Trasfers to aiport in Munich
 

My 19 yr. old daughter & I will be traveling to Munich, Salzburg, & Vienna the first week in June with a tour company. Due to our flight schedule we will be staying an extra night in Munich post-tour. My question is: Should I pay the tour company $65 per person for transfers to the airport, take a taxi, or take the train? I have researched online and the train will be only approx. $9. Will it be safe for two women to be at the train station in Munich at 4 a.m.? Our hotel will be close to the City Centre.

The first S-Bahn train leaves at 4:38 from the main train station. Bear in mind that this is an S-Bahn train so you must descend to the S-Bahn lines below the station.

The trip is about 45 minutes to the airport.

I have taken the S-Bahn once and found it OK but I was taking it a little later than 4 am. Both S 8 and S 1 lines go to the airport.

I have ridden the U-Bahn at night and never had any safety concerns.

In terms of cost, for $65 each you could take your own taxi for about €65 which converts right now to about $100.

Why don't you spend the night at a hotel at the airport? Do your travel out there the late afternoon or the night before.

How early does your flight leave?

Thanks for the info. Our flight leaves at 7 a.m.

bob_brown's answer is - fortunately - not correct.

There are S-Bahns which leave earlier like:

3:38 (arrival: 4:17)
3:45-4:26
3:58-4:37
...

A taxi will not be faster.

see:
www.mvv-muenchen.de

Yep, I missed that one. Not sure how I did it, but I did. I must have failed to click on earlier departures than the time I put in.

There are indeed departures at 3:18, 3:38, 3:45, 3:58, 4:18, and 4:25.

As I recall the one time I took the S-Bahn we departed from Marienplatz and I bought my ticket the afternoon before.

You can check the schedule yourself quite easily at the DB website.
I use this one: http://bahn.hafas.de/bin/query.exe/en

You can enter Munich HBF (for Hauptbahnhof) and Munich Airport.
The answers will be in English except for Muenchen and Flughafen.

Once there click on the entry of choice under the column headed station/stop and you will see more detail.

Click again on the train number and you will see all the stops and the times of arrival.

Some of the early trains make the trip ih 39 minutes according to the schedule.

Take a look at it and you can see the full schedule.

You will need to allow time to find the right platform once you are in the main station. As I recall there is an escalator down to the S bahn tracks.

The 4:18 train is an S8 train that leaves the main station from platform number 1.

You want the train that says
München Flughafen Terminal

Sorry for the mistake on the times. Chalk it up to fatigue. I should know better. It does make me wonder how I have found my way all around Munich by tram, U-Bahn, and S-Bahn.

Just a few more tips:

Taxi costs a flat price of €52 - so the transfer for 2x €65 is nothing but a rip-off.

I'd consult the airline's website again and check if you really need to be 2hrs 45min ahead of time at the airport. Will you be flying to the US from Munich, or to another European airport?

In case you fly Lufthansa/United, you can use their self check-in desks also for your luggage, which makes checking luggage a matter of 5 minutes or less.

Another option would be to stay at a hotel in airport area, and check in your luggage the night before your flight, so you can go straight through security the next morning.

If you will already be visiting Munich on the first part of your trip, I would suggest staying in Erding at the Parkhotel http://www.parkhotel-erding.de/. It is right across from the train station so is easy to get to from downtown and is about 10 minutes from the airport. The hotel has an airport shuttle that is very reasonable (15E/person) and Erding is a beautiful village to spend your last night in. Good restaurants and very easy to walk around. That way you can enjoy your last evening and not have to worry about getting up before the crack of dawn.

Sorry, the link I sent you previously was in German - here is the English one http://book.bestwestern.com/bestwest...ertyCode=95224.

Just an added note on security.
The last time I flew home from Munich on Delta, we went through security twice!

The first check was a minimal check for general admission to the flight area.

Then at the gate for our flight, the German border police had set up a tight system of further screening with high tech equipment.

Passengers bound for destinations within Europe don't go through the near strip search that US bound passengers go through.

I have an artificial hip and that x ray machine makes it stand out like a beacon in the night. As I went through I told the the officer in German "Ich have eine künsliche Hüfte."

He just laughed. He knew it from the x-ray. His replay, in English, was simply: "It is obvious."

I never will forget my flight home from Munich a week after 9/11!!

We arrived at the airport more than two hours ahead to find a line a mile long. Everybody bound for the USA was being pat searched, x-rayed, and hand luggage was hand searched.

Everything was checked. I had to take the lens off my SLR and then click the shutter.

Guards with automatic weapons were patrolling the gate area in force.

Then, as the aircraft moved down the tarmac to the takeoff position, an armored car followed us inch by inch with a cannon pointed at us.

The armored car is not there anymore, and the x-ray machine replaces the pat search, but you know that you have been checked by experts who know full well what they are doing.

Compared to TSA, I got a feeling of security going through German security. All this noise of a TSA search with people yelling and whatnot is replaced by a calm, but no nonsense professional atmosphere.

I might add that when we flew home last year from Glasgow, which was on high alert after the car bombing, I passed through security without all the commotion of a US departure.
The officers and equipment were in place and the procedure was swift.

I made our flight reservations through Delta, but we will be flying Air France from Munich to Paris and then on to Washington Dulles. Will I still have to go through the tighter security in Munich? Thanks so much to everyone for their help. This will be our first trip to Europe and I have a ton of questions and I'm getting nervous of the "unknown".

blivey,
I just returned from Munich last Friday...we spent the last night in Ismaning which is about a 30 minute train ride from Munich center. Its a nice small German town and is about 20 minutes by train to the airport (about 9 euro for two persons). We stayed at Hotel Gasthof zur Muhle, a nice family owned hotel about a 5 minute walk to the train station (no taxi is necessary)...room was 105 euro a night....mikek

blivey..

Just regular security for that Munich-Paris part of your trip. No passport control - that will happen in Paris when you transfer to your flight to the US.

AF says on their website that you have to be in possession of your boarding pass 30min prior to departure.
Yet, I would not test that to the limit - but if you were at the airport at 6am for your 7am flight, this would be more than enough.

There is definetely no need to take a 4am S-Bahn...

Back to the original post--If you are staying in the City Centre, you wouldn't have to go to the Hauptbahnhof (Main Train Station) to get the S-Bahn to the Airport. You could leave from Marienplatz or whichever S-Bahn station is nearest your hotel.

Just to reinforce what others have said. If you fly within the Schengen zone there are no passport controls and security checks are minimal.

There will NOT be a big line of people waiting to be screened in all likelihood. We flew once to Finland from Munich and the time needed for the security check caused only a minor delay.

If you fly into Switzerland, checks are rather minimal. If you enter by car, you may or may not be checked.

We drove into Switzerland last year by crossing over the Rhine from the Austrian side south of Bregenz.

Passport checking consisted of an arm sticking out of a booth window waving us on in.

The rigorous check will come when you board the flight to the US.

If you land in the US in Philadelphia, you must go through security again if you continue on another flight.

If you land in Atlanta, you have to go through a full screening by TSA just to get out of the arrivals hall whether you are terminating or continuing.

I know, it sounds foolish, but TSA doesn't trust anybody. After going through a more rigorous check in Munich or any UK airport I always thought going through one of those TSA checks was totally superfluous, But, I have no choice, particularly if I want to go home.

This is exactly the trip that my husband, my 24 year old daughter and I and were looking at. What tour company? I would like to compare costs of doing on our own v.s. a tour.

We will be touring Munich/Salzburg/Vienna June 1-8 with Globus. The last day of the tour is June 8, but we will not be returning until June 9. I am looking into taking the train to a hotel close to airport the night before we leave. That way we won't have to be up and at the train station so early. Thanks so much to everyone for your help. Any suggestions for hotel close to the Munich airport???