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Rental Car or Public Transportation Munich Area Plus Salzburg

We will be in Germany over the Christmas holiday with a quick stop in Salzburg--arriving December 21 and departing a week later.

We will be staying in Munich December 21-26; Salzburg just December 26-27. We plan to return to the Munich airport that night for a hotel before departing on December 28.

The question is do we rent a car, and if so, for some or all of the trip?

General plans:

December 21: Arrive and holiday markets
December 22: Holiday markets
December 23: Neuschwanstein
December 24: Zugspitze tobogganing
December 25: Dachau
December 26: Move to Salzburg-- see Salzburg
December 27: Salzburg - depart that evening to return to MUC
December 28: Depart MUC

Dachau would be much easier with a car, I think. Neuschwanstein will be a tour from Munich. Zugspitze--not sure. Nervous about the roads and public transportation seems easy. I don't know that I want the hassle of taking the car over the border.

Is there reason to rent a car?

Posted by
22787 posts

Everything is cheap and frequent regional trains or local bus EUR per person. A car is not necessary, and a handicap in Munich.
You might consider getting the monthly Deutschland Ticket. 58 EUR per person covers everything.

Posted by
4069 posts

You might consider getting the monthly Deutschland Ticket. 58 EUR per person covers everything.

Not public transport in Salzburg.

Be aware to cancel the subscription ticket early enough to avoid paying for January.

Posted by
22787 posts

Not public transport in Salzburg.

True, but public transportation to and from Salzburg.

Posted by
3 posts

Wow! Y'all are awesome!

I do think that Deutschland Ticket is the way to go. I know it doesn't cover regional transportation in Salzburg, but I think we'll be on foot (or taxi if needed?) once we're there.

No car...got it. :)

Posted by
8024 posts

When considering whether to rent a car one needs to consider if public transportation is available to the place you want to visit and how frequently it runs. If there is no public transportation, it runs sporadically, or it takes significantly longer to use public transportation due to scheduling or having to transfer, then a car might be preferable. Definitely no car in Munich.

Posted by
19485 posts

To expand on Windyram's post, there are two stops with the name "Dachau" on the S2 line; you want Dachau Bahnhof, not Dachau Stadt. Dachau Bahnhof is the first Dachau stop coming from town.

Also, the S2 line splits, with one branch going to Petershausen, and the other one going to Altomünster. Dachau Bahnhof is at the split point, Dachau Stadt is on the Altomünster branch.

Here is the map of the S-Bahn lines in Munich. Dachau is near the top left-hand corner.

If you are leaving from any station on the central S-Bahn trunk line through downtown (Hauptbahnhof, Marienplatz, Isartor, etc.) there are two Richtungen (directions) in the station, Ostbahnhof and Pasing (probably shown on the station wall). You want to take an S2 in the direction of Pasing (to either Altomünster OR Petershausen).

Posted by
998 posts

This can all be easily done by train/public transportation, but I'll put in my plug in for a car for Neuschwanstein from Munich. Yes, you can get there by train but the drive is nice and a car gives you the option to stop along the way at places like Starnberg, Wieskirche, other small towns, or even venture into the mountains a little. I've done it both ways and honestly I prefer to little breaks we can take in the countryside on the drive up and back.

For the rest, 100% train/public transportation. We lived in Munich and owned a car and even then I took the train to Salzburg most of the time.

DJ