16 hour layover in Munich

1. Is it one ticket or two?? Since you are still in the Schengen zone you will go through exit immigration on the way to your gate for the connection home.

2. There is not much around the airport. I would find a close hotel and call it a day.

Take a night tour of Marienplatz. It's a very lively neighborhood in the city center of Munich. You can walk around and have dinner. I have enclosed a website link of things to do in Munich. You can't do any museums or go too far because your flight leaves to USA at 12:30pm on April 9th and you have to be in airport 3 hours prior for international flights.

https://www.muenchen.de/int/en.html

https://www.inspirock.com/germany/munich/augustinerkeller-a17415511

You need to ask the airline if they hold the luggage overnight. Even if it is a single booking I have doubts about their having storage space.

If it is separate bookings you will need to retrieve and re-check the bags ( and almost certain it will be the next AM, before they will accept them)

OK, so it sounds like I will have to retrieve my luggage and may or may not be able to store it at the airport. :(

If that's the case, should I find a hotel close to the airport and just take a train into the city for dinner/tour of Marienplatz? How late will the restaurants in that area be open, and how late does the train run?

Thanks for the information.

Novotel Hotel within the airport has pretty decent rates. You could always catch the train downtown and catch the nightlife before coming back out to the airport.
Needless to say that the Marienplatz area has plenty of things to do to take your time. Everyone deserves a night of reveling in the Munich beerhalls at least once.

If you get a hotel room near the main train station you can easily catch a ride from the airport (and back in the morning). From there its a very short walk into the old center of the city. Lot's of places are open for shopping until around 9pm; for food and drink until around 1 am. If the weather is good there will be seating in the main streets and usually musicians playing for the public and tips. I like walking Munich at night.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. Super helpful!

Be aware that you can certainly find street food like Doner Kebap into the wee hours, I don't think you're going to find many sit-down restaurants serving food past 11:00 p.m., although many stay open to cater to drinkers until later.

Some places may have a snacks menu after a certain time too, with limited options like pretzels or cheese plates.

Instead of trying to get all the way into Munich, why not spend your time at one of the nice towns near the Airport instead? Freising or Erding are both worth a visit and overnight stay.

DJ

I confirmed with my airline that I won't have to pick up my luggage, so I think we can be in Munich by 8:30. And I was able to use monkey miles (aka: airline miles) to book a hotel. Gosh, it's amazing how much hotel prices go up on April 1!! I thought Malibu, California was expensive!

You'll get into town with time to eat before everything closes, but just in case you don't, Weinerwald is the local version of McDonalds, and they're open late.