We are ending our Europe 3 week vacation in Munich on 10/22.
We are staying downtown Historic Munich hotel, we have a flight home at 1pm to PHL in USA.
How early do I need to get to airport, and what is best way to get from downtown to airport? How long does it take on a Sunday?
I don't know where the Historic Munich Hotel is, but it is probably close to one of the central S-Bahn stations, Hauptbahnhof, Karlsplatz, Marienplatz, Isartor. Take the S8 going direction of Ostbahnhof (east) will take you to the airport in about 40 to 50 minutes. So if you leave at 9 am, you should be good. S8 goes every 20 minutes. You could also take the S1 going in the opposite direction, taking a bit longer, also goes to the airport.
I always arrive in PLENTY of time for the international flights back to the USA. Actually we usually allow 2.5-3 hours for checkin and security.
For US flights, the web site of the airport suggests that you arrive three hours prior to departure. I'm doing that often (also for the noon flight on AA to PHI). Sometimes I have time to waste, and sometimes the queues at the passport checkpoint are so long that there's just enough time not to get nervous.
Sam has pretty much got it, slight clarification, S8 from track signed as towards Ostbahnhof, train is destination Airport. S1 is also destination Airport but from other track in opposite direction.
One thing to add is that it might be a lot of walking from the train station at the airport to the actual airport terminal. I can't speak for all the terminals, because they were in different directions, but the one we went to was a good 10 minutes of walking, so factor that in. On the other hand, perhaps because we were flying to another Schengen country, security took about 5 minutes.
If you leave for the airport from the Hauptbahnhof (tief) station, you will stand on a central platform between the tracks gong either direction. The S1 will be on one track going to the airport, the S8 will be on the other track going the other direction. Take whichever S-Bahn to the airport comes next; it will get you to the airport sooner.
If you take the S1 to the airport be aware that the train splits at Neufahrn, with only the back end going to the airport (the front goes to Freising). The cars should be marked with their ultimate destination.
If you leave from Marienplatz, the S-Bahn in opposite directions leave from different levels. The S1 leaves from the lower of the two S-Bahn levels (Gleis 2), but there is only a one minute window out of 20 minutes in which the S-1 will get you to the airport sooner. The other 19 minutes, the S1 will get you to the airport sooner, so my advice is just to go directly to the upper station (Gleis 1) and take the S8.
If you are going directly to the US (no stop in another country), you will probably leave from Terminal 2. However, if you are flying on United, their gates are on the far south end of T2. It's a long hike from the entrance, security, and Schengen.
Regardless of how you reach the airport, I'd arrive 3 hours before the flight is due to depart. That's the general advice for international flights.
We just got back from our 3 week European vacation.
FYI- We had a 1250pm flight from Munich to PHL in USA with American Airlines
We took a Taxi from Hotel in Munich to airport $65 and took less then 30 minutes.
Left hotel 10am and got there around 1030, check-in and security took maybe 15 minutes and we were in terminal before 11am.
No lines at check-in or security screening, we were pleasantly surprised. Security was much more friendly then TSA at American Airports. 2 hours was more then enough time. Hotel even told us that there was no reason to get there more then 2 hours before our flight.
Security was much more friendly then TSA at American Airports.
It works both ways: the flying public at the German airports maybe is more respectful toward airline security personnel than they are in the USA.
