We (my family and I) are scheduled for a 7:20am departure from Munich on a Sunday. We will have been staying at a hotel near the center of town, but I think it might be wise to move to a location closer to the airport the night before departure. My preference would be to NOT move, so that we can enjoy the city all day, without the hassle of moving mid-day, but I am concerned that it will be difficult to get to the airport from town at say 5:00 am on a Sunday. We will NOT have a rental car then, so we will be using public transportation.

Is a taxi a reasonable choice? At what cost?

Or should we just move closer to the airport for peace-of-mind?

Thanks!

John

Topping this for you.

A couple of years aog I took a taxi from a hotel (LeMeridien next to the main rail station) to the airport and the cost for two people and luggage was 45 Euro.

I suppose you could cosndier the Lufthansa bus, too, but realistically...
A taxi is, IMO, your best course of action even if it DOES "seem" expensive...but ask yourself these questions:

Is that extra "expense" worth it so that you CAN enjoy being in the part of town you WANT to be in?

Is it worth it not to have to worry about whether the S-Bahn is running yet, lugging luggage on and off of it, spending 45 minutes on it just to get to the airport?

Is it worth it knowing that you've ordered the taxi for a certain time the day of travel, that it will be there, that it will take you right to the terminal?

Are you in Munich every week????..doubt it...so is it worth it to make this as hassle-free as possible?


I'm biased but my answer to this would be a TAXI...after all, you deserve it.

By looking at the S-Bahn train timetable, you would find that trains don't arrive at the airport between 1.17am and 3.17am. Which means there's no problem catching a train downtown that will take you to the airport if you need to be there at of after 3.17am

Topping.

The www.bahn.de site shows an S-Bahn leaving the main train station at 5:05 am, and an airport bus at 5:10. Those appear to be the earliest departures. Each one takes 40-45 minutes. You shouldn't have any traffic at that hour on a Sunday.

However, for a family (how many?), it may be cost effective to take a taxi. You could ask at your hotel the approximate cost of a taxi, and if that's what you want to do, order it the night before.

It would be nice to spend your last night really in Munich instead of off at an airport hotel far from the center.

If your downtown Munich hotel will allow you to store your bags there after check-out, you could keep them there until the late evening on Saturday, when you take the S-Bahn to the airport and stay at an airport hotel Saturday night (like the Kempinski).

A tip about the Kempinski - it's adjacent to the airport (and incredibly quiet). We got up early and threw on our travelling clothes and checked in first thing (checking our luggage). That allowed me to return to the room to shower, get ready and eat breakfast at a more decent hour without worrying about the airline check-in.

I have heard everything....THIS is a vacation?????

Given that you have 4, I would take the taxi. I have used the Lufthansa bus, but by the time you buy 4 tickets, the cost will just about equalize.

The S-Bahn is an option, but handling the luggage up and down escalators is not much fun for me. Of the 4 options in your circumstances I like the taxi best, then the Lufthansa bus, changing hotels, and the S-Bahn last.

The security lines at the Munich airport are not bad. For flights within Europe, security is fairly light. The big check comes at the departure gate itself.

German security puts the heaviest emphasis on USA bound flights. Therefore all passengers do not get the same screening like in the US.

I recall from my flight home 3 years ago, that security was very well carried out. (The last 2 years we have flown into Munich, but home from elsewhere.)

According to Taxi-Muenchen-online.de the approximate cost of a taxi from downtown to the airport is $58. Using the mileage from Michelin and the fare schedule from Taxi-Muenchen I come up with €55.95 for four people with one piece of luggage each. That’s pretty good agreement and pretty expensive.

The first Lufthansa bus gets to the airport at 5:55, too late for a 7:20 flight.

There is an S-bahn that leaves the Hbf at 3:18 and gets to the airport a 3:57. That's enough time. The next one after that arrives at 4:17 and then they arrive every 10 minutes. If you get a Partner Tageskarte, it will cost €17 for all four of you. That saves €10 per person. I think I would take my bag down an escalator for that. What's more, the Tageskarte is good for any other conveyances you need to use to get to the S-bahn that morning. And you can board the S-bahn to the airport at any stop between Pasing and Leuchtenbergring.

Depending on the cost of a hotel at the airport, I might opt for that, but my next choice would be the S-bahn, then a taxi. The airport bus won't work.

Larrys post is (again) ;-) 100% correct. There's only a two hour break for trains going to the airport at night, simply because there aren't any flights during this time. Can't tell you how many times I used the airport train at night... It mostly is on time, which istn't too difficult at that hour

Thanks for all of the replies. There certainly is a variety of opinions. You have collectively convinced me to stay in Munich the last night, although I've not yet decided on taxi vs. S-bahn to the airport. Also, just to set the record straight, we are a family of 3, not 4; I guess this tips the economic scale even further toward the S-bahn.

Thanks again for the advice.

John

>I guess this tips the economic scale even further toward the S-bahn.

Doesn't really make a difference. The Partner Dayticket is €17 for 2 to 5 people. No change.

Likewise, the taxi fare is per km, so it doesn't change. Only change is €0,50 per piece of luggage, so you might save half a Euro there.

If you stay close to an S-Bahn station (S1 or S8) there's nothing that can beat the airport train.

If you decide to stay closer to the airport, there is a fairly nice hotel in Freising, Hotel zur Gred.

http://www.hotelzurgred.de/

Freising is a very nice little town in its own right, just a train stop out of Munich. It is reported to have the world's oldest active brewery (Weihenstephen).

http://www.freising.de/

We spent our last night there in April. The taxi to the airport was 20-25 euros, about 15 minutes from the train station which itself was only a few blocks from the Hotel zur Gred.

A few of our pictures of the downtown>

http://mcchelsea.smugmug.com/gallery/1402301/1/66354112

Regards, Gary