Anybody know the best way to get from Munich to Prague? I am debating on renting a car or sticking with the train. Is it easy to read the signs? Will there be a car big enough for five adults and their luggage? Actually it looks like it may be cheaper to fly from Munich to Prague than to take the train.

I was looking at the same route earlier this year and decided to fly. A direct ticket from Munich to Prague was around 60US per person, and it was only an hour and a half compared to an entire day driving. It probably REALLY depends on if you want to take a couple of days and see some of the sites between the two locations or if you are really just looking for the best way to get from point A to point B.

I don't know how you get from downtown Munich to downtown Prague in an hour and a half by air, considering that it takes 40 minutes to MUC, 2 hours preboard, and just over an hour's flying time, some time getting off the plane and finding ground transportation, and another 32 minutes (minimum) from the airport to downtown. That looks like four to five hours of stressful travel.

There are at least three trains daily that make the trip in 6hrs 1min. Two of them are direct. With five people you can share a €27 Bayern-Ticket to the Czech border and use Anschluß tickets for €18,70 per person from there - about €24 per person.

I may be incorrect but check to make sure it is possible to drive a rented car into the Czech Republic without additional charges.

I agree with Larry about factoring in the additional time required to fly.

Thank you for your replies. How do you get the Bayern-tickets? Can you get them ahead of time or do we wait until we arrive in Germany?

If you cross into the Czech Republic over the weekend, you can use the German "Happy Weekend" ticket, a daypass similar to the Bayern ticket for Sat and Sun, not only on the German rails, but on certain Czech ones as well.

A trip to Cesky Krumlov would be included at no additional charge. If heading to Prague, the stretch from Furth i. Wald to Plzen is covered at no extra charge.

Here is a map of the CZ routes covered by this ticket:

http://www.bahn.de/regional/view/mdb...men_ticket.pdf

Bayern tickets can be bought on your day of travel or in advance from ticket machines at the station; same goes for the Happy Weekend tickets. They're a couple of Euros more if purchased from the ticket counter.

I would not reco driving unless you want to stop several places along the way. Most cars in Germany can be taken into the Czech Republic - but for 5 people with luggage you will need to get some sort of mini-van (no sedan will hold that) or somethig - and for those driving into the Czech Republic may not be possible - or may have a very high drop -off charge.

I would just take the train - relaxing and not that expensive.

Bayern tickets come as Bayern-Ticket Single (€19 for one person) and Bayern-Ticket (€25 for 2 - 5 people traveling together). They are valid for unlimited travel on regional trains within Bavaria for a day (after 9 AM weekdays).

As Russ says, you can get them from ticket automats. You can get them from any blue/white regional (Nahverkehr) automat in Bavaria. You can try pressing the "flag" button to change the language to English, but that did not work on the only machine I ever tried. There is a button for Bayern-Ticket near the bottom of one of the two columns on the right hand side of the machine. After you press the button, the machine will probably display a question about what day. Today is "Heute" in German. You can also use one of the new red/white/blue touch screen DB (Fernverkehr) automats. There is a touchpad (British flag) for English. There will be a touchpad on the opening screen for Länder-Tickets. When you touch it, the automat will give you a choice of tickets; they sell tickets for Länder all over Germany.

You can see pictures and more explaination on my website, www.geocities.com/reise_deutschland. Click on "using ticket automats in Germany" on the home page.

We took the train to Prague two years ago and used a Czech pass, which covered travel to and from Prague from the Czech border. It was tricky to figure it out, so I called BudgetEuropeTravel.com and they did it for me with just a small fee added on to get paper tickets in advance. It was well worth it.
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If you are talking about a Czech EXCURSION pass, it costs $75 pP 2nd cl. and is valid from any border crossing to Prague to any (not necessarily the same) border crossing. It might be good for the Czech part of, say, Munich to Prague to Vienna, but I doubt it. For Munich to Prague, one way or RT, it is a bust.

For the Czech part of Munich to Prague (Furth im Wald to Prague), German Rail sells an Anschluß ticket for €18,70.

For Prague back to the German border, a Czech Rail ticket costs 403 Czech Koruna, about €14.

So, for Furth i. Wald to Prague and back would cost about €33 ($45 compared to $75). If you also split two Bayern-Tickets amongst the five people, the total is less than €45 pP (about $60).

German Rail also has a special called Prag Spezial (www.tiny.cc/PragueSpecial). Trains eligible for this fare take 6hr 1min and leave Munich at 6:23, 10:44, and 16:44. The first and last trains are direct; the 10:44 has two changes. For Munich to Prague RT the cost is €59 pP, with much less hassle of buying tickets.