Places to Stay Near Munich

Everyone is probably looking for a place "a few minutes outside of Munich ... that would not be too expensive". I doubt that a few minutes outside of Munich is going to be much cheaper.

Here is a place I stayed at in Landsberg on the last Saturday night of Oktoberfest in 2007. They hadn't raised their rates.

Landsberg is 47 minutes from the Munich Hbf by hourly train connection with one change.

Landsberg is a quaint little town on the Romantic Road, home of the prison where Hitler wrote the first part of Mein Kampf.

We stayed at Hotel Mayer in Germering for Octoberfest several years ago. It was quite nice and I believe it was reasonably priced. It's just a short walk to the train line.

What is "not too expensive", considering that traveling on rail passes, you've already chosen one of the single most expensive methods of travel?

It isn't "a few minutes outside of Munich" (more like 30), but consider staying in Erding, mainly so that you can experience the fabulous Therme Erding. The resort now has a built-in hotel, but if you'd prefer something cheaper, look into Hotel Mayr Wirt. Not the most fantastic hotel where I've ever spent the night, but it's good enough and relatively cheap.

The standard answers I've seen on here to " Does anyone know of good places to stay a few minutes outside of Munich on the train that would not be too expensive?" are:
Erding - Therme Erding and S-Bahn connections to Munich
Landshut - very nice town, 45min by train direct to Munich
Freising - S-Bahn connections to Munich

I'd also suggest locations to the south east like :
Holzkirchen (on S-Bahn line)
Rosenheim (36min by train to Munich)
Bad Tolz (nice area but not easy to reach by rail pass)

If by "few minutes" you mean closer in that what is listed above then I would suggest Ismaning. Its on the Isar and the S-Bahn line so you have the option of taking the train into town or renting a bike and cycling along the Isar.

DJ

"What is not too expensive?"

The site shows a DZ at 80€/nt. Two people could get back and forth to Munich for 28€ with a Bayern-Ticket.

"Bad Tolz (nice area but not easy to reach by rail pass)"

As in impossible. Bad Tölz is on a line of the BOB (Bayerishe Oberlandbahn) from Holzkirchen to Bad Tölz. BOB does not except rail passes (Eurail or German Rail), but it does accept the Bayern-Ticket.

Hotel Mayr Wirt looks like it is booked in early June.

Check Herrsching, as well -- it's the southwest end of the S8 line that takes you directly to the Hbf and Marienplatz, and on to the airport. It's on the scenic Ammersee, and Andechs monastery and brewery are just up the hill.

Let me second Rosenheim as an attractive little city in the Alpine forelands. And this long-running German TV show takes place there. Just try to get the theme tune out of your head.

Thanks everyone for your replies!! I'm just wondering, how is a 3-week global pass one of the most expensive ways to travel through Europe? I'm paying about 20 Euro/day to take the train wherever I want... my itinerary is very fast-paced and usually involves taking the train somewhere new every day, on routes that typically cost more than 20 Euro/day if I bought individually. What could I have done that would have been cheaper?

A 21 day youth pass is $560 or 499€, 23,75€/day, each person.

You pay for a Global pass every day, even if you don't travel that day. Any day that you don't travel is 23,75€ per person (47,50€ over $53) down the rat hole.

Any day that your travel is local, say in Bavaria, you could do the same travel with a Bayern-Ticket for 28€ for two (14€ each). The Bayern-Ticket would also cover any travel on RVO buses; the rail pass would not. Same with most other Länder.

If you stayed in Erding, an MVV Gesamtnetz Gruppen Tageskarte for 22,30€ would cover your travel (both of you) in and out of Munich that day and any other travel by U-Bahn, streetcar, or bus in Munich. The 40€ rail pass would only cover the S-Bahn.

I've made 9 trips to Germany since I last used a rail pass in 2000, and I've always compared my point-point tickets with a rail pass and a rail pass has never come close to costing less, but your style of travel might be such that a rail pass would pay off, but in that case I would say your style of travel is ill-advised .

Right, but that is just the few days we are in Munich/Bavaria. Sure, we may lose a couple bucks on the days we don't travel as far. For three weeks, I am taking longer trips such as Prague-Budapest, Brussels-Bacharach, Bacharach-Berlin, Berlin-Munich, Munich-Bern, Bern-Avignon, Arles-Toulouse, and Toulouse-Paris, and that doesn't include the other regional trains in northern Italy that I will be using, and day trips from Brussels-Bruges, around Switzerland, etc. I only had to pay for three additional reservations for the trains in France, and that was $10/train as opposed to the $60+ I saw for each of these trains if I bought them individually.

I'll definitely keep your suggestions in mind for future travels. Thank you!

Looking for "Jo" who lives in Munich. Terry Kathryn from Michigan mentioned you might have some ideas where to stay in Munich. Finding a room with air conditioning seems to be difficult. We would like to see the sites via "foot" without taking the train, so we would like something in or near the city center. It's been nearly a month and we can't find anything. Danke for suggestions from Jo and others.

Jo is from Frankfurt, and even though I'm sure she's visited Munich, she usually doesn't chime in for locations too far away from her neck of the woods.

I know of at least one hotel that definitely has air conditioning in Munich... but it's the most expensive hotel in the city:

Hotel Bayerischer Hof. But it's one of the best I've every stayed in.

Go to Booking.com and you'll find lots of hotels near the city center. Eden Wolff is across the street from the main RR station on one side and Le Meridien and Europaeischer Hof on the other side.

Prague, Budapest, Brussels, Bacharach, Berlin, Munich, Bern, Avignon, Arles, Toulouse, and Paris.

That's 11 venues, and that doesn't include your time in northern Italy. Ok, you could do Avignon and Arles in a single day (but then the fare between them, 5,60€ each would hardly be worth a railpass day). So if you consider Arles and Avignon a single venue, you still have at least 10 venues and 9 days of travel in 21 days - hardly what I would recommend, and yet it takes this kind of extreme travel to justify a rail pass.

You're right, it's a lot, but I don't think it is as bad as it sounds... it's actually over 3 and a half weeks (I have a 21 day pass plus 3 days) and Prague and Paris don't count in that time frame because I will be in those cities before and after the rail pass is active.

I do have two other questions about rail passes that maybe someone can answer:
1. Can I use some of 3 extra travel days before the continuous 3 week part of the pass is active? Meaning can I travel for one day, skip a day, then activate the 21 continuous days?
2. If I am taking an overnight train that leaves at 22:30 and arrives at 6:50, do I need 1 or 2 travel days for that?

Thank you!

According to the "7 PM" rule, if you get on a night train that leaves after 1900 and reaches it's final destination after 400 the next morning, you only have to "use" one day (the arrival day) of your pass, and you can take other trains after the night train (but it will not cover trains getting to the night train on day 1).¹

"I have a 21 day pass plus 3 days"

I assume you have a 21 day continuous pass AND a 3 day out of 2 months pass. You can activate the 3 day pass, use it, and then activate the 21 day pass when you want to use it. They're separate passes.

¹ When filling in the dates on a Flexi-pass, be sure to use European number convention. Their "1" looks like a "7" with a droopy top bar while their "7" has a middle cross bar. I've heard of people filling in a 7 and the conductor claiming it was not the seventh but the first, and that they needed to use a 2nd day for the seventh.

A Germany-based friend recommends the small German chain Motel One with a number of locations in greater Munich. Smallish rooms but pretty new and most, if not all were built with AC in mind. Seems to usually be a little cheaper than the Ibis (budget arm of French hotel giant Accor) option.