Train to Salzburg

You do not have to "book" a train. How many is "we"?

You can get to Salzburg by buying a "Bayern Ticket" out of a vending machine at the airport train station. Cost is 27 EUR for the first person and 9 EUR for each additional person, up to 5 people traveling together. You must begin travel after 9 am M-F or anytime weekends. That should not be a problem if you are flying into Munich from North America. Even if you land early, by the time you clear immigration, get your luggage and make your way to the airport train station, it should after 9 am. If you are earlier, just wait until 9 am to board a train.

Take the S-8 to Munich Ostbahnhof. The S-8 goes every 20 minutes. There, change to the hourly regional train to Salzburg. You can only ride regional trains with this ticket.. The regional train goes from the Ostbahnhof at 4 past the hour and takes 1 hour and 38 minutes to get to Salzburg. Even though Salzburg is in Austria, the train station is considered to be in Bavaria.

https://www.bahn.com/en/offers/regional/regional-day-ticket-for-bavaria?dbkanal_007=teaserSliderBigImage_3-1_link_laenderticketbayern

Piling on to Pam's question since 4 of us plan to do same thing in May. Can/should you book seats or, since regional, do you just hop on. Also wondered if we wanted to take train from Munich to Freilassing do we follow same procedure you outlined but stay on til end of the line (which I read is Freilassing)?
tx,
Joanne

There are no seat reservations on these regional trains. Go east on the platform where the first cars stop, there are most seats free (because most people are too lazy to walk that far at the main station where the train originates). Freilassing is not the end of the line, it is the last station in Bavaria before Salzburg.

THANK YOU so much;

IF your plane is significantly delayed, and you miss your train, how well can you accept that with pre-paid tickets? Our last flight to Munich was so delayed we didn't get in until after midnight. I was really glad we hadn't planned to travel to Salzburg until the next day.
Also, buying tickets works best for us with the DB Navigator app; the ticket machines wouldn't take our credit cards without pin#'s.
Have a great trip !

... the ticket machines wouldn't take our credit cards without pin#'s.

In Europe you usually need your PIN whenever you want to pay with your credit card.

You can always use Euro cash in the ticket machines. And strolling between connecting lights in Munich earlier this month, I was happy to find an ATM with no fees.

Pam,
When is your Alpine tour? Mine is 9/18-9/29. Just curious as I’m flying into Munich also and planning to take the train to Salzburg.

We leave May 29.

Hi all,
We are getting closer to our trip. I was looking at the Bayern tic recommended. That sounds safest for us to allow for delay in flight etc. I looked at site to see it and there is a choice for 1st and 2nd class tickets. I thought this was a regional train and we just jumped on w/ a ticket. Please lmk if/why we would pay extra for a first class ticket. Also, does the machines at the Munich airport have this differentiation or is it just on the DB website
Thanks very much for hel;.

We couldn't get the machines at the train station to accept our US credit cards, as we did not have pin #'s. However, setting up an account and buying from the app was quite easy.
Safe travels!

Regional trains usually do not have a first class. But there is no real need to buy first class tickets for any train in middle Europe.

Thanks for the info. This is helpful. We will have some euros with us but I also got a pin# for my credit card last year so that is no problem. And I’ve bookmarked the website. Our flight arrives around 9:40 am, so even if late we have flexibility. There would be a 7 hour layover in Munich to have flown to Salzburg so the train makes a lot more sense.

I agree with everything Sam said in his reply. Just 3 weeks ago I traveled from Munich to Salzburg using a Bayern Ticket I purchased from a vending machine at Marienplatz Station, which was then a short ride to Munich Ostbahnhof. Since you will be traveling from the airport, if you have trouble with the machines, there is a DB ticket booth and they can help you with a ticket purchase. You cannot reserve seats on these regional trains and unfortunately my daughter (27) and I ended up on a full, Saturday morning train and either stood or sat on the top of our suitcase for the duration. Thankfully it was just 1.5 hours to get to Salzburg, and it was a cheap ticket.

We did the Alpine tour last year and arrived in Munich. We didn't buy tickets ahead of time. We were planning on going to a machine, but there was a desk with an agent and no line, so we went to the agent who was very helpful. The ticket included the S Bahn to the main train station where we transferred to a train to Salzburg. Are you staying at the Hotel Hofwirt? We grabbed a taxi outside the station and it was cheap. Too tired for the local bus, but it was right there, too.

We travelled when Germany was offering the 9 Euro monthly train passes. When the agent sold us our tickets, she said, "9 Euro each and they are good for the entire month." WOW! The negative to this was the train to Salzburg was packed! We had to stand for about half the trip. I was talking to a couple locals on the train and they said it was all bc of the great deal; that it's not usually that crowded.