Munich Hotel

Mary Ann, One hotel in Munich that might be a good choice is Hotel Uhland. The rooms are comfortable, the staff are great and they serve a fantastic breakfast! It's located in a quiet residential area near Teresenwiesse, and I believe they provide parking (you'll have to check their website). It's about a 12 minute walk from the hotel to the Hbf, so relatively easy for transportation. Happy travels!

The "best" tourist place for walking out your hotel door and seeing medieval town center Munich is either Marienplatz or Viktualienmarkt. Several nice and affordable hotels can be found there. Unfortunately the car is, as I've said before, going to be a pain to deal with.

Thank you Ken & Tim, Yes, the car issue is still spinning! We want to take some day trips. Going to a beautiful lake would be great. But, can we do that without a car? Any ideas of beautiful lakes to visit not far from Munich? Where would you recommend? Thanks again for all the helpful tips.

I've spent over 2 month traveling in Bavaria, without ever needing a car. Bavaria, along with the rest of Germany, has some of the best public transportation in Europe. You definitely don't want a car in Munich. In Munich, I would stay near Marienplatz. Three places near Marienplatz often recommended on this website are Hotel Blauer Bock, Hotel am Viktualienmarkt, and Hotel Münchner Kindl. Two lakes to visit might be Starnbergersee and Schliersee. The town of Starnberg on Starnbergersee can be reached in just over half an hour using the S-Bahn (S6) from Marienplatz. Use a Muenchen XXL Partner Tageskarte, for 13,60€, for the round trip for 2 to 5 people. Schliersee can be reached in about an hour using the U6 to Harras station, then the BOB (Bayersiche Oberlandbahn) to Schliersee Bahnhof. Use a Bayern-Ticket (26€ for two people) for the round trip. Another lake accessible in the same area on the BOB is Tegernsee. Or, you can go south towards Garmisch-Partenkirchen, change at Tutzing, and go to Kochel am See. Another trip, somewhat longer, would be to go by train to Berchtesgaden Hbf (change at Freilassing). Then take a bus to Königssee. This trip would take 2-3 hours each way. Better done as an overnight trip. Prien a Chiemsee is about an hour from Munich, on the way to Berchtesgaden and Salzburg. From the Prien Bahnhof, you can walk or take a steam trolley down to the lake front and a boat over to the island where Ludwig built one of his palaces, Herrenchiemsee. BTW, See, pronounce "Zay" in German, means Lake.

Hotel:
We will stay at Blauer Bock on the first night. The location looks really good.

I know it's just almost impossible to grasp the idea of easy, accessible and SUCCESSFUL vacationing without a car. It's just something Americans are totally unaccustomed to - I was the same way on my first European adventure. But you really need to get over the hump and don't look back. Public transportation in Europe is NOTHING like home (thankfully). I love Temecula - I have some great memories of a hot-air balloon ride in there!

Hi Mary Ann, if you get nice weather, and you want a day trip to a lake, throwing in a million dollar view from a mile high mountaintop, you can try the Herzogstand located by the Walchensee. Click on the English section of this website http://www.kochel.de (lower left) and you can read about the Herzogstandbahn. Ride the gondola up (11.50€ for r/t ticket) and you have easy walking, possibility for good food, snacks, drinks... and you'll be able to see quite a lot of Bavaria all at once ;) Who needs a car? You can use the bahn.de website using destination Walchensee Herzogstandbahn Kochel to figure out times and transfers, but the trip takes about an hour and a half... I'd catch the train out around 8:30 am to get me to the lake around ten. BayernTicket for 26€ covers your travel for the day. Similar (gondola up a mountain, relatively flat walking up high with nice vistas all around, but with a few more places to stop off for refreshments and such) would be at the Brauneck in Lenggries http://www.brauneck-bergbahn.de/english/summer/ It's a bit more costly to go up and down the mountain (18€ r/t) but you can stop off and soak your feet in the traditional Kneipp-Becken and check out the award-winning cheese made at the Stie Alm http://www.stie-alm.de/next.html ... Just click on the video there if you want to see and hear some Bavarian, and for a preview of what's up on the Brauneck. Again, a BayernTicket will get you there and back again, and all the train and bus info (though in German) can be found on the Brauneck website. Well, anyway, there are a couple things you can try that you won't find in most travel books. But I bet either of these won't disappoint. Enjoy~

We stayed 2 nights in Munich 2 summers ago. Rather than staying in the middle of the city, we stayed at a hotel on the edge of the English Garden. The hotel is Gaestehaus Englischer Garten, Liebergesellstr 8, Munich. The hotel offered parking (free I think) and was a short walk to the subway (don't remember if it was the S-Bahn or U-Bahn), which we took into the city. The hotel is more like a B&B. The rooms were big and homey. Nothing fancy, but the hotel was charming. There is a bavarian restaurant right across the street which was great and we ate another night at an Italian restaurant walking distance from the hotel. This was one of the few hotels we stayed at that was not in Rick's guide book.