Hi all. In a few weeks I'll be in Barca. After the Barcelona football match on the 24th we plan to take a train to Munich and arrive the next day.
All the trains I've looked at online show that this will be a 20+ hour trip with atleast 3 stops. Is this accurate?! It seems that the trip from Barca to Munich should be a fairly easy one, yet it looks like we may lose an entire day on it. Can anyone confirm this?
Yes, it will take that long. This is because to get from Spain to Germany you will have to go through France and either Switzerland or northern Italy. A quick look at google maps tells me that it's 1,368 km from Barcelona to Munich by car (about 855 mi). If you were just driving in a car it would take you about 12 hours. And going through multiple countries usually requires changing trains, just because of the individual countries' train systems.
I would recommend looking into taking a plane. You could fly there in just a couple hours and while you'd have to pay for the plane tickets, it would save you a lot of time. Otherwise, see if there's somewhere along the way you'd like to stop, and break up your super-long train ride that way.
Your best train choices are (1) a night train from Barcelona to Paris and day trains from there to Munich or (2) day trains from Barcelona to Paris and a night train from there to Munich.
You can fly Air Berlin (a budget airline) with one connection in either Dusseldorf, Hamburg, or Palma de Mallorca.
I also looked up the flights from Baracelona to Munich, and considering that all the flights had a stopover somewhere and ended up taking around 4 hours, plus time getting to the airport, preboard time, almost an hour into Munich after landing, I'll imagine that trip by air will take 6-8 hours.
According to Michelin, which I understand tends to underestimate driving times, just the driving time will be almost 13 hours. Add to that time to refuel, eat, and potty stops, it will be considerably more.
I like the idea of the night train part way, then a day train. At least with the train you don't have to stop for bathrooms, meals, etc. And with the train there are a lot of things you can do with your time rather than look at traffic.
Since there isn't really a good way to get to Munich, I have to ask the question, "why go there at all". Munich is probably my favorite place in Europe, but there are lots of interesting thing to see in Spain and on the French Riviera.
Or, take a train to Switzerland, spend some time there, then go to Munich. There is so much to see between Barcelona and Munich; why not take advantage of it.
there are non stop flights to/from Munich and Barcelona - check out Lufthansa/code share Span Air.
Travelfan, maybe Lufthansa flies that route but Span Air does not exist any more. They went out of business.
www.skyscanner.com is the best site I have found for search air tickets for within europe travel at usually very cheap prices and often direct flights.
www.vueling.com also has a 2hr05min non-stop to Munich from Barcelona. Vueling is a Spanish airline so they don't have to stop in another country. Some of the lowest fares appear to be gone but 69Euro or slightly higher is a bargain to get to Munich.
