Paris to Munich Travel

The train will be about 6 hrs. Dealing with getting to/from the airports and time for security etc flying will be close to 5 hrs. Personally I'd take the train direct. If you want to spend an add'l day, you could take the train to somewhere on the Rhine for a night and then continue to Munich the next day but I don't think it's necessary, just if you want to do it that way.

Hi,

Another option is the CNL Paris-Munich night train, direct, gets you into Paris a little after 0700, that is. if you're not adverse to night trains. I've taken this route on the CNL, satisfactory by me. Doing this by day I would go via Frankfurt, then change to Munich, both legs on the ICE train.

The fastest route requires a connection in either Stuttgart or Mannheim. Going via Frankfurt would add another 2-3 hours to the trip. That's fine if you want to stop over in Frankfurt.

See the detailed timetables on the German Rail site.

"I would imagine a train ride would be quite long whereas a flight would be fairly quick. "

Such a common misconception. They rarely build airports in downtown areas. Usually you've got travel from downtown to the airport, then from the next airport to downtown. Then you have time waiting in line to check in, going through security, getting to the gate, waiting to board, boarding time, flight time, deplaning, waiting for luggage at the carousel, finding ground transportation. Actual flight time is a small portion of the total trip time. In the case of Paris to Munich, you can count on about 45 min from downtown Paris to your terminal at CDG, just to start waiting in lines. In Munich, even without checked baggage, I can't see getting to the S-Bahn station in less than 20 minutes and from there it's 40 minutes into downtown. If you fly, the time you spend on commuter trains will be about 20% of the time it would have taken by train all the way. You'll still probably spend more time on trains then you will in the air.

BTW, the train that goes from Strasbourg to Stuttgart skirts the northern Black Forest. If you don't care about getting the lowest fares, you could go through the Black Forest from Strasbourg to Stuttgart and spend the night in Baden-Baden or Freudenstadt.

The best place and time to book Paris-Munich train tickets with a significant advance-purchase discount is 3 months ahead on the German (DB) web site: http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en. See Rick's tips for using it at http://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/online-schedules.

Thanks everyone. I really like the idea of the night train. Seems like it would save money on a hotel as well as give us more daytime for sightseeing (if we can sleep on the train), but I'm a little concerned about our luggage. Since most hotels require check-out in the morning and check-in isn't until the afternoon, I don't want to pack my luggage everywhere. I've heard of lockers at the train stations but how safe and secure are they? Are they big enough for a full size suitcase and carry on?

I also really like the idea of staying close to the black forest as well. I'll have to look into this and check prices. If we decide to spend the night in the black forest, would you recommend Baden-Baden or Freudenstadt? I've never heard much about either.

Decisions, decisions...

Thanks again!

If you take the train from Paris to Munich, you can go directly with no changes if you go through Stuttgart. Personally, I think the flight is faster in this case. I know many people who've done both and flying is always their first choice. We live and work here, though, so i can understand if you want to see the sights along the way, train is your best option. IF you want to take the train, though, stay over in Stasbourg, Stuttgart, or Ulm, great towns but not out of your way.

It's a shame the budget airlines like EasyJet.com and RyanAir.com are not flying Paris-Munich. You cannot fly everywhere in Europe on budget air carriers, and it's another example of politics in action.
I would say go by train.

Another option would be to first visit Paris, take the Eurostar up to London and fly EasyJet (cheap) from London-Gatwick to Munich. Then fly home open jaw from Munich.

"It's a shame the budget airlines like EasyJet.com and RyanAir.com are not flying Paris-Munich."

Not necessarily, depending on when you're going Air France can have some really cheap flights between these cities. I saw flights in June for $69 from CDG. I'd take that over the long train ride (which is more expensive), even though I'm usually a train person and have not flown an inter-Europe flight myself.