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Munich Public transit help needed

I will be arriving at the Munich airport at 7:30 PM from Dublin on a Sunday evening. I am staying at Hotel-Gasthof Maisberger, which I understand is the second stop on some train line from the airport.

Which line, What stop?

I will then spend Monday & Tuesday at the hotel. I want public transport into Munich and transport around the city. The farthest place away from the city is the BMW Welt. On Wednesday it will be back to the airport and home.

Every day I will need public transit to the city, around the city, then back to Hotel-Gasthof Maisberger.

What ticket(s) do I need? I want the ability to travel around the city. A lot of one direction tickets would be expensive. What is my best bet?

I tried looking it up and got so terribly confused.

Posted by
1023 posts

I'm sorry to put it this way, but, if researching this part of your journey has you confused,
then my advice is to study the topic in more detail because you appear to need to be
self-sufficient on the Munich public transport system, and you don't appear to be that
way quite yet. You don't want to get caught with not paying the correct fare enroute,
or, worse, getting lost enroute.

The S1 line out of the airport (there are two lines, S1 and S8) will take you to Neufahrn,
the second stop, where your hotel is located. The hotel website is almost always a good
source for figuring out how to reach the hotel....
Hotel

You can buy a single ticket from the airport to Neufahrn for 2 EUR.

Neufahrn is in Zone 3 on the Munich fare zone map. A day ticket for unlimited travel
from Zone 3 into and around Munich center is 13.30 EUR.

Posted by
36 posts

I recommend you download the free MVV app. This is the app for Munich public transportation system. You can easily type in wherever you want to go from wherever you are. It will give you options about how to get there and what ticket you need to purchase. Often, a day pass is the most cost-efficient option if you plan to make more than one ride on public transportation per day. You can easily purchase whatever ticket or pass you need on the app itself and then you don’t need to worry about validating your ticket in a machine. It is the simplest way to go and get around the town.

Posted by
2604 posts

Confusingly, in Munich there are two competing apps issued by cooperating associations: the MVV app from the greater Munich transport association MVV and the MVGo app from the transport authority of the city of Munich (which is a member of the MVV). I would install the latter, because it allows you to tap in/tap out (called “swipe in/out” here), making the cumbersome process of buying/booking tickets unnecessary. You could also use it to rent a bicycle or an e-scooter.

Posted by
1148 posts

Fritz, I didn't know there were two apps. Good to know. But I had the other one on my last trip - MVV - and it also has the swipe feature. I found it very convenient. OP, I agree with the recommendation to get a transit app because the swipe in/out feature will aggregate all your trips for a given day and charge you the cheapest amount for the trips you took, including a day pass if that's the best option. Works like a charm for payment. You don't have to worry about the complex zone map and which side of a zone border your stop is located. You still have to do some route finding, which is also good in the app.

As shoeflyer suggests, I did spend time pre-trip studying the transit system and the app features. I also set up an account in the app, including a payment method, before I left for Germany. The study time helped me a lot once I arrived.

However, all this technology didn't stop me from having a brain hiccup as to whether I had actually gotten on the train going the direction I intended or not. I got off at the next stop to take the time to figure it out. Turns out I had been right, got back on the next train headed the same direction and off I went. So don't worry, any wrong turn is fixable.

Posted by
2604 posts

MVV - and it also has the swipe feature.

Nelly, thanks for pointing that out; I hadn't been aware that the MVV app has caught up on this point.

Posted by
997 posts

For us harried and forgetful travelers, if I fail to swipe in I am subject to a fine for not having a valid ticket? And if I fail to swipeout will I be charged the maximum zones? I had great difficulty swiping in and out in the Netherlands a couple years ago. It seems you have to hold your phone a just the right place to get the reader to work.

I find a few minutes buying a day or multi-day ticket is worth the few minutes it takes when I'm not traveling with a D-Ticket.

Posted by
2604 posts

It seems you have to hold your phone a just the right place to get the reader to work.

You just "swipe out" at your phone.

Posted by
2604 posts

Addendum re

if I fail to swipeout will I be charged the maximum zones?

quoting the MVGO FAQ:

If you have allowed notifications from the MVGO on your smartphone, you will be notified of the forgotten check-out five minutes after leaving the stop. If you do not check out here either, the system will notify you again after a few minutes. The system recognizes when you are not in a public transport vehicle. Consequently, you will not incur any costs even if you forget to check out.