Traveling from Munich to Prague
 

I'm planning a trip for May and am hoping someone can provide clarification about traveling from Munich to Prague. It looks like there's construction going on so if you take the train, a number of the routes end up being a combination of train and bus. Has anyone done this and if so, is it worth doing versus taking a bus for the full route? Any other recommendations for the trip, especially for someone traveling alone who doesn't speak German?

Yes direct buses are about an hour quicker than trains in any case. And cheaper usually. Book at www.bahn.de/en - German railways site. For lots on trains and buses in this area check also: www.seat61.com; BETS-European Rail Experts and www.ricksteves.com.

I've taken the DBahn bus on this route. It's a nice bus - restroom on board, reasonably comfortable - not as roomy as a train, but not bad at all. And because the driver stows your luggage under the bus, you don't have to bring your luggage on board and stow it yourself.

Intercity / long-distance bus travel has mushroomed during the last five years, and you have lots of competition on the Munich-Prague route between several companies.
I'd always prefer the direct bus over a connection from bus to train - unless the latter saved substantial travel time.
Check busradar.com to find best fares and info on the quality or amenities of the buses.
The central bus station in Munich is a modern new bus terminus with cafes, restaurants and supermarkets - very close to the city center and central train station.
Speaking German is irrelevant. The bus station has bi-lingual signage, monitors/displays to help you find the right stop.
The only German word you may or may not need is "Prag" - which is German for Prague (well, not that hard to guess, I think), in case the destination is shown in German only.
On the bus, you'll probably have more people speaking English than German ;-)

I traveled with a Munich friend recently and she suggested the bus from Prague to Munich.

As an American, I thought ugh - I will be trapped and uncomfortable but was very pleasantly
surprised how comfortable, and easy it was. As previous posters have stated there is a restroom,
snack machine on aboard & you are assigned a seat on the top deck.

I'm all for trains over buses generally but in this case a bus makes sense - especially when quicker than train.

Great --- thanks so much for your feedback and reassurance!

Be sure to book ASAP for the lowest fares - even on that bus. Folks wanting to take trains should do so also - even better discounts. www.bahn.de/en.

There are now 7 trains a day from Munich to Prague, with air-con, free WiFi, power sockets, trolley refreshments, details at https://www.seat61.com/trains-and-ro...e-by-train.htm . I'd always take a train for long distances, buses in Europe are generally the downmarket choice. The bus is only quicker in this instance because of an ugly motorway, though there are plans to upgrade and electrify the railway.

But yes, having dramatically improved the train service in December 2017, almost doubling trains from 4 to 7 each way and putting air-con cars on all trains, there's engineering work on the line 1 March to 30 May and from 28 July to 10 September 2018.

While it is helpful to know about the direct train connections between Munich and Prague, I don't see any benefit in spicing that info with rather silly anti-bus propaganda.

The ride is as scenic or not by train as by bus as both follow the same route.
I'm not quite sure if you ever drove the A93 motorway from Munich to the Czech border but that road goes through some pretty scenic landscape.

I'm also not sure if you have ever taken any of the intercity buses in Germany but the customer base is not just the poor down and out but also travellers who prefer direct connections by bus, also from smaller cities, over one or two changes with a railway connection. If only to avoid handling luggage.

I'd personally prefer a five hour train ride over a five hour bus ride - but when there are no decent direct train connections, it's also not the end of the civilized world scenario to sit in a bus for 400 kms.

Main thing I do not like about buses is not being able to freely move around - like just to stretch feet and views out windows not as neat. That said I agree with cowboy about even rail nut like me not dissing buses as a matter of fact - and if they aer quicker and cheaper without months reserving in advance I'd hop on one for sure.

Just wanted to circle back and thank everyone for their productive input. The bus was perfectly fine ... I didn't have a seat mate, which made the ride even nicer, but it was comfortable and I think the wifi was better than I had in my hotel. My only challenge was in finding were the actual bus left, but that was really my fault because I got to the station too early. At the station, there is an Aldi's, McDonald's and at least two other places to buy sandwiches for the bus ride. We subsequently took the train from Prague to Dresden and then on to Berlin and were very impressed with those rides as well.