What is the best train ticket to buy while in Munich (and do day trips)?

Airport to Hotel (which is walking distance from the central station) and back to Airport

MVV Group all zone day ticket, 23.90 EUR

Travel within the city-English garden, Residenz, Nymphenberg palace, Marienplatz, etc

MVV Group Inner zone day ticket. 12.60 EUR. or 29.10 EUR for 3 consecutive days.

Day trip to Salzburg

Meridian Guten Tag ticket. 27 EUR, travel after 9 am M-F, anytime weekends. up to three children are free with parents.

Day trip to either Linderhof (via Oberamergau) OR Neushwanstein castle

Bayern Ticket will work. 31 EUR and up to 2 children are free with parents. travel after 9 am M-F, anytime weekends

Day trip to Mittenwald + Garmisch

Bayern Ticket will work. 31 EUR and up to 2 children are free with parents. travel after 9 am M-F, anytime weekends

Day trip to Tegernsee+ Wallberg mountains

Bayern Ticket will work. 31 EUR and up to 2 children are free with parents. travel after 9 am M-F, anytime weekends

All these tickets can be bought out of a ticket automat right before you travel. If you purchase the Guten Tag or Bayern Tickets from a ticket window, you will be charged a 2 EUR service fee.
You did say you wanted the best price, and buying tickets like this a by far the cheapest way to go. After a couple of days, it won't seem like such a chore, Takes 1 minute to stop and buy tickets out of a machine once you've gotten the hang of it.

**Thank you so much for your prompt and detailed response. I have few additional questions based on the response below. All start with *.

Airport to Hotel (which is walking distance from the central station) and back to Airport
MVV Group all zone day ticket, 23.90 EUR
** Can I buy a 3 day all zone ticket and use to go from airport to station??

Travel within the city-English garden, Residenz, Nymphenberg palace, Marienplatz, etc
MVV Group Inner zone day ticket. 12.60 EUR. or 29.10 EUR for 3 consecutive days.
** As above?

Day trip to Salzburg
Meridian Guten Tag ticket. 27 EUR, travel after 9 am M-F, anytime weekends. up to three children are free with parents.
** Is there a Bayern ticket I can use?

Day trip to either Linderhof (via Oberamergau) OR Neushwanstein castle
Bayern Ticket will work. 31 EUR and up to 2 children are free with parents. travel after 9 am M-F, anytime weekends
Day trip to Mittenwald + Garmisch
Bayern Ticket will work. 31 EUR and up to 2 children are free with parents. travel after 9 am M-F, anytime weekends
Day trip to Tegernsee+ Wallberg mountains
Bayern Ticket will work. 31 EUR and up to 2 children are free with parents. travel after 9 am M-F, anytime weekends

*** For the above three, is there a 3 day Bayern ticket/pass that could be bought once and is discounted?

All these tickets can be bought out of a ticket automat right before you travel. If you purchase the Guten Tag or Bayern Tickets from a ticket window, you will be charged a 2 EUR service fee.
You did say you wanted the best price, and buying tickets like this a by far the cheapest way to go. After a couple of days, it won't seem like such a chore, Takes 1 minute to stop and buy tickets out of a machine once you've gotten the hang of it.
** Yes, agree, though I had read somewhere about a discount pass, but can't seem to find that link any longer. Hence the question.

Thank you once again

You have not said how long you will be in Munich.
The MVV all zone group ticket is good for the day, So you arrive at the airport, buy the ticket and it covers you from the airport to your hotel an the entire Munich transport network for the remainder of the day. On the day you leave, you have to buy a new ticket for the ride to the airport.

For time in Munich, all the items on your hit list are in the Inner Zone, so you just need the Inner Zone group tickets, either 1 or 3 days as your schedule dictates.

http://www.mvv-muenchen.de/en/tickets-fares/index.html

The Guten Tag Ticket is less than the Bayern Ticket, but only good on the Meridian trains between Munich and Salzburg and Munich and Kufstein, and a few other routes.

https://www.meridian-bob-brb.de/de/tickets/guten-tag-ticket

Sorry, only in German. Try google translate.

I know of no other unified pass, except a German Rail Pass, which will cost 3 times the cost of individual day tickets.

Day trip to Mittenwald + Garmisch

The cheapest ticket for that trip is a »Werdenfels ticket« for €20 plus €6 for each additional traveller; children up to 14 years travel for free. Unlike the Bayern ticket it is not subject to the 9am restriction. It is valid on the S-Bahn München, the train lines to Garmisch / Mittenwald, Oberammergau, and Kochel and all RVO bus lines in the region, cf. the map here (scroll down and klick on »Übersichtskarte«). Don't forget to enter then names of all travellers, otherwise the ticket will be invalid.

@ sla019, I knew about the Werdenfels Ticket, but there is perhaps a flaw in the DB route planner. When I entered 2 adults and 2 children under 14, it gave the Bayern Ticket at 31 EUR as the best price. When I deleted to the 2 children, it gave me the Werdenfels Ticket price of 26 EUR. I went to Werdenfels Ticket "Conditions of Carriage" and in my very rudimentary German, it did seem to say that up to 3 children under 14 traveling with parents were free. So I could not see why DB would recommend the Bayern Ticket over the Werdenfels Ticket, unless there was some nuance in the text I was missing.

Anyway, on your recommendation, buy the Werdenfels Ticket for this trip.

And writing the names of all travelers on the back of the ticket applies to the Bayern Ticket as well.

unless there was some nuance in the text I was missing.

@Sam , I think you didn't miss anything. The conditions of the Werdenfels ticket have been changed since it's introduction several times and not every detail seems to have found it's way into the data base. Also, the description of the conditions is downright wrong in stating that the ticket be valid after 9am only. That restriction was cancelled already in 2016 without adjustment of the respective PDF document. Seems as if the DB bureaucracy cannot keep pace with their own inflationary output of new (and often useless) regional train tickets.

EDIT:

When I deleted to the 2 children, it gave me the Werdenfels Ticket price of 26 EUR.

Same bug in the German version.

Thank you Sam and Sla019 for the responses.

So I had the same question. Do I enter '2' people when buying ticket or '4' because the price changes? Unlike some other websites, it does not ask for how many adults and how many children. If I get 2 ticekts, children are actually traveliing without a ticket. I had assumed they would atleast have a printed ticket to show proof (even if free, just like the Bayern). Will that be alright?

So, are these different tickets for different types of trains? Bayern vs Werdenfels? But they all depart and reach the same station?

Also, it was mentioned that Werdenfels also includes buses -but there will not be any bus route in the Mittenwald+Garmisch trip, correct?

On the other hand, Oberamergau to Linderhof is a bus route, should I get Werdenfels for that one? Or do I need to buy a separate bus ticket for that?

I am sure once we reach there it will all sort out, but from sitting here in California, all look so complicated.

And sorry not to mention, our trip is 5.5 days long, reach around 1pm on 21st June and leave 27th morning. Are we overdoing it?

Thank you once again.

One more question, will the Bayern or the Werdenfels work within inner zone if we come back early and want to head to Marienplatz for dinner etc?

The Bayern-Ticket is valid for all conveyances (S-/U-Bahn, trams, & buses) of the MVV (Munich metro district). The Regio-Ticket-Werdenfels is only valid for the S-Bahn in Munich. As long as you are taking the S-Bahn from the Hauptbahnhof to Marienplatz, either pass will work.

it was mentioned that Werdenfels also includes buses -but there will
not be any bus route in the Mittenwald+Garmisch trip, correct?

The map referenced by SLA shows the RVO bus routes (in red) included with the Werdenfels-Ticket. No extra fare needed for bus 9622 from Oberammergau to Linderhof. The schedule for bus 9622 is shown here, in German. (Montag-Freitag, in gray, is Monday-Friday; blue is for weekends and holidays; S = school days; F = non-school days)

So I had the same question. Do I enter '2' people when buying ticket or '4' because the price changes? Unlike some other websites, it does not ask for how many adults and how many children. If I get 2 ticekts, children are actually traveliing without a ticket. I had assumed they would atleast have a printed ticket to show proof (even if free, just like the Bayern). Will that be alright?

Just buy a ticket for two travellers, the children won't have a ticket.

So, are these different tickets for different types of trains? Bayern vs Werdenfels? But they all depart and reach the same station?

The »Werdenfels ticket« is just a reduced variant of the Bayern Ticket, valid only on trains going into the Werdenfels region. I never would recommend it to anyone if it had not one big advantage: unlike the Bayern Ticket, it is not subject to the 9am restriction. As for the trains, there is just one type of train going from Munich to Garmisch and Mittenwald, a RB (»Regionalbahn« = regional train), which departs from Munich Hbf hourly at minute 32 past the hour from track 27 to 33 (the so called »Starnberger Bahnhof«, a wing adjacent to the central hall to the north).

Also, it was mentioned that Werdenfels also includes buses -but there will not be any bus route in the Mittenwald+Garmisch trip, correct?

Yes, just stay aboard the train.

On the other hand, Oberamergau to Linderhof is a bus route, should I get Werdenfels for that one? Or do I need to buy a separate bus ticket for that?

Both the Werdenfels ticket and the Bayern ticket include local buses (the name of the bus company is RVO, a subsidiary of DB). Just have a look on the map linked above.

One more question, will the Bayern or the Werdenfels work within inner zone if we come back early and want to head to Marienplatz for dinner etc?

They do, the difference being that the BT is valid on the entire MVV network (S-Bahn, U-Bahn, tram, buses) while the Werdenfels ticket is valid on the S-Bahn only.

Don't worry, things are less complicated than they might look from the distance.
Happy planning!

SLA, we both indicated that Pat could use either ticket between the Hbf and Marienplatz, but this sentence in the Konditionen for the Werdenfels ticket has me concerned, "Start- und Zielbahnhof dürfen nicht innerhalb des gleichen Verkehrsverbundes liegen". Both the Hbf and Marienplatz lie inside the same Verkehrsverbund (MVV).

ok great, thank you all. things are looking much more clearer now. i think we could get Werdenfels for linderhof trip too i guess. Will decide once there depending on when we want to leave.

SLA, we both indicated that Pat could use either ticket between the Hbf and Marienplatz, but this sentence in the Konditionen for the Werdenfels ticket has me concerned, "Start- und Zielbahnhof dürfen nicht innerhalb des gleichen Verkehrsverbundes liegen". Both the Hbf and Marienplatz lie inside the same Verkehrsverbund (MVV).

Well, the formulation "Start- und Zielbahnhof" is a bit clumsy. It means that the ticket cannot be used for trips that are entirely inside a verkehrsverbund, e.g. the MVV. It does not mean than your are not allowed to change trains inside a verkehrsverbund.
That condition has a pure legal character: for trips inside a Verkehrsverbund the right of issuing tickets is with the respective transport authority and not with the DB. Of course, no conductor would be able to check whether you travelled inside the MVV only or came in from elsewhere. And, of course again, nobody would buy a Werdenfels ticket to ride inside the MVV since even a group day ticket for the entire MVV (€23,90) is lesse expensive than a Werdenfells ticket for two.

That sentence you have quoted should be moved to the details in the pdf next to the paragraph that states with funny pedantry that when travelling with a dog you have to enter not the name of your dog but "dog" only (but please in German, otherwise the conductor might guess you are travelling with an elephant).

Please don't start to read through all that DB legalese available on it's web site, otherwise you will never board a train again!

Of course, no conductor would be able to check whether you travelled
inside the MVV only or came in from elsewhere.

I think you could probably get away with it regardless, but I wasn't sure if you are supposed to use it that way. We are not, on this website, supposed to tell people how to break the rules. Of course it would be perfectly legal to use the Bayern-Ticket that way, but I want to know how the Werdenfels-Ticket works.

I don't remember if conductors on Bahn trains stamp a Regio ticket the way they do a regular ticket or not, and only once have I seen a fare inspector on an S-Bahn. If a fare inspector did check you ticket on the 2 minute trip from the Hbf to Marienplatz and found that you had come in to the Hbf on a train from Mittenwald and were continuing on directly to Marienplatz, that would be according to the stated rules, but if you had a two hour gap between the arrival at the Hbf and boarding the S-Bahn, would that be a problem? What about the trip back from Marienplatz to the Hbf? But no, no one would buy a Werdenfels-Ticket just to go from the Hbf to Marienplatz.

We are not, on this website, supposed to tell people how to break the rules.

That was not my intention.

That rule: »Start- und Zielbahnhof dürfen nicht innerhalb des gleichen
Verkehrsverbundes liegen« has been transferred mechanically from the overall
regulation framework for regional tickets (Allgäu-Schwaben-Ticket, Franken-
Thüringen-Ticket etc.); it's a relict of the times when a Bayern ticket for
€15 was valid for 5 adults and could have been used to undercut the price of a
group ticket of a Verkehrsverbund. It is redundant with the actual pricing
system of the Laender tickets. So, the rule is (or rather: was) meant to protect
sales of the single Verkehrsverbünde, not to prevent travellers from breaking
off and resuming their trip(s) at will, which would be contrary to the purpose
of a day pass. If the DB or a Verkehrsverbund wants to prevent passengers from
inserting large gaps between single trips they limit the validity of the ticket,
e.g. to three hours (as is the case with most single ride tickets inside
Verkehrsverbünde). And if a fare inspector checks your ticket in the S-Bahn you
are not obliged to proof that your trip has begun outside the MVV. It's up to
the DB to check nor not check your ticket on the Mittenwald - Munich train.
Quite often there is no conductor on the train - their problem, not your's.

BTW - the DB has a well working customer chat for questions like yours. If you still feel that I'm giving hints how to cheat the DB you might want to double check with them; they take questions in English: https://community.bahn.de/categories/2713-tickets-und-reservierungen