We have a flight from Munich to the US that leaves at 7:15 AM. Can we expect public transportation will be available for us to get from a hotel to the airport very early in the morning on a Thursday? I suppose we need to be there minimum of 2 hours?
Any suggestions for hotel for easy transport to the MUC and easy into Munich for quick 1/2 day tour before we leave for the US?
Stay in the city center. From there you can take the S1 or the S8 S-Bahn train to the airport. There is one every 10 min and takes 40 min to get to the airport. A taxi would also take about the same time or less.
I was looking at the S Bahn website and I couldn't see anywhere what the hours of operation are. You can return the car to the airport early, so that's always an option too.
There are S-Bahn leaving every 10 minutes from the Hauptbahnhof to the airport starting at 3:35 AM (Arriving at 4:15).
There is a bus from Freising Bahnhof at 4:05, getting to the airport at 4:22. After that, the bus leaves every 20 minutes from 4:45.
Ok, thanks!
How early should we really arrive?
Once we took a flight from Rome to Munich and we got there early in the morning maybe 2 hours before and the place was a ghost town. The counter was closed and we had to wait for at least 30 min before anyone even came.
With a smaller airport like MUC, but still an international flight (MUC to London to SFO) any suggestions for when we should arrive? I hate to get there too early to just sit around. But of course don't want to cut it too close either.
If you look at Booking.com filtered for Friesing, Germany, you'll find a number of hotels and B&B's around the Munich Airport.
And the hotels around Munich Airport are much more reasonably priced than in many European airports.
Many properties can shuttle you to the terminal. It might get you a little more sleep and give you a peace of mind that you're already close by.
MUC is very efficient. For a intra European flight 90 min is more than sufficient, regardless of your final destination.
I've never had problems leaving Munich for the US when I arrived 2 hours before flight time. However, if you are flying United, their gate is on the very end of Terminal 2, a pretty long walk. Last trip out, we asked for transportation to the gate for my partner. We had to wait for a wheel chair (no motorized cart), and, by the time they got her to the gate, they were boarding the flight.
If I were doing it, I'd try to get to the airport by 5:15. According to the MVV (Munich metro) website, there is a bus leaving the Freising Bhf at 4:45, getting to the airport at 5:07.
If you stay in Freising, it's a short trip to the airport in the morning but a 40 min trip each way into town. A Partner (up to 5 people) Gesamtnetz (entire metro district) Tageskarte (day ticket) for 21,30 € will cover your round trip S-Bahn to downtown and any transport in town. If a regional train comes into the Freising Bahnhof headed for the Munich Hbf, take it. Regional trains only take about 29 min to the Hbf.
One option would be to come into the Munich Hbf, leave you bags in a locker, take the tour, then go out to Freising. There are things to do in Freising in the evening, like eating dinner and drinking beer at the Weihenstephen brewery on the hill.
I don't think Booking.com will give you a truly broad selection of accommodations near the airport. Freising's website, www.freising.de, has a comprehensive English listing of accommodations (Gastgeber) in town.
Some people on this website used to recommend Zur Gred as a place to stay. For a while you couldn't book directly with them, but their website is back up.
