer Star Alliance terminal. If you don't feel like cutting it close, there is a Hofbrauhaus restaurant on the second floor of T2, and a nice biergarten called Airbrau in the atrium between the terminals.

We're inbound on UA and outbound on LH.

You'll be exclusively using T2 then. IMO, it is the nicer of the two terminals. You will need to clear immigration and I'm assuming that any bags you checked will continue straight through to Paris.

Immigration in MUC has for me been very easy. There has been a line, but it usually moves very smoothly and I doubt you would spend more than ten minutes or so in line. Once you get out into the arrivals hall, look for the signs for the train station. It is located in between the two terminals and is very easy to find.

The train ride itself will take around 40 minutes to get to central Munich (Marienplatz or Karlsplatz/Stachus). You will want the S8. The S1 also goes into central Munich but the route is a little longer.

In theory, you could spend all of that time at the airport. But, I would want to get out and see a little bit of Munich, too. You can buy a day ticket for the S-bahn that will cost you in the neighborhood of 8 euro apiece. Make sure you stamp the ticket at one of the 'stamping' machines on the platform.