train route from munich to southampton

Can't tell you about Southampton, but the German Rail (Bahn) website has advance purchase discounted tickets from Munich to London St Pancras for as little as 59€/P one way. Leave Munich at 7am or 11am (approx), arrive London 10 hours later. These tickets go on sale for the lowest price 92 days before the travel date.

The closest station to the Southampton cruise terminals (of which there are several) is Southampton Central. Fast trains run twice or three times per hour throughout the day from London Waterloo and the journey takes about 90 minutes. St. Pancras International to Waterloo involves a change on the Underground. Take the Piccadilly Line to Leicester Square and then the Northern Line to Waterloo. That's about 30 minutes or so. If you aren't staying in London and/or don't already have Oyster cards for the Underground then the easiest approach is to buy a through ticket from St. Pancras International to Southampton Central, which will be valid for the Underground part of the journey as well as the overground trains. Use the journey planner at www.nationalrail.co.uk. That will cost about £40 for an Off-peak single ticket. At Southampton Central, exit through the ticket barrier on the platform where your train arrives. Turn left, through the doors and look ahead of you - you will see the taxi rank. Any of the dock gates are within a mile of there, and the taxi drivers will know which gate you need for your ship, although the cruise company should tell you anyway.

I think you're either looking too early for flights or looking for the wrong airport. Easyjet offer tickets at fares competitive with discount rail from Munich to other London airports, try looking six months or so in advance. The train tickets don't go on sale for Germany until 92 days in advance anyway. Whatever you do don't fly Ryanair from Munich as the airport they claim serves the city is barely even in Bavaria. Travelling from Munich to London by train will probably be more expensive than Easyjet unless you get one of the very cheap tickets mentioned above, and will take literally all day if you go by daytime trains. You can travel overnight from Munich to Paris but this will almost certainly be more expensive than flying and many people have difficulty sleeping on moving trains even with a bed. If you can, try to fly from Munich to Gatwick, as there are through trains from Gatwick Airport to Southampton and you won't have to cross London.

Trains for the last part of Philip's suggested route - Gatwick Airport to Southampton Central, direct trains run hourly (at 9 minutes past the hour) for most of the day and an Off-peak single is only £14.80. Or how about this. Flybe have a direct service from Hannover to Southampton, daily at around 13.30. If you don't mind an early start from Munich it's about a 4 hour train ride up to Hannover Hbf, then the S-Bahn out to the airport. Southampton airport is 50 metres from Southampton Airport Parkway railway station, and from there it's a few minutes to Southampton Central. Personally I'd take almost any train ride rather than a flight, but on reflection nearly 12 hours from Munich to London would start to test even my patience if it was followed by crossing London and then another train to Southampton.

This looks like an awfully long rail trip to attempt in one go (and I'm only looking at the times and connections up to London). The big problem is that it involves multiple transfers and one or two legs on assigned-seating, non-refundable trains (Thalys and Eurostar). If there's a delay on one of your earlier trains (which does happen more often than you might think), you're more or less out of luck. But you asked about scenery... if you travel during the day, your route would either move via Frankfurt to Köln to Brussel to London or via Stuttgart to Paris to London. First option, Munich to Frankfurt is nothing special. Frankfurt to Köln parallels the A3 Autobahn, which is a moderately scenic drive, but the train traverses so many tunnels and moves so fast that you can't see much. Köln to Brussel is mostly pretty uninteresting. The other option, along Munich to Stuttgart you can see some decent views of the Schwäbische Alb mountains and the Swabian high country around Stuttgart. From there to Karlsruhe the trains pass through many tunnels and generally move through cuts in the countryside, so your views are limited. I don't know what sort of views you could see beyond into France. I don't see any sleeper train options. If you wanted to travel at night, you would have to change trains in the middle of the night or wait around in the stations until morning. And your overall trip duration to London would increase to up to 20 hours. My advice? Break this excursion up into two or three pieces or fly.

I like Philip's suggestion. Fly easyJet from Munich to Gatwick and take a direct train from there to Southampton. Booked well in advance, fares on easyJet are very cheap. I found one sleeper train option. Take the CNL night train directly from Munich to Paris Est, departing at 22:50 and arriving at 09:24. Walk to Gare du Nord (less than ten minutes) and take the Eurostar to London St Pancras, departing at 11:13 and arriving at 12:30. Make your way by Tube to Waterloo station and take the next available train to Southampton.

Flybe will not be using Gatwick after 29 March next year, so don't look at any of their current flights for any potential routes to there. (I know the suggestion above was into Southampton.)

Hi, I'll comment on doing this Munich-Southhampton route by train: first, this is a route where you can tailor the different legs...night or day. If it's the day option you want, then I suggest this: take the early ICE Munich Hbf to Frankfurt Hbf, then the direct ICE to Paris Est, arriving 1650. Next, cross over to Gare du Nord to take an evening EuroStar, (you'll gain one hour in London). Conceivably, you can be in London by 2230 max. if you time all legs right. Stay the night in London, take the train to Southhampton next day. Or, stay the night in Paris, then the EuroStar.

Again, with sufficient advance purchase, you can get a berth in a cochette on the night train from Munich to Paris for 59€ (6 pers comp) or 69€ (4 pers comp).

Use http://www.skyscanner.com/ to find flights, and be sure to use the code LON for "all London airports." However, do be aware that Luton and Stansted are quite far from London and will take more time and/or money to reach. In addition to the idea above of EasyJet out of Gatwick, consider looking at roundtrip prices on "legacy" carriers like British Air or Lufthansa (which should use Heathrow or Gatwick). While the budget airlines don't charge a premium for one way trips, the legacies do. But, you can buy a round trip ticket and throw away the second half. Don't throw away the first half, or they'll cancel the second half. In other words, book MUC to LON and LON to MUC, then just use the first part.