Parking outside Munich to take a train to visit

Karlsfeld has a park&ride S-bahn station. It is right off the A-99 ring highway on the north side of Munich.

"we would prefer to avoid traffic as much as possible." Kind of impossible right now around Munich, because there's a massive amount of construction to update the main arteries in, out and around the city. Expect some delays and account for it in your plans.

If Oktoberfest is going on, I would think the relatively small parking lots of many Sbahn stations are likely to be filled. Pick several alternatives.

Most S-Bahn stations have some form of parking, so you can choose your favourite one. Coming from south, I have always parked at Sauerlach.

This map from MVV shows the Park & Ride locations around Munich, both free and fee. It also shows the major highways around Munich, so you can select a station near a highway you will be using. The farther out you park, the easier it will be to find a parking spot, but the longer will be the trip in.

In addition, this map shows the MVV S-/U-Bahn network. You can click on a station to see information about the station - where it is in the neighborhood and where the P&R lot is at the station.

It also shows how many parking places there are at the P&R and how full they are likely to be vs time of day.

I've been through the Munich Hbf during Oktoberfest and it wasn't that badly crowded. Ten years ago we went from Rothenburg to Berchtesgaden by train using a Bayern-Ticket (27€ for two - less, I'm sure, than the cost of gas) and stopped to change trains and have lunch at the Hbf. You might want to reconsider driving.

Thanks for the replies. Do you think our plan Is realistic and how would the traffic be around thèse stations?

The bad traffic is on the major roads coming to and from Munich, not in the immediate area of the stations. And as I wrote, the parking lots at Sbahn stations don't tend to be very large.

I think you may be being a little ambitious with this plan. The drive from Berchtesgaden to Rothenburg is roughly 4 hours, without taking into account traffic and trying to find a place to park. Then the S-Bahn into Munich will likely be in the 30-45 min range each way. This will leave you relatively little time in Munich. I love Munich and use every opportunity to visit but I think you would be doing it very little justice to spend only a few hours in the city.

I'd recommend trying to carve at least one night out of your itinerary to spend in Munich. Alternatively, there are some very interesting places to see between Berchtesgaden and Rothenburg that would be much easer to get to - Herrenchiemsee, Nordlingen, Dinkelsbuhl and Dachau to name just a few.

Thanks for the advice! You are right that it is a lot to do in one day. We will rethink our plans.

Thanks to all.