Munich airport to town -- what sort of tickets/passes to buy

In German cities, and a lot of other cities besides. The ticketing works on a zone system. The same common ticketing system applies for S-Bahn, U-Bahn, trams and buses.

All the info you need is here

The price is based on the number of zones you will be going from, to or through. From the airport you just go to the ticket machine, and buy a ticket to "München", cost €11.70. This will be valid on all methods of transport (S-Bahn, U-Bahn, tram and bus) to your final destination, which may be anywhere in the "München Central" Zone, with as many changes as necessary.
There are no ticket barriers, you just walk onto the train, and from train to tram or bus. But if you are caught on a train, bus or tram without a ticket that is when you get fined. There is usually a time limit to stop you using the same ticket all day.
In some systems you can buy tickets for "immediate use", which are stamped with the time of purchase, and unstamped tickets which you can save for another day, but which you then have to timestamp in a machine when you use them. This sounds like the origin of your Prague horror stories.
You can also buy "Single Day Tickets", cost €6 for central Munich only, which is probably what you want for Tuesday onwards.

Chris -- Thanks so much! I've printed a "group" ticket to get us from the airport into town and now we are all set and don't have to be worried about being all bumfuzzled trying to figure out how to get from Point A to Point B after traveling for fifteen plus hours. I am so glad I thought to ask and that you were there to answer. The RS website has been a tremendous help in all my travel planning. Note to others -- I am able to be fretting about tiny details like this on the day before my trip because suitcases are locked and loaded. I'm going back through all my paperwork and asking myself if I have all the info I need to make our travels as easy as possible. Still, no trip is complete without my husband and I standing in the middle of an airport, train station or town square screaming at each other about which way is the proper way to proceed!

Just a note on transit passes in Munich... you may not need one. The majority of sites that people visit to see are located within a pretty compact area. Unless you take a daytrip to, let's say, Nymphenburg, Dachau or Therme Erding, I doubt you'll use the Sbahn after arriving. The Ubahn mostly serves to transport commuters from the outer districts into the center. You probably won't use it at all. You may find the need to ride the Straßenbahn, but perhaps not.

Faith,

I just bought an "all day" ticket since i arrived early enough in the day to do some sight seeing and i wasn't sure how compact Munich was going to be for walking.

I did a lot of walking, but i also used the U/S and trams.

as far as metro cops finning people, i didnt see any of that in Munich. I was asked to show proof and i did and moved on.

just ask the people manning the booths. If you use a ticket machine, some will tell you to validate its. Validation will vary. On this, some was stick it in another machine to stamp it, some were sticking it in front of an barcode scanner. Some were validated once purchased too. Usually the passes are validated once and then be careful of how long you use it. what i did was to look at the validation. If i could not decipher the date/time stamp, i would write it down on the pass so that i didnt go over date/time limit.

In Prague there were plain clothes transit cops on one train and i again, showed them my validated ticket. You just put it in a machine and it stamps it. Just an fyi, in Budapest they were inspecting you upon entry and exit of the system. But what i noticed was that it was during the daily commutes and not much on the weekends.

Happy trails.

Quote: From the airport you just go to the ticket machine, and buy a ticket to "München", cost €11.70. This will be valid on all methods of transport (S-Bahn, U-Bahn, tram and bus) to your final destination, which may be anywhere in the "München Central" Zone, with as many changes as necessary.

The "Airport-City Day Ticket" is good not only to your final destination, but also any other trips until 6AM the following day. So you can get to your hotel, then go out for more sightseeing, all on the same ticket! It's quite a bargain for a group -- 11,70€ for one person, or 21,30€ for up to five. Details here.

Then Tuesday morning you can buy a three-day pass covering the rings you plan to visit, and that will get you all the transportation you need until 6AM Friday.

"what is the procedure for validating Munich metro tickets?"

Tickets printed in Bahn ticket automats, generally, have the validity date printed on them and to not have to be cancelled. They will be too wide to fit in the cancelling machines in the Bahnhof.

Tickets purchased in other station/conveyances of the MVV, such as in U-Bahn stations and on streetcars, will be "open" tickets, valid only when "cancelled". They will have the words "Hier entwerten" printed on one end. Insert that end into the cancelling machine on the platform.

If a ticket says "Hier entwerten" and fits in the blue machine, cancel it before boarding the train.