Can anyone describe the relative difficulty of exiting downtown Munich, Germany by car? I'm trying to decide on a rental car pickup location. I have previously driven out of Paris, Florence, and Oxford, and I'm trying to get an overall sense of how Munich traffic conditions compare. Thanks for any help.
It is not too bad. Can by busy but not overwhelming. I would get the nav system in the car as Munich can be a little confusing. We have picked up a car at or near the train station a few times and we have never had any issues but we did program the nav system before leaving.
One more thing if you get the nav, make sure they change it to English!!!
Lamont, we rented a car at Munich Hauptbahnhof in september and driving out of the city was not difficult at all, we did have a navigation system, but we could have done it with a map.
I picked up a car at Avis near Nymphenburg and was on the Autobahn in no time flat. I have a Garmin Nuvi 270 and it was a life saver during the entire trip!
Driving out of the city isn't that bad, although not that easy. I've picked up a rental car by the Haupbahnhoff, but I had to double back to my hotel first before I could leave the city. Traffic isn't that congested (nothing like Paris!), but all the interweaving one-way streets make navigation very difficult, even with a GPS. If you can pick up the car at the Nymphenburg, as another poster suggested, that's probably the easiest way to get out of the city by auto.
We have driven twice in Munich- and the road system is a little challenging. If you are just planning on picking up the car and leaving town, ask the rental agency for directions (they usually can get you where you want to be fairly easily) If you are going to be doing more driving than that (i.e. driving out to Andechs for a day trip and then back to your hotel) I highly recommend a good city map that shows all the streets. It is worth the investment. (Of course, is you have gps you won't need that) Other than that, driving in Munich was similar to a large city in the US.