Munich to Prague: Bus or Train?

Check the Bahn website and the FlixBus website. It may be too early for your dates to get confirmed times and prices. Check next week's departures to get an idea and check again closer to arrival to confirm and maybe purchase.

For example, I see that even though there are buses leaving directly from the airport direct to Prague, none of them leave after 11:50am. You could go from central Munich to Prague by direct bus and get in at 18:05...or according to the Bahn website, you could take a train from Freising at 13:09 and get into Prague at 18:41 (it shows a short bus connection directly from the Munich airport). The train is a bit longer but not much; personally, I'd prefer a train if it's close to the same travel time. Flixbus is probably cheaper though if you buy in advance.

There are 2 direct trains a day from Munich to Prague. About 5 hours. There are more trains just not direct.
My sister did this trip this past fall. She found the best info on the Czech train site. It was reasonably priced @ 60euro a Person or about 120 Round Trip.

While the Bahn schedules don't reflect private operators like Flixbus, they show both buses and trains that DB themselves operate.The same trains that depart from Munich Central are stopping quickly (for 1 minute) at Freising. If you search from Munich Airport to Prague, it will suggest the most efficient connection point(s) for any particular departure. That typically requires taking the local S-Bahn train (line 8) into Munich Central train station, or line 1 to Freising station, or either line to the München-Hackerbrücke bus station, adjacent to Munich Central station, if connecting with their bus.

When you get an overview of schedule results, be sure to view details. If you print the detailed schedules to take with you, then you have info easily in hand to take whichever departure is next available. Buying tickets in advance would lock you into a particular departure and not be valid if that service leaves without you.

P.S. The number of direct trains between the two city centers has increased.

Once you price out the bus and train options, you may want to look at flying. here is one source- skyscanner.com-

If you do choose to fly, be sure to give yourself PLENTY of time between flights

I'd fly. Munich to Prague non stop takes about 50 minutes and if you book early enough will cost less than $100.

we are open to either the train or the bus to Prague, whichever is more convenient and faster from the airport

Buses from central Munich to Prague are a bit faster than the train. It's different from the airport: you rather take the bus to Freisig (15 min) and board the Munich - Prague train there, saving the time otherwise needed for the S-Bahn trip from the airport to the bus station and back to Freising (ca 1:20 total; the bus doesn't stop at Freising nor anywhere near the airport). The train from Freising to Prague takes 5 hours and runs (from dec. 10) seven times per day. Look up connections at the DB web site (select the direct trains only option). The trains have a "ALX" prefix before the train #.

Important: Don't buy your ticket at the DB website, which gives the expensive international standard fare only (the ALEX trains are not run by DB but by Netinera, a subsidiary of the Italian Ferrovie dello stato). Look up prices at the E-Shop of Czech Railways (CD), which usually has the best prices (starting from €14, print your ticket at home). If cheap tickets are sold out you can always resort to boarding the ALEX train and buying your ticket in the snack car. Ask for a "Prag Spezial" ticket (€36) - unlike saver fares they don't sell out.

We took the bus. We bought tickets early for the best price and seats. It left from the train station in Prague so we did not need to spend time getting to and from the airport or dealing with security. It was a double deck bus and we rode on top and had great scenery. The only challenge was the beer vending machine in the bus was out of order.

There is an afternoon train Munich to Prague direct. Don't drop Prague since you can take the train.

Thanks, everyone, this is super helpful.

I did consider flying (and am still considering it) but I'm a little hesitant just because of how much can go wrong unexpectedly with air travel. Although, I suppose if I was prebooking a bus or a train I should have the same hesitations. Lufthansa flies direct from Munich to Prague and it looks like there are flights departing at 3:05pm or 6:55pm. With a scheduled landing of 11:50am into Munich, would you guys feel safe with the 3:05?

With a scheduled landing of 11:50am into Munich, would you guys feel safe with the 3:05?

Well, recently I arrived in Munich from PHL almost four hours late - you never can be sure. On the other hand, you don't need to pre-book the train if it isn't vital for you to get the cheapest fare (€14). You can always board the direct ALEX train in Freising and get a €36 "Prag Spezial" - ticket from the conductor. Those tickets don't sell out. There are trains leaving Freising at 13:08, 15:08 and 17:08.

EDIT: time tables for the local bus to Freising aren't online yet for the 2018 schedule, so the DB site gives you the (longer) S-Bahn connection. The bus runs every 20 min.

Of course, you can use the train (or bus) as a backup if you miss your flight to Prague - not ideal to arrive in Prague so late after a long day of flying, but it's the chance you take vs. spending the first night in Munich. Check into trip delay insurance - sometimes it will cover delays like this that might cause you to miss a flight.

According to this page on the Bahn website, one of the IC buses from Munich to Prague also stops at the Munich airport. I thought it used to be the last bus of the day to Prag, but I can no longer find it on the schedue. The problem with the bus is that it is considered a long distance train for ticketing purposes, i.e., regional passes, such as the Bayern-Böhmen-Ticket are not valid. It's pretty pricey, almost 70€, unless you purchase a Savings Fare ticket, then you have to make a specific bus. If your flight is late, the ticket is no good.

Same with flying. Unless you book all the way to Prague via Munich, which you obviously haven't, it's not the airlines' problem if you flight to Munich is late.

There are actually three direct trains to Prague. They leave Freising Bhf, which is a short (20 min) bus ride from the airport, at 5:18 AM, 13:09, and 17:28. The other direct train to Prague from Munich at 9:01 doesn't stop in Freising. You can take a train from Freising at 9:09 and transfer to the Prague train at Landshut at 9:29.

The 5:18 and 9:09 connections are designated as EX in Czechia (it's an ALX in Germany, same trains, different designation). A Bayern-Böhmen-Ticket (34,60€ for two) will take you to Pilsen, where you can buy a Czech Rail ticket to Prague for 105 Kc (about 4€) per person, probably from the conductor. The last two trains are designated EC in Czechia so you can't use the Bayern-Böhmen ticket. You can use a regular 31€ Bayern-Ticket to Furth im Wald and a Czech ticket (414 Kc or about 16€, per person) from Furth to Prague. Both the Bayern-Ticket and the Bayern-Böhmen-Ticket are passes. No prepurchase required; you can purchase them the day of travel for the same price, and they cover the bus from the airport to Freising, as well.

To find the direct ALX trains to Prague, specify an intermediate stop at "Furth im Wald".

There are actually three direct trains to Prague. [etc]

All that will change after dec. 10, i.e. when the OP plans to go to Prague. First, back in April there was an agreement signed between the Bavarian transport authority BEG and the Czech ministry of transport to increase the number of direct trains between Munich and Prague to seven. You can look up the time tables at the DB web site by indicating a travel time after 10th of december. second, it was agreed to bring up the ALEX trains to EC standard. Consequently Netinera, the italian operator of the ALEX trains, has brought during the summer 29 EC cars from Verona to Schwandorf (it's technical headquarter in Bavaria). The cars are meticoulously restored, are climatized, have WiFi and 8 plugs per compartment and every seat has it's own reading lamp. I tried out one on a trip from Munich to Regensburg recently. You can find some pictures of the new cars and the new design here (they still display the technical specifications in Italian - the 2nd picture indicates that the car has a "Freno-WU", i.e. a brake system Westinghouse; the digits "83" indicate it's Italian origin). All trains will be classified as EX in Czechia, so in contrast to the present situation all trains can be used with a Bayern-Böhmen ticket als far as Plzn.
For anybody going from Munich airport to Prague the train will be faster and more convenient than the IC bus.
BTW, I dont know of any IC bus that stops at Munich airport presently (if it did, it would loose it's speed advantage over the train since it would have to make it's way over back roads from the airport to the A9, which bypasses the airport at a distance of approx. 25km).

Thanks, everyone, for your help.

So if I'm understanding correctly, if we decide not to fly, it would likely make the most sense to take a bus from the Munich Airport to Freising, and then the direct train from Freising to Prague, yes? I'm looking at DB now for the date I need (March 16, 2018) and I see that there are direct trains leaving Freising at 1:08, 2:08 and 5:08. There are others in between but not direct.

The only thing I'm still confused by is that I am trying to look at the schedule for buses from the airport to Freising, and I am not seeing any that are direct. I am only seeing Munich Flughafen Terminal to Freising, 33 minutes with 1 transfer in Neufahrn. Am I doing something wrong?

The only thing I'm still confused by is that I am trying to look at the schedule for buses from the airport to Freising, and I am not seeing any that are direct. I am only seeing Munich Flughafen Terminal to Freising, 33 minutes with 1 transfer in Neufahrn. Am I doing something wrong?

No, you don't. The new time tables for the buses are not fed into the DB system yet. They have to be provided by the operator who seems to be a bit slow. If you look up the current schedule (specifying a date before Dec. 10) you will see that bus #635 leaves from the airport at minutes 1 - 21 - 41. Departure times might shift slightly after dec 10 but the bus will run three times per hour.

direct trains leaving Freising at 1:08, 2:08 and 5:08.

They leave every other hour, so: 1:08, 3:08, 5:08

SLA:
Great news about the new service to Prague. Do you know, once you are in Czechia, if you can purchase a ticket from Plzen to Prague on the train from the conductor at Czech prices? According to IDOS it should be 121 Kc (less than 5€). Will he accept euro or only Czech Koruna? Or, since the train originates in Germany, is it still a German Rail conductor, and will he charge German Rail prices. In 2012, I saw people buying tickets from the conductor between Plzen and Prague, but is was on a local train, not an ALX one.

Funny thing was that when some of the direct trains were designated EC in Czechia, the Bayern-Böhmen-Ticket could not be used on them like it could be for the trains designated EX, but if you went to the Czech Rail site, the fare was the same whether the train was an EC or an EX.

When the train from Furth im Wald was designated EC and it was not possible to use the B-B-Ticket, you could use a Bayern-Ticket to Furth and a point to point ticket from there to Prague. If you bought that ticket through Czech Rail (CD.CZ), the cost was 414 Kc, about 16 euro, but the ticket from German Rail was 30,30 euro.

This page for the Fernbus from Munich to Prague says that is also goes from MUC to Prague, but I guess that connection has been replaced by a stop in Regensburg. So you could take the bus to Freising and the train from there to Regensburg to catch the Fernbus just after 9 AM.

Lee:

Do you know, once you are in Czechia, if you can purchase a ticket from Plzen to Prague on the train from the conductor at Czech prices? According to IDOS it should be 121 Kc (less than 5€). Will he accept euro or only Czech Koruna? Or, since the train originates in Germany, is it still a German Rail conductor, and will he charge German Rail prices.

Those trains are, if physically one, legally two trains (in the time table, you can see the different labels for them - ALX#, EX#). Once in Czechia, Czech prices apply. I don't know if the Czech conductor will accept Euros - I bought korunas at the Reisebank in Nürnberg (very bad rate...).
But since from dec. 10 the ALEX trains will have WiFi (and they claim that there will be no radio holes along the line) it's easier to download the app of Czech Railways (download link in the E-Shop) and to buy an online ticket before the train crosses the border. If you travel through Cheb or Bayrisch Eisenstein / Železná Ruda you can pay in euros at the border stations (where you have to change trains anyway there).

The only downside of the new train concept is the dissapearance of the Czech restaurant car. Since the Czech EC's will be downgraded to EX they will carry from Furth im Wald or Domažlice a minibar only.

If you bought that ticket through Czech Rail (CD.CZ), the cost was 414 Kc, about 16 euro, but the ticket from German Rail was 30,30 euro.

Apparently they going change that. If I understand the CD website correctly, from dec. 10 tickets of that type (also to Saxony, Austria etc.) will be available at ticket counters in Czechia only.