Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Trains from Zurich to Munich

Fodor's Travel Talk Forums (https://www.fodors.com/community/)

- Europe (https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/)

- - Trains from Zurich to Munich (https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/trains-from-zurich-to-munich-298985/)

Trains from Zurich to Munich

I would appreciate any and all suggestions regarding train travel, e.g., best time of day? any special trains? sight seeing en route? Thanks!

Hi Voyager - Sorry - that route from Zurich to Munich is boring. 4.5 hours of rolling farm fields. Check out www.sbb.ch to see what train time suits you. Best to go during a weekday. I have gone twice Munich - Zurich on a Sunday evening, and people are standing/sitting in the train aisles the whole trip, so I would recommend you reserve a seat no matter when you go. Sight seeing in route could include St. Gallen - there is the Univesity, and the library there is a UNESCO historical site. Also Lindau along the Bodensee is a sweet town with a promenade along the lake.

The reference library of a city near you may have the Thomas Cook European Timetable. Taken with their rail map, tables 86 and 895 show that you can take twice as long, pay twice as much, and see splendid landscape if you travel Zurich, Innsbruck, Murnau, Starnberg, Munich Zurich 0710, Sargans 0819 to 0835, Feldkirch 0908 to 0915, restaurant car train, Innsbruck 1122 to 1235, Munich 1529 Zurich 0933, train with restaurant and panorama cars, Insbruck 1252 to 1435, Munich 1729 Zurich 1333, train with restaurant and panorama cars, Innsbruck 1718 to 1835, Munich 2149 [email protected]

Let me suggest that you book a reserved seat for your trip between Munich and Zürich, particularly if you want 2nd class, non smoking. Last year I waited until two days before departure and learned that there were no seats left in non smoking cars, 2nd class. The smoking cars are often so bad that smokers sit in the non smoking cars and go to the smoking car for a little whiff of poison. The best travel time between the two cities is about 4 hours and 15 minutes, with a 13:13 departure from Zürich Hauptbahnof. The route takes you through Bregenz and St. Margarethen. It is flat most of the way, and goes through farmland. I don't think it is all that boring, but I am not one easily bored. My trusty walkman and a few CDs go with me everywhere, so I can watch the changing scene with music. If the budget will permit, I recommend you travel first class. It is more comfortable that way. As one of the previous posters described, people are actually sitting in the aisles on their suitcases. I know, it is more expensive, but if I take the marginal cost between the two classes and divide it into the total cost of the trip, the percentage is small. You will have suffered enough if you fly over cattle car class, so treat yourself to a pleasant journey.

OOPs. I meant if I take the total cost of the trip and divide it INTO the marginal cost difference between first class and second class train travel between Zürich and Munich I get a small percentage. Ie: (marginal ticket cost)/(Total trip cost - marginal ticket cost) where marginal ticket cost = cost of first class ticket Zurich to Munich minus cost of second class ticket ticket zurich to Munich.