Driving from Frankfurt to Munich

If you drove straight to Munich, I would guess (probably wrongly) that it's four or five hours. I seem to always go West from Franfurt through the Rhine Valley to Koln(relatives to visit) and Bonn, then back to the Romantic Road and on to Munich.

Taking a train depends on which class of train, some are milk runs and take awhile.

I've driven along part of that route and it can take quite some time. A lot of the issue is that as Central/Eastern Europe is opening up to the EU, so are the roads and shipping needs. There are a TON of semis along those routes, so much that you can have a hard time seeing the road signs. So a webiste like http://www.viamichelin.com will give you a rough idea of how long it will take in traffic that isn't an issue. But you can't anticipate those traffic jams.

My advice would be to take a train unless it's just not practical (such as expense or needing the car in both Frankfurt and Munich).

I'm sure that the train will be faster and more pleasant than driving. Unfortunately, full fare tickets on the fast trains are a bit pricey, €85 or about $125.

However, there are a lot of cost savings tickets available. If you are already in Frankfurt, and don't have to worry about flight arrival times, there are €29 Dauer-Spezial tickets available. For a round trip, there are also SavingPrice (SparPreis) tickets. However, these are non-refundable, train specific tickets, not suitable for connecting with a flight.

If you have more time, you can take regional trains. Use a €6,75 local RMV ticket to Kahl, the first stop in Bavaria, and a €27 (price for all, up to 5 people) Bayern Ticket from there.

On the other hand, if you are flying in that day, try to get a connecting air ticket to Munich airport (MUC). Often that costs only little more, and they handle your bags all the way to Munich.

The drive can take anything from under 3 hours to almost 6 hours, depending on route and traffic. The shortest route is A3 from Frankfurt to Nuremberg and then A9 to Munich. I've done it in 2 1/2 hours in the early morning but my return took me 5 1/2 in the late afternoon.Your alternative route is A5 from Frankfurt to Karlsruhe and then A8 via Stuttgart to Munich. OR you could take A5 to Walldorf and then A6 to Crailsheim, A7 to Ulm and A8 to Munich. That latter route is least likely to be jammed but is a bit longer than the other ones and takes around 4 hours...

Hi,
Don't know if this will help, but we drove from Rothenburg ob der Tauber to Munich, via Ulm and Augsburg, in about 2:30 hours.

Paul