train from prague to munich

I haven't taken the train between Prague and Munich so I can't comment on the scenery, but I wholeheartedly agree with what Lee said about the advantages of train travel. For any trip up to six hours I'd much rather take the train than fly. Sit back and relax in relative comfort and reduce your carbon footprint at the same time.

To book tickets, go to the German Rail site. Enter Praha and Muenchen rather than Prague and Munich.

Have you actually tried to look for flights from Prague to Munich? I don't think you will find many of the cheapo airlines serving that route, and full service airlines want a lot. Note, you might find it more economical to buy RT and throw away the return flight vs. one-way. The least expensive flight I saw was RT for over $200 on Lufthansa. There is a German Wings flight, but it connects in Cologne and takes over 4 hours, airport to airport.

If you take the Lufthansa flight, the air time is 1 hr, but getting to the Prague airport requires some time, you have to get there with enough time to check in and go through security (at least on hour), and it will take time to deplane at Munich and 40 minutes to get to downtown from the airport. You won't save much, if any time, by flying.

I don't think the scenery is worth 6 hours, but the hassle you save over flying is certainly worth a few hours on the train. You can sit back and relax, write postcards or plan the rest of your trip.

According to the Czech Rail site, the fare from Prague to the German Border, converted from Czech Koruna would be about €10 per person. If you buy it online in advance from the German Rail Ticket Shop, a Bayern-Ticket would be €27 for both of you (2-5 pp, actually). So the train fare would be less than €25 (about $40) a piece.

The train leaves from downtown Praque, from Smichov station, which is about 16 min by U-Bahn from the main station (Praha hl.n.) and does go into downtown Munich's Hbf in 5hr 55min.

According to the Praque airport website, there are only buses from Metro stations to the airport. The shortest of those buses go from Zlicin station to the airport in 18 min. According to Bahn.de it is a 30 min trip from the downtown train station, Praha Hlavni Nadrazi, to Zlicin station, so it looks like at least 48 minutes, plus time waiting for connections.

As for "... dragging our luggage onto the train", the train to Zlicin and the train to Munich both leave from Smichov station. So, if you fly, you have the same "dragging" situation at Smichov either way, plus you have to drag you luggage from the train to the bus at Zlicin and through the airport at Ruzyne (Prague's airport), then through the airport in Munich to the S-Bahn station, before getting to the Hbf, to which the train from Prague went directly.

Be aware and on guard for best pick pockets in all Prague train stations. Have friends that live there.

The train ride from Prague to Munich passes through the former Sudetenland, which is quite rustic and picturesque. The country side of the Czech Republic is generally rather scenic, especially compared to other countries on the east side of the old Iron Curtain.

This probably isn't the case anymore, but when I took the train over two years ago, a large section of the track near the borders was under construction. We had to leave the train, take a short bus ride to another rail station, take a local commuter train across the border, then reboard an ICE train in Germany. I assume this gap in service is now fixed.