Renting a car in Munich

You should go ahead and book when you know what your dates are. A lot of times you can save a little if you prepay as well.

Also, is there a particular rental car company you recommend for Germany?

Unless you just absolutely have to drive take the trains instead. Easy and cheap...

Absolutely book ahead as you will pay more if you book when you arrive. I prefer Sixt when renting in Munich.

If you can provide more detail on your itinerary this forum can give even better advice. For example, are you staying in Munuch or immediately heading somewhere else?

DJ

Thank you for your help. We will be staying in Munich for 7 nights and plan to do some day trips from there.

And if you rent from a location in the center city, you'll save money. Airports and sometimes train station locations often have additional taxation or charges.

Rent the car as you leave the city. Driving and parking in most German cities is not difficult, but Munich is the big exception. A car is useless for getting around in the city, and parking in the old center is in very scant supply.

As David said, the airport and train station locations have an extra fee. With Sixt it is called "Premium Location Fee" and it is $5.90/day. Also, if you are going to be in Munich each night of the seven days I do not recommend that you have a rental car for that period unless it is not possible/inconvenient to reach your destinations by public transportation. Parking in the city will be neither convenient or cheap.

If you must rent I still recommend Sixt, just not at the airport or train station.

DJ

Check Priceline to compare your rental car rates. I always rent from airport or train stations as that is usually how I am traveling and do not find it convenient to have to get from one location to another (costs money) to get a cheaper car rate. Also the airports will usually have a much better selection of vehicles available. I do agree that you do not need a car while in Munich and if you are planning day trips out of Munich and back you might want to be sure your hotel does have cheap/free parking and is easy to get to with your car. I drive often in Germany and find it to be a great way to travel. Some of my most memorable experiences there were when I decided to take a diversion in my route and found a wonderful little village that I had never heard of. I really dislike have the restrictions of a train schedule and prefer to travel the same way I would in the US... just get in my car and go.
Also, I never prepay for car rental as then you are stuck if anything changes.... what I will do however is to check the rates every few weeks. I choose the cheapest and book my reservation, but then when I find a cheaper rate (I almost always do) I will make a new res and cancel the previous one. Car rental rates are just like airfare... they can change from moment to moment. The nice thing is you can hold it without paying first.

"We will be staying in Munich for 7 nights and plan to do some day trips from there."

Traffic in and out of Munich can be problematic or more than problematic. Generally speaking, I do not understand the car strategy for day trips out of Munich. Of course you haven't named your destinations - maybe yours just aren't reachable by train, but most are, and train trips are easier and cheaper.

Just one example... there are direct trains to Garmisch-Partenkirchen that run every hour and take 1:20 - a day pass ("Region-ticket Werdenfels") can be bought at the station and is €23 for two adults. The schedule is generous - even if you stayed in G-P until 23:00, there'd still be a train back to Munich's main station. Under ideal conditions the car would get you to G-P almost as quickly. But rental costs and parking fees aside, the gas alone will cost €24-25. Another perk of day trips by train is avoiding the blood-alcohol bugaboo... If you're like a lot of visitors, you might want to enjoy a "Bavarian Evening," like the one at Garmisch's Fraundorfer Inn, with a couple of Bavarian-sized beers - and without the need to drive back to Munich afterward. German blood alcohol limits are very low, and DUI consequences very strict.

http://www.gasthof-fraundorfer.de/english/restaurant.php

Always better, cheaper, to reserve in advance.

We use Andy Bestor at www.gemut.com

We Always pre pay for the car. If you need to cancel, there is NO charge to do so. You get a 100% refund. This had happened to us. If the rate drops, you can cancel and get the lower rate. No problems.

I wholeheartedly agree with Tim, Tom, and Russ. For travel in and around Munich and Bavaria, a car is more a hindrance than a help. Most connections to towns around Munich are by regional trains and as fast as by car - and probably cheaper. I've spent 87 days in Bavaria, and never needed a car, and over 80% of that time has been spent in small towns. Bavaria has one of the best systems of transportation in the world - use it.

And where are you going after Munich? You can probably get there easily by train.

Use the Bahn website to find connections to where you want to go.

We had a rental car during a road trip through a number of areas in southern Europe this summer including Bavaria. My husband has a bad ankle (surgery coming soon!) and really can't walk through train stations dragging luggage around and walking a whole lot...so we rented a car for this trip. We had never done this before and will never do it again!
We stayed in Munich for 4 nights. I have driven a lot in most major cities in the US, Europe, and several in Asia and can manage it very well. I would say that Munich is on the more difficult end of the traffic difficulty scale. Navigating the city is very challenging and it has significant traffic for much of the day. If you are wanting to take day trips out of the city you will need to tack on quite a bit of extra time to escape the city.
The other issue is parking...it really is difficult. Few hotels have parking facilities that they either own or have an arrangement with. We booked into a hotel that said they had their own garage. It was true but it was quite an adventure...turned out it was an underground "garage". I had to put the car into a tiny elevator - barely enough room to clear the rear view mirrors - and go down two levels below ground. Then I had to inch it across an underground room that was no bigger than my living room, back it up onto a car lift like you would see in a mechanics garage, and lock the wheels into place by gunning it into reverse to get them into a groove in the tracks. It was terrifying! I was so glad we didn't need to get the car out until we left the city. Had to do the whole thing in reverse when we left. My palms get sweaty just thinking about it!
My point is that parking and using a car in Munich is tough. Really do your homework before you leave home and book into a hotel. The place just isn't designed for cars. I would strongly recommend looking into public transportation for wherever you are wanting to take day trips...that's the beauty of Europe - their public transportation system is truly amazing. Take advantage of it!

Traffic in and out of Munich can be problematic or more than problematic. Usually more than problematic...

I do have a question for the group, however. Has anyone driven in/around/through Munich in the past several months? Although it will never be a driver's paradise, conditions were particularly bad over the past few years because of some massive road renovation projects. A9 north of the city and the Innsbrucker Ring link to A95 towards Garmisch-Partenkirchen were the major headaches. However, I haven't driven through Munich since August 2014, so perhaps it's improved slightly in the interval?

Although it will never be a driver's paradise, conditions were particularly bad over the past few years because of some massive road renovation projects. A9 north of the city and the Innsbrucker Ring link to A95 towards Garmisch-Partenkirchen were the major headaches. However, I haven't driven through Munich since August 2014, so perhaps it's improved slightly in the interval?

I was there in September. I didn't drive but I did notice the construction on the A9 north seems the be complete. Also according to the city website the Mittlerer Ring Südwest project is complete as well: http://www.muenchen.de/rathaus/Stadtverwaltung/baureferat/projekte/mittlerer-ring-suedwest.html

Here is a site for traffic and construction info when planning road trips around Munich: http://www.bayerninfo.de/planner

Right now it appears all the major construction projects are complete.

DJ

Even if the roads are in great condition - the trains are fast, affordable, frequent and cheap and require no special insurance coverage or deductibles or parking or petrol or any other cumbersome requirement like a boat anchor rental vehicle has.

Even if the roads are in great condition ...

It still wouldn't matter, because traffic would only be slightly less awful, and the winding, twisting roads are still labyrinthine. And parking still wouldn't be any more available.

Has anyone driven in/around/through Munich in the past several months?

I was there, with my car, in June. You know, the biggest problem is that Munich's ring road isn't. A ring, I mean. It is sort of a very stretched out pointy egg shape with a big old kink on the south side.

Truly, guys, it's no fun. Not easy if you want to go southwest. Ok for east. Except for the junctions that are still out of use even though the autobahn is back. Not the best signage either.

The route to Erding is interesting.

Lots of heavy traffic and stau on the ring road but nothing compared to the roads in town. I parked except on Sunday and took the train in.

Thank you all for your remarks and suggestions. They have been very helpful. Given your comments and our sightseeing interests, I think I will forego the rental car and just take the trains. It appears there are many options and our hotel is near the train station. Safe travels to you all!

Good Choice!

This is absolutely great thread and lot of useful info here. I plan to be in Munich in October for 7 nights and doing day trips to Bavaria, Salzburg and Garmisch regions. I have been debating renting a car vs train option for a while. After reading all these traffic concerns I'm very much inclined to just stick to trains. Besides I plan on staying budget friendly Airbnb rentals in the center of city and worrying about parking and accessibility would be a nightmare. For my solo travel needs trains are lot more comfortable I think. Appreciate all the input here.

I think train travel is considered a normal mode of transportation to most people in the world...other than Americans. We think we must have a rental vehicle to travel and train travel is just a nostalgic form of transportation. We're so far behind in the USA with our almost non-existent public transportation system that most of us just can't even fathom that other countries actually DO have integrated public transportation systems that are VASTLY friendlier to use than rental vehicles.

Take the train - have FUN!

Tim: that's too broad a brush. Many places in the US have good public transportation and it's not just in the NE. 10.8 billion trips is not insignificant. Many US cities also have chip fare cards (like London's Oyster card) which I have not seen used in continental Europe. Useable trains outside large cities are rather uncommon in the US, that is true.

I guess what I'm saying is that Germany is uniform culturally and public transportation varies from very good to excellent. The US is much more diverse and public transportation varies from non-existent to excellent.

We were surprised by very sparse traffic in Munich but it was August, vacation time, maybe that's why.

Tom, I'm not referring to the little city metros that a very FEW cities have - and surely you're not even remotely trying to say that Amtrak is a real public transportation system??? Yes it has a few key routes between some of the major cities in the NE, but as a transportation system for the USA - it fails miserably.

There are people in the US who have never seen a public transportiaton system other than the Greyhound Bus. That's why so many Americans can't fathom traveling without a rental car, and even the thoughts of attempting to use a train in Europe is mind-boggling.

I just returned from a trip to southern Germany, Switzerland and Austria by rental car. We found it great for traveling between cities and in rural areas. It gave us a lot of flexibility and traveling was fast on the well maintained and fast autobahns- we were able to travel to a lot more places than if we had used public transportation. Rental charges were very reasonable, less than $600 for twenty days for a compact with auto transmission. Gas is now much less expensive especially with the high mileage compact car. Parking was rarely a problem if you plan in advance. A car gives you another place to keep your stuff, i.e. you don't have to lug around every suitcase, etc. you have and can instead leave it in the car. A GPS is a must, but are cheap to rent, I do, however, agree that for your solo trip based primarily in Munich using public transportation may make more sense. FYI, we spent two days in Munich and had no traffic problems when entering, leaving and going to Dachu; we used the U bahn to go to the city center.

"we were able to travel to a lot more places than if we had used public transportation"

That, I have found, is a common misconception amongst those unfamiliar with public transportation in Germany. Did you really thoroughly investigate where you could go with public transportation? Or did you just make that assumption because you wanted to drive?

Germany has the second most dense rail network in Europe, only 1% less dense than number 1 Switzerland. The Bahn has over 5400 stations, over 80% are in small towns. In addition to more than 1000 rail stations in Bavaria, there is an extensive network of Bahn-operated buses in southern Bavaria. I've spent month traveling in Bavaria, 85% of the time in small towns, and I have never not been able to get to somewhere I wanted by rail or bus.

'Rental charges were very reasonable, less than $600 for twenty days for a compact'

When I spent 21 days in southern Germany in 2013, my total rail and bus expense for two was less than 350€ ($380 today), over $200 less than your cost of a car rental alone. With a car, fuel for most of my trip would have been over 200€ ($230) today. So, $600 for car rental plus $230 for fuel would have cost me $830. I only spent $380 (less than half) using public transportation.

By the way, of the 8 towns I stayed in on the trip, 6 towns (15 nights) had under 11,000 people, 3 (9 nights) had under 6,000 - all using public transportation.

Lee, you are so absolutely correct. It's just a knee-jerk reaction to automatically get a rental car and automatically conclude that "we had much more freedom". righto. The first thing those kinds of sentences tell me is that "you don't know how to use public transportation".

If you truly need a rental car then that's fine, of course. But assuming you need it is just not true.

I agree largely with Lee and Tim. It would take a LOT to pry my backside out of trains in Germany. Trains offer so many advantages that car rental for me would nearly unthinkable.

That said... trains have a few limitations, and users need to consider how to minimize those disadvantages.

"A car gives you another place to keep your stuff, i.e. you don't have to lug around every suitcase, etc. " Very true and worth considering. Train travelers that fail to pack and travel lightly need to think about what to do with their stuff if they choose stopover points in between overnight locations. Many stations have lockers; that said, many do not. But TI offices often hold bags in such towns for no charge at all. Check with them before stopping if in fact you have too much stuff to carry around with you comfortably for a short visit (Rick Steves' packing tips are critical for train travel.)

Disabled travelers - some stations will present you with stair problems. Research this issue in advance. Using trains will clearly mean fewer spontaneous travel decisions.

Certain accommodations in oddball locations will be inaccessible except by car, or a more expensive taxi ride for train travelers - however, some innkeepers offer pick-up and drop-off service and will greet you at the station.

Accommodations near the station are not imperative but certainly more desirable for train travelers - much better than having to make two extra bus, tram or subway trips to use the station whenever you do a day trip. Most train users will need/want to search for rooms within a fairly limited radius of the station. This sometimes limits choice and probably requires more planning.

Labor strikes - these have been mostly resolved in Germany for the near future. But the recent train strikes caused very nasty problems. Be sure to consult the news - if any strikes are looming, learn about what train systems might be affected, and create a back-up plan just in case.