What's the most cost effective way to get from the Milan airport to the Munich airport within 24 hours?

First: which Milano airport? Malpensa. Linate or Orio al Serio?

In any case, get to Milano Centrale and take a train via Verona to Munich. You can make a stop in Bozen/Bolzano or Innsbruck.

see www.trenitalia.it, www.oebb.at or www.bahn.de

There really aren't any budget flights despite the fact that www.whichbudget.com says there are so rail may be your best option.

Direct EuroCity trains link Italian cities (Milan, Venice, Rome, Florence, Verona) with Munich via Innsbruck and Brenner Pass. EC 93 leaves Milan at 7 AM and gets into Munich at 2:26 PM. From there you can take the S-bahn to the airport. Trenitalia sells tickets online in advance for 29 EUR. Look for "Smart" fare.

By the way, there is also a night train connection that leaves Milan Lambrate at around 11 PM and gets into Munich at 6:30. It connects in Verona to the night train, which leaves there at 1 AM. That's not much time to sleep, so you might as well get a seat. Price for seats on that connection is about 44 EUR. You use almost no sightseeing time and still save the cost of a night in a hotel.

Not the most cost effective but much less time (in fact, less than 3 hours), and not sure when you are going, but starting in November, Air Berlin will have a flight from Milan to Munich (via Nuremberg) on Tuesdays for 89 EUR.
http://www.airberlin.com

There is a night train leaving Milan Central at 21:12 arriving at Munich main station 8:58. No connections, no changing trains

hi there - I am trying to book a rail ticket from milan to munich but the Trenitalia website tells me I can't do this online but must do so from a station or agency - Kind of difficult since I am still in Scotland! Grr! Is there anyway to buy my ticket from here?? Don't want to leave it till October and risk the train being full!

You're right, any night train over Brenner pass will probably be completely booked by October. You can book Milan to Munich now on the Nacht Zug Reise website, http://buchung.nachtzugreise.de. I just checked, and for weekdays in October many accommodations are still available at special price, but bookings on weekend are pretty slim.

On this website you can book using a credit card, and they will send you your ticket as a pdf file you can print out at home.

nikd - there may be another wrinkle to your problem - how far in advance are you looking to book? 60 days is the limit on trenitalia.

With crossborder trains it's often the case that one country's system sells and the other doesn't, so the Nachtzug site of bahn.de might be your only way even though the trains start out in Italy.

Then again, you can fly with Hapag-Lloyd Express from Malpensa to Stuttgart, possibly really cheaply (I see 38 Dollars in September) and the train takes 3 hours to Munich and costs 43 Euros or less.

Thanks for the info guys. I'm afraid my days (or nights) of travelling in a cramped compartment overnight are over so unfortunately the night train is out as can't afford a single compartment. Would rather get the day train - anyone know any websites other than Trenitalia I can book through. (Could look at flying to Stuttgart but that's another 3 hour train journey from Munich!). Cheers for all advice!

I always fly Lufthansa's partner airline, Air Dolomiti, between Munich and Milano Malpensa and other cities in Italy. They have a couple flights a day, the first leaving around 10-11 am and then another one or two in the afternoon. It is a short flight.

Otherwise, you can take an overnight train between the 2 cities and from the Munich train station, there is a train out to the airport.

Yeah, look through the Bahn website, http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en. Put in Milan to Munich. You should find a 7 AM EC out of Milan getting into Munich at 2:30 PM. It will cost you €89, but that is what comes from not wanting the night train or ordering from Trenitalia.

BTW, are you really going from Milan airport to Munich airport???