Hi, with the help of this forum, I have planned my european trip with ease. Expect one thing: my first destination is Munich but my plane lands in Paris at 6.05am at CDG. To get to Munich, for a family of 5 it would cost me around 2400 euro by Air France or Lufthansa or any airline that leaves from CDG. I found out that dba leaves from Orly at 9.25am and it costs only 15 euro plus 47 euro tax. So it it is a huge savings. My question is, is it going to be very hard or time consuming to get to Orly for connecting flights? I would appreciate if anyone knows of CDG connection that is cheaper. I would not like to drag my bags from one airport to the next. It seems there is no train connection. I would have to book a van. It is all too stressful to do after a long flight. Please help.

I must say that I am not sure why you are flying into Paris when your final destination is Munich. You booked your flight to CDG without finding out how to get from CDG to MUC? Perhaps you found what sounded like a great fare or are using miles?
I must say that I am not familiar with dba airlines but I can tell you that if you get into CDG at 0605 you will not make it to Orly in time to take a 0925 flight. CDG is north and Orly south of Paris.
Air Berlin has inexpensive fares from Orly to Munich and some of their flights leave at 1900. Condor has flights from CDG to MUC but it's web site is only giving flight availability between November 06 and March 07. Condor seems like the best bet if their flights serve your itinerary. Air Berlin from Orly sounds like the next best choice. Lastly, you can take a train from Paris to Munich as there are several each day including, I believe a sleeper.
I am afraid that I cannot tell you the easiest way to get from CDG to Orly as I have used both but never transferred between the 2. Possibly there is a shuttle bus like Gatwick/Heathrow? If your flight to CDG is not already booked you might consider flying into another airport such as Heathrow which might have better flight connections.

Why are you not booked straight through to Munich? That should not be a problem at all! There is no way that you should be booking inter European flights for your first desintation.

The CDG/Orly connection at that time is not going to work out, because getting through immigration and picking up your bag will surly cost you an hour. The transport would need to take place during rush hour. It is not a good idea all around.

I don't know what your starting airport is, but in any event, if these tickets are already booked for CDG, rent a hotel room for the four of you to be able to sleep and take the later flight either from Orly or CDG into Munich.

Or if it is possible, simply book the flight into Munich to begin with.

There is a transfer service CDG-Orly but also check out www.condor.de a budget airline which flies the CDG-MUC route.

There is an English version.

Be aware that they may not fly every day of the week.

For CDG-Orly:

Air France also runs an express shuttle directly from Roissy/CDG to the Orly-Ouest and Orly-Sud airport terminals. Hours of operation are 6:00 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., with departures every 30 minutes, and travel time is about 50 minutes. A one-way ticket costs €16 for adults, €8 for children (ages 2-11). Groups enjoy a 15% discount. You can catch the bus at the following airport locations:

Aérogare/Terminal 1: exit door #34 on the arrivals level
Aérogare/Terminal 2F: exit doors #B2, C2, 0.07 on the arrivals level

The ceapest flights CDG to MUC can be found at www.condor.de. Cost is about 60€ return.

According to its WEb site, the Air Berlin flights from Orly to Munich are operated by dba. As mjs says, there is a flight at 19:00.

Your best daytime train would be the EuroCity directly from Gare de l'Est to Munich Hbf, leaving at 10:43 and arriving at 19:16. The cost for a 2nd class ticket is E112.60. PREM'S (discount) tickets on the night train, booked well in advance at sncf.com, are as low as E60 for a bunk in a six-person couchette.

I too am astounded by this post.
If someone said they were spending a vacation in New York City so they had booked a flight to Columbus, Ohio and now needed to find out the best way to get to NYC, people would be rolling on the floor. Yet the distances between them are the same as between Munich and Paris -- over 500 miles.

There must be a reason you say that with the help of this forum, you have planned your trip with ease . . .but frankly, you really messed up here.

Is it really too late to correct this horrible messup? Traveling and making connections with a family of five with jet lag to go such a distance to your first destination sure puts a big damper on starting off on the right foot, in my opinion.

This may be way out on a limb, but since you deliberately booked a flight to Paris, how about reconsidering your trip and making Paris your first destination?

A "messup"???? Big assumption without first giving the OP time to explain why they booked a flight to CDG rather than directly to MUC..could be any number of reasons and the fact that you are baflled, Neo, isn't one of them.

OK, but I'm waiting for the reason of why someone booked airfare to a city 500
miles from where they need to be that isn't a "messup". Incidentally, if you click on chchtrain's name you'll find other posts where originally she said they were flying to Frankfurt. So something has sure changed.

Whether there is a good reason or not for booking a flight to Paris when the destination is Munich, I still call it a good way to "mess up" the comfort of the travel -- especially for what we've already learned is a very tightly scheduled vacation. Yep, I'd call it a messup.

By the way, Dukey, I suggest you re-read the orignal post here. With comments like "It is all too stressful to do after a long flight"; "I would not like to drag my bags from one airport to the next"; and "Please help", I think chchtrain is well aware that this was a "messup" that needs to somehow be corrected. This post was not meant as a blame for messing up, but rather a "how do we turn lemons into lemonade?" sort of thing.

chchtrain - If you decide to take the 10:43 train to Munich, your choices for getting from CDG to Gare de l'Est are RER, private car service, and taxi.

The RER would cost E8.10 for adults and E5.75 for children 4-10. Walking from Gare du Nord to Gare de l'Est would be just as fast as transferring to the Metro at Gare du Nord. But these routes require schlepping baggage, which is something it sounds like yhou wish to avoid.

The most convenient means would be a private car service. As an example, Bee Shuttle (www.beeshuttle.com) charges E17 for adults and E8 for children 7-12.

There are minivan taxis that are big enough for your family. Depending upon traffic, the fare for a regular taxi is around E40-50. You'll pay more for extra people and extra luggage.

Is there some really compelling reason not to enjoy 24 hours in Paris - - and take the dba flight from Orly the next day? Doesn't have to add any cost to your trip - - simply deduct one night's lodging in Munich (unless it's with family, or otherwise free to you).

Best wishes,

Rex

You might look at round trip fares-which are cheaper-and then go only one way.

rex, the apparent main issue is that on another thread chchtrain mentions they only have 3 days total in Germany. Now that it looks like they may lose 1 of those for extra travel, their Germany stay is cut to 2 days?

chchtrain,

Is your flight already ticketed? Even if it is, it might be worth calling your transatlantic carrier and asking whether they participate in any of the partner programs that allow you to tack on intra-European flights for a substantially reduced cost. I know that American and Continental both offer these; not sure about the rest. If the rep on the phone can't help you, ask to speak to a supervisor. I found that many of the reps knew nothing about these programs, and yet they were all on the carriers' websites. Good luck!

BTW- we saved nearly $2000 dollars last year for our family of 4 by using this program with American's partner Iberia from Nice- Barcelona, Barcelona-Amsterdam.

Condor flies CDG-MUC daily except Saturday. Flight leaves at 14:40 (later on Sunday), so a long layover but at least no worries if your long haul flight is delayed. The cheapest fare is EUR 29 one way all in!

Schedules and booking:
http://www6.condor.com/tcf-eu/flugplan.jsp

Finally, Air France and Lufthansa will be quite a bit cheaper than EUR 400 to 500 per person if you purchase a cheap roundtrip fare (include a Saturday night stay) and just throw away the return portion. Still Condor should offer the best price by far.

Hope this helps,
Andre

Thank you all for your invaluable input. No, I have not paid for my flight to Paris yet. Still trying to sort out ways to get to Munich via Frankfurt. Many flights do not go to Frankfurt from where I live if I depart on 20th Dec. Can't leave earlier due to son's exam.
I know it is a silly way to get to Munich via Paris. That is why I am asking if anyone knows of a cheap flight to Munich from CDG. After reading your replies, I do not think I can make it in time to Orly so I will not attempt it. Thank you all for now. I will ask for your assistance when I know for sure I can get to Frankfurt and see whether I should fly or take the train to Munich. Would anyone know if Frankfurt airport has train that goes directly to Munich? Early train cause I arrive around 6.30am. Should I fly? I want to get to Munich asap.
So long for now. I need to do more research.

About a train from Frankfurt to Munich - it can be done but one thing to consider is that you most likely need to get from the airport to the train station in Frankfurt. Once you get to Munich, there should be a taxi stand outside the train station to get you to the hotel. If you've taken trains before this shouldn't be a problem but if not, it might be stressful. If it were me, I'd fly from Frankfurt to Munich if I could, you should be able to do that on your ticket, it is just a transfer and the airlines have many partners they can use. That way you won't have to worry about your luggage.

A quick check on the German rail page indicates that the regular fare for an adult is 68 - 75 euros. I just plugged in a random day but I don't think it changes all that much from day to day. You have a wonderful trip in the works, have fun!

Here is the url for the German rail page. I use it for travel planning all over Europe.

http://www.reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en