Arriving in Munich early in the morning...
 

If you have/had an early morning arrival flight how do you handle the hotel situation? We have a nonstop flight scheduled (for the fourth time since 2020) that's due to arrive in Munich at 6:30 am. As our flight departs Charlotte at 3:45 pm the day before, I doubt we will get much sleep on the plane. This trip isn't until next May.

We've been to Munich several times before. Our main purpose of flying in to Munich is to drive down to Berchtesgaden, but we wouldn't mind staying in the city for a night or two prior to that. We'll have our 12 year old twin girls with us, and their only trip to Munich was one snowy April afternoon.

I have no idea what to do in Munich that early in the morning. Most shops don't open until 9 or 10, same with museums. I'm tempted to just book a hotel for the night before (and explain that we won't be checking in until the next morning) so we have somewhere to go once we arrive. The alternative seems to be either dropping our luggage off and just meandering around, killing time, until things start to open and then push through until hotel check-in time.

The other alternative is that we drop Munich altogether and just pick up our car at the airport and drive down towards Salzburg for the day before heading to Berchtesgaden (20 minute drive). By the time we get to Salzburg more things should be open. Before anyone comments on this, we've rented cars immediately after an overnight flight many times and never had a problem with jetlag.

Thanks!
Tracy

"The other alternative is that we drop Munich altogether and just pick up our car at the airport and drive down towards Salzburg for the day before heading to Berchtesgaden (20 minute drive)"

That's a horrible idea IMO. :( MUC > Salzburg > Berchtesgaden is about a 3 hour drive (just Salzburg to Berchtesgaden is 40 mins give or take). And after an overnight flight that you suspect will be sleepless . . .

"Before anyone comments on this, we've rented cars immediately after an overnight flight many times and never had a problem with jetlag."

Just because its worked in the past does not make it a good idea. It isn't just the 'jet lag' but the microsleeps that are very well documented. Driving while impaired is a citable offense.

The best idea is probably to book the hotel for the night before -- then you can freshen up and nap or if you feel up to it just freshen up/unpack and head out. After MUC formalities and travel into to a city center hotel it will likely be close to 8:30 or 9AM.

Over the years I've frequently rented cars after an overnight flight / early arrival. For driving <30min to the office for a meeting or to a hotel I think it's fine. Coffee and adreneline keep me going. I have done a ~1hr drive after a mid-day arrival at my destination (connecting at a Europe hub). With a short nap on the connecting flight and a lunch I was good for that 1hr drive but glad it wasn't further and I was able to check-in mid afternoon. Heat & disorientation all make it harder.

Trying to do any complex navigating or distance driving very early in the am right upon arrival I would not recommend.

If this were my trip I would stay in Munich. Take the train or taxi to the hotel to drop off bags. Maybe they'll have a room available early but you can't count on it - they could give you an estimate of when it'll be ready. At least you could drop off your bags. Find a bakery cafe to fill up, or a patch of grass in the English Garden to close your eyes for a few winks.

this might help, tcreath: hotel rooms that you can rent for various periods during the day. it looks as if the 8am-3pm slot might suit you.

https://www.dayrooms.com/en/day-rooms-munich/

If you land at 0630, by the time you clear the airport and arrive in Munich it will be close to 0800. All breakfast/coffee shops will be open. grab a nice booth have some breakfast, tea, cofffee, juice, ect. Use the restroom to refresh, brush your teeth , and then explore Munich for a few hours. Drop your luggage off and enjoy the morning! A stroll thru the English Gardens should be nice in May.

Pay for an extra night, inform hotel of date and time of arrival.

Thanks everyone! We'll likely look into Day Rooms (thanks for the tip annhig! We used them to find a day hotel in London a few years back when we had a 12 hour layover but it never occurred to me to look into it for this trip) or just suck it up and pay for the hotel for the night before. I'm definitely not opposed to walking it off, but we usually get at least some sleep on the plane and I'm not sure how much sleep we'll get with this flight given that it leaves at 3:45.

We've done the drive from Munich to Salzburg/Salzburg to Berchtesgaden numerous times (the Berchtesgaden region is one of our favorites!) so we aren't really worried about the logistics itself. But we've never had an overnight flight leave so early in the day so I am definitely hesitant about the drive, even for my husband who seems to escape jet lag relatively unscathed. If we do choose to just head down towards Salzburg we'll just catch the train and pick the car up there later in day. Then we may end up napping on the train. We are already prepared to pay the one-way drop-off fees (our trip ends in Switzerland) so picking up in either city would work.

Either way, this doesn't seem like a problem to me based on my experience. Once you drop off your luggage at your hotel, you don't have much (or any) time to kill. Just grab something to eat, if necessary.

Also, I don't think the drive is a problem if you don't want to stay in Munich. That's my experience plus going by what you already stated in your OP.

Of course, I don't know what the COVID situation will be. There is a historic indoor swimming pool in Munich (Mullersches Volksbad), closed for now but maybe will be open when you travel. Normally opens at 7:30am daily when there's not a pandemic. It was our favorite thing to do in Munich when we took our kids there.

I'm with J62 - drop off your bags at the hotel as they will be happy to store your luggage and find a Bäckerei-Café with seating. They are open from really early and you will be able to spend an hour there drinking hot chocolates and eating some good stuff. We have done that (although not in Munich, last time we were in Mainz). In other countries we have booked a room from the night before, but usually when we land in Germany we are OK to get through to the early afternoon. I would not drive yet, give yourselves 24 hours for that. What is your hotel? Let's see if we can find you a Bäckerei!

Lavandula

This doesn't seem like any problem to me, either. My flights from US always land very early in Europe. Usually I go to CDG and they land about 6:30-7.

By the time you get through immigration, get bags, and get into the center of Paris where I stay, it's probably around 10 am, or close to it. Sometimes my hotel actually has my room ready at that time, but if not, I just drop my bags and go to a cafe for breakfast/lunch. Then I may spend some time doing things like getting my metro pass reloaded, or just walking in a park and sitting if I really have extra time, or just browse in a big dept store as they are all open by that time.

So I've never actually gotten into Paris when everything was still closed, that wouldn't be very easy to do. And cafes open around 7 am, anyway, 8 at least some others.

Now I realize Munich is smaller than Paris, but you still aren't going to get to your hotel at 6:30 am. And there will be cafes open, so go eat/drink something for a bit.

I would never consider paying a hotel for an extra room just because I was arriving at 8-9 am or something. However, I don't sleep upon arrival, it ruins my sleep cycle if I do that, I never nap the first day. I don't sleep well on the plane, either, but I've learned that if I force myself to stay awake until at least 9 pm, I adjust very quickly. But things may be different with two kids. I guess it is an issue that arrival time will be only maybe midnight by your own clock, so maybe you won't get a lot of sleep due to that, aftger dinner. Even though my flights leave around 5=6 pm, I don't get much sleep either, I just cannot sleep on a plane. Wish I could afford first class.

In my experience the kids will crash whenever they get to a hotel room, so put that off if you want them and yourself to get over jet lag. I am totally with Christina, get them on as normal a sleep cycle as possible.

I'm 100% for a normal sleep schedule. We've taken a few dozen trips to Europe and abroad over the years, and my girls have been a few times, so we are well versed in the drill of sleep schedules. That in and of itself isn't my concern. We typically get some amount of sleep on the plane because our planes typically depart somewhere between 7-9 pm. So eventually everyone falls asleep. We are fortunate to be able to sleep, at least for a few hours, on most flights and because of this we are able to push through until 7-8 pm on that first day. However as this flight leaves at 3:45 and arrives at, essentially, midnight our time I highly doubt any of us will get much sleep. By the time I imagine we'll just start getting tired they will be wheeling the breakfast carts down the aisle. So I'm trying to be practical with my expectations. Expecting two 12 year olds (and two adults, for that matter) to go on with close to 32 hours with no sleep isn't likely going to happen. So at some point we are all going to need a nap. I know to set an alarm so we don't sleep for six hours...learned that lesson the hard way on our first trip abroad years ago!

I assume we'll end up at Munich Hauptbahnhof somewhere around 8:00-8:30. I'm all for a bakery...can't wait for my first chocolate croissant! But it's still quite a few hours before we'd be able to check in. So I think we are just going to train down to Salzburg for the day (hopefully we'll nap on the way down), train to Freilassing to pick up our rental car (picking up in Germany is quite a bit less than Austria) and then head to our apartment rental in Berchtesgaden. We'll stick a few nights in Munich into the middle of our trip instead as we head towards the Rhine.

Thank you everyone for your replies!!

<<I assume we'll end up at Munich Hauptbahnhof somewhere around 8:00-8:30. I'm all for a bakery...can't wait for my first chocolate croissant! But it's still quite a few hours before we'd be able to check in. So I think we are just going to train down to Salzburg for the day (hopefully we'll nap on the way down), train to Freilassing to pick up our rental car (picking up in Germany is quite a bit less than Austria) and then head to our apartment rental in Berchtesgaden. We'll stick a few nights in Munich into the middle of our trip instead as we head towards the Rhine.>>

that looks like a great piece of planning, tcreath. I love linking the bits that you have to do - like ending up at the Hauptbahnhof - with optional elements and fixed plans. My only fear would be that you all fall asleep on the train to Salzburg - but you could always set up an alarm on a phone to solve that problem, or get the 9.55 train which is direct to Salzburg and terminates there. Then all you need to worry about is getting to Freilassing before the rental office shuts. [but as I see it's only 15 mins max by train from Salzburg that shouldn't be too much of a problem].

Hope you have a great trip!