Information on the area of Hauptbahnoff
 

We're considering a stay in a hotel near the Hauptbahnoff. Can anyone give us information on the neighborhood? Is it safe? We've read conflicting information and would like an inside point of view. Thanks!

What city in Germany?

I never felt unsafe thee when we stayed at the Le Meridien Hotel right across from the train station in Munich. We walked around the station to restaurants and the department store Herties.

The Hauptbahnhof in Leipzig is a great place. Lots of shopping and dining options. The neighborhood to the northeast of it is not so great. I wouldn't walk up that way after dark.

That means, The Main station! We also stayed at the Le Meridien in Munich and Amsterdam as well! Did you take the red and yellow boxes of shower stuff home with you? We did LOL

I would be reluctant to stay around the Hauptbahnhof -- one of the less appealing parts of Frankfurt, IMO.

I'll make a leap and assume you are talking about Munich. The area around the main train station has several great budget hotels. La Meridian, Drei Lowen, Drei Lowen Residence, Germania, Deutsches Theatre, and a little further away (5-6 blocks) the Uhland. The area has several sex shops and strip joints and therefore an occasional seedy charachter in the evening hours. I don't think of it as unsafe but I would tell my daughter to go with a friend at night rather than alone, as I would in the downtown area of any city in the world.

The Hauptbahnhof area is a great jumping off point for the fussganger (pedestrian)zone that starts at Karlstor. All in all my wife and I always stay in that area at the Drei Lowen Residence or the Uhland and we feel like Munich is a very safe city. Enjoy your trip. Be sure to have a meal at the Augestiner down in the Fussganger zone. It's very Bavarian. Try the weisswurst.

Der Hauptbahnhof could be in Switzerland or Austria as well.
I like the one in Zürich.
Stuttgart is not a bad place either.
At least it is not in Vienna!
That city did not have one the last time I looked at a map.

Come to think of it, does Berlin have a Hbf? There is an East and a Zoo.

Vienna has W. Sudbahnhof, W. Westbahnhof and Wien Mitte but no Hbf that I know of...

Is that Der Sexshop or Die Sexshop? Das Sexshop?

Thanks for the replies. The input is appreciated =o) It sounds like any large city with train stations, always be aware of our surroundings and we should be fine.

Huh?

Hi Rufus T. (any relation to Ernest T.?)

My reliable Harper Collins German-English Unabridged Dictionary says it is der Sexshop.

The little m is clear enough.

The plural however is die Sexshops.
But die is the plural nominative form definite article for all German nouns.

Or it could be den Sexshop if the term is used as the direct object or used with a preposition indicating motion towards the establishment.

German two way prepositions escape my conscious memory at the moment, which, at the moment, is resisting any data searches.

I am still trying to figure out where der Hauptbahnhof is. The last I remember it was "dort gegenüber".
The last time I heard that, however, I was in Bremen, and I am sure there is more than one of those edifices in Germany, e.g. München has one I know.
So does Zürich, which isn't in Germany unless something has happened since last September.

Well, garbage in; garbage out.

Am I crazy or did the original poster return and still not clear up what city she was asking about?

I prefer the Hotel Eingang. It's on Einbahnstrasse around the corner from the Hauptbahnhof.

Presumably you are speaking of the Hauptbahnoff is in Munchen? That is what immediately came to my mind. In Munchen, the area is not that bad, I am sure there is a decent hotel within walking distance to the station that is clean and affordable. I have always stayed in Munchen or with friends outside the area near Fussen.

Patrick, you are not crazy. Yes she did and no she didn't!

Hopscotch
I love it!! Gute reise! CJ

OK! OK!!!! I admit it! When we recently stayed in LeMeridien across from the Munich Hauptbahnoff our room WAS a sexshop. I'm just glad the place is air conditioned.

Intrepid,

:-)) what were you selling then? And I would certainly love to know how the hotel reacted, when you were drawing all those customers to your room...!

BTW: In order to get to the Hauptbahnhof just walk "immer geradeaus"!

I see someone has also inquired about the Hotel Eingang. Thats rather out of my price range, and I prefer to stay at the Pensione Ausgang. The Eingang serves lots of fruhstuck for breakfast, whereas the Ausgang serves just a little. I suppose you get what you pay for.

I thought that the Hauptbahnhof area of Lutenblag was somewhat superior to the rest of the city.

((I))

How about all those German towns named Umleitung? How do they differentiate among them? Must have seen at least a dozen of them in Bavaria a couple of years ago.

The quetion is: are there more towns called Umleitung or Ausfahrt?
And I bet there are even more towns called Exit in the US!

And who was that Einbahn dude, anyway? He has a street in every city named for him!

LOL! This reminds me of a trip I took with a friend who had never been to Europe before. As we were driving out of Munich and through Austria she said "Wow! That Ausfahrt town must be really big because there are soooo many exits to get to it!"

I almost had to pull over, I was laughing so hard.

Calling Jenn906! Hellooooo out there! Were you purposefully trying to draw out all these snide (and oh so funny) replies? It would really help if you cleared up what city you are referring to. You might receive some useful information.

Tschus!

Ok, sorry for not clearing up WHERE I meant...MUNICH. I'm having trouble with this site loading for some reason and had posted that before my previous post, but that one didnt show up. For some reason, I'm getting lots of error messages for the pages loading today too. Is anyone else having this trouble?

Back to topic, I didnt realize at the time of my original post that Hauptbahnof was common. But, I'm here to learn....

And no I wasn't trying to draw out snide responses, but they are funny. I can take it. My ignorance was showing, at least it wasnt my panties!

While in Munich last June, my husband and our two teens walked to and from the Hauptbahnoff several times of the day. The seedy sex shops do attract a more funky crowd, and I wasn't wild about walking through late at night, but Munich seems so safe in general. I certainly wouldn't have walked through alone or wanted my daughter and son to be on their own on that street.

Having said that, we loved the Hotel Uhland, just about 10 minutes' walk from the train station. It's an old renovated mansion, on a beautiful tree-lined street, in a quiet neighborhood across from the Oktoberfest park. Great large room for our family of four, new bathroom, wonderful breakfast buffet, free bikes to borrow, very friendly staff, very good value. Several nice restaurants within walking distance. We walked at all hours of the night and never felt unsafe.

Hi Jenn,

In all seriousness, the area around the Hauptbahnhof in Munich is a perfectly safe place to stay. It is quite central to many things and it makes it very easy to get around the city when you are staying right near the main train station.

I don't know if you are a beer drinker but one of my favorite beer gardens in Munich is only about 1k away!

I have stayed at the Hotel Helvetia a couple of times. They have some rooms with toilet ensuite and others with a shared bath. They serve a nice breakfast in the morning as well.

Hi Eurotraveler,

Thanks for the info. We were having second thoughts on the area. If we got bad reports, we wanted to change reservations now instead of finding out when we got there.

What is the name of the beer garden you're referring to? We plan to try a few, ok lots.... I'm not a beer drinker, but I'll give it a shot for this trip ;o)

Thanks everyone for the input.

This area really is ok! My best friend and I wandered around at all hours of the day and well into the night and NEVER felt we were in danger.

One of my favorite beer gardens in Augustiner. You sit under a canopy of trees and enjoy the people watching while drinking huge steins of beer. Another is the Chinese Pagoda in the Englishcher Garten. You must order the radish!

I haven't stayed at a hotel around the main station in Munich, but I have been there quite a few times in the last 5 years.

I don't think the downtown section will give you any worries.

I usually stay at a hotel in Schwabing because I prefer the area and it is close to our friends' apartment.

I have also stayed Schwabing near the university and it is a great place to stay. No matter where you stay it is easy and inexpensive to get around on public transport.

Jenn--glad you're such a good sport. Everyone was ignorant about this stuff at some point. The only problem is if one stays that way.

Rufus, it can't bother me. I'm planning a vacation, I could have worse problems in life to deal with, right? You have to be able to laugh at yourself.

Now that I know we're in Munich, I too recommend Le Meridien. We got a wonderful price there by booking direct way ahead. I especially liked arriving and departing by train and wheeling our luggage under the street and taking an escalator up to the street practically at our hotel's front door.

Having been to Munich before but always taking the metro to and from the train station, this time I was shocked how close the walk is to the historic center. I thought it was much further.

My travel agent booked us into the Maritim, about 5 minutes from the station. The room was ample, but not as clean as I might have hoped. The beds weren't dirty, but the walls were - you could see the track on the wall where the air came out of the air conditioner.

We got a double for &euro;138 and a triple for &euro;158. Very disappointing and <u>not recommended</u>.