Munich to Prague, best way?

Depends on what you mean by "best".

The fastest is the bus because it does not make any stops between Munich and Prague (except sometimes at the Munich airport). However, unless you want to pay 66,20€/P for full fare, it requires non-refundable, advance purchase tickets. Unless you get these ticket at the lowest tier, the bus can be more more expensive than by train.

The bus used to leave from the north side of the Hauptbahnhof, but I noticed it now leaves from Hackerbrücke ZOB, one S-Bahn stop (approx. ½ mi) west of the Hauptbahnhof.

There are 3 direct trains from Munich Hbf to Praha hl n per day (at 9:01, 12:44, and 17:02). They take about an hour longer than the bus (5¾-6 hrs), but there is no specific vehicle commitment. You can purchase a Bayern-Böhmen-Ticket just before departure. The price from an automat is 25€ for the first person, 4,50€ additional for each person up to 5. The Bayern-Böhmen-Ticket is like the Bayern-Ticket except it covers travel all the way to Pilsen, CR. After you are in the Czech Republic but before Pilsen, purchase a ticket from Pilsen to Prague from the Czech conductor for 100 Kc, about 4€ (I've been told by Germans that you can purchase the ticket on the train. If not get off in Pilsen and buy the ticket there. Your train only waits for 10 min, but there is another in an hour.)

With the Bayern-Böhmen-Ticket and the Czech ticket, the price for one person is less than 29€, the starting price of the SavingsFare tickets for the bus (Note: full fare tickets for the bus are 66,20€/P). For two people the train is less than 40€, the bus SavingFare is 58€.

The bus ticket includes a reserved seat. The train is a regional train. No seats are reservable, but it is a big train.

If you do advance purchase bus tickets, make your request from "Muenchen Hauptbahnhof", not "Munich Hbf" or "Munich Hauptbahnhof". For some reason specifying Hbf gives you a ticket just from the Hackerbrücke ZOB and you'll either have to pay extra for the S-Bahn or walk the 1/2 mile or so. If you specify Hauptbahnhof, the ticket will be from the Hbf (tief) and will include the S-Bahn.

Sig, I am trying to figure out the same thing myself. Rick recommends the Deutsche Bahn (DB) bus which is supposed to leave from the north side of the train station. However, I went to the DB web site and can't find Prague as a destination from Munich. So I am a little unsure how to proceed trying to make reservations and buy a ticket.

The Bahn website should recognize Prague, but, in German, the native language of the website, the name is Prag. It also recognizes "Praha nl. n.", which is the Czech name. No matter what you input, the connection will come back as Praha hl. n. That's Prague.

The bus now leaves from the Hackerbrücke ZOB, next to the S-Bahn stop by that name.

Thanks Lee. I am starting to think of taking the train. You can buy a ticket from the Czech train web site for about 29 Euros.