Car in Nuremberg and Munich

The disadvantages of a car in a city are evident, such as not being able to stay in the city centre as you mention. For the ride from Nürnberg to Schwangau (and back to Munich) it is useful though. Couldn't that be workable compromise?

It is also useful heading into Nuremberg as we could get the car at the airport and not have to backtrack into Munich for a train.

I think tonfromleiden is saying the same as I'm thinking. Take a train to Nuremberg, since you'll probably be jet lagged. In that condition, I would rather take an extra half-hour S-Bahn ride than drive on the AutoBahn. Pick up the car upon leaving Nuremberg, so you don't pay for more rental days then you'll really use (although three days is sometimes a minimum rental period for a good rate) nor for more parking.

After arriving to Munich, what would you park/use the car for? If there's one remaining day trip, then do it first and get rid of the car as soon as possible. Or see that sight on the drive to Munich, arriving there as late as you want, and turning your focus to Munich the next day. Several daytrip options are easy to reach on the local S-Bahn.

I don't really see a car adding anything to your proposed itinerary, and in at least one case, it will make things much more complicated. All of your destinations are fairly well connected by rail.

Driving and parking in Nürnberg isn't particularly difficult, but the area of the city of interest to tourists is fairly compact and much easier to navigate on foot. And if you want to visit the Dokumentationszentrum, it's an easy tram or bus ride from the center.

Munich, though, is a nightmare for both parking and driving. Don't even bother with a car here.

My husband ... wants to rent a car.

Why does he want to rent a car? If all he wants to do is drive, save the cost of airfare and stay at home. He can drive here.

Does he think it will be cheaper? Not really. I calculated train tickets for your trip, and using 3 Bayern-Ticket (MUC-Nürnberg, Nürnberg-Hohenschwangau, and Hohenschwangau-Munich) @ 28€/day, a TagesTicket Plus, at 18,70€ for your day trip to Bamberg, and an MVV single trip ticket to the airport (@ 21,60€ for two), it's going to cost you just over 124€ for train tickets. According to ViaMichelin, gas, alone, for a compact car for your trip will cost just over 80€.

So unless he knows where to rent a car for 9 day for 40€ ...?

Sound to me like he wants to entertain some Walter Mitty fantasy of driving on autobahns at unlimited speeds. I don't think he is going to find it here. Most autobahns have speed limit no higher than in this country and even more often Staus, that keep you from going even the speed limits. If he likes driving here in rush hour, he'll love driving in Germany. Furthermore, Germany makes use of more speed limit cameras than we do and fines are higher.

I'd recommend you seriously rethink getting a car as soon as you land. It will be more trouble than it's worth getting from Munich to Nuremberg (not to mention the jet lag factor). When I lived in Munich I had a car and I still always took the train to Nuremberg because it was more convenient.

Save the car for the Nuremberg-Schwangau-Munich portion and drop it off as soon as you arrive in Munich (no point in keeping it until you depart from the airport). This way you won't limit your self on hotels in Nuremberg and Munich.

DJ

Thanks for all the feedback. I'll show him this post to make my case. It's his 40th birthday trip, so he gets to pick.

My estimate of 124€ for rail tickets assumed you would use a 28€ Bayern-Ticket for go from Nürnberg to Hohenschwangau. If you book it long enough in advance, you can get a train-specific SparPreis ticket from Nürnberg Hbf to Füssen for 20€ more (48€ for two) including the direct ICE from Nürnberg Hbf to Munich Hbf that makes the ~100 mile (166 km) trip in just over an hour including a stop in Ingolstadt, so it hits speed of over 100 mph.

Hi,

I would dissuade your husband from his desire to rent a car and drive, unless you want to deal with the possibility/hassle of parking tickets when you see signs like "Anwohnerparkschein lösen." after you've found a nice parking space. Also, there is the cost of paying for gas by the liter, hotels charge for parking too...another expense. It all adds up...unnecessarily, not worth the time, bother and effort.

I left the Nürnberg area a couple of days ago and let me tell you that the A6 is a basket case all the way from the Czech border to Ansbach. I was looking at my StauMobile stau finder app (vital to avoid sleeping in your car) (but you need data) on Tuesday and saw a cumulative delay westbound of 2 hours and 40 minutes. One accident near Regensburg, the rest all traffic due to the incessant road construction. It will be beautiful when the work is finished, in 2017. Of course, they will just go somewhere else.....

Good parking is available (but teeny tiny bittie spaces) at the Adlerpark multi storey car park just across the bridge from the Rathaus and hauptmarkt. Expensive though.

I can recommend the Schwabach Holiday Inn Express south of Nürnberg for easy parking, easy self-laundry and easy on and off from the A6. 6 minute walk to the local train station. 1 train an hour to Nürnberg Hbf in 11 minutes, 3 others an hour in about 19 minutes. Good food next door, too.

Driving in Nürnberg is difficult at the moment because of several areas of road works right in the centre, and on the approaches. Not trivial the rest of the time because of interesting one way streets and bus lanes.

Driving in Munich is best left to head cases.