Looking down into the main departure hall at Munchen Hbf used by the long distance trains

Frankfurt to München / Munich by train

How to take a rail journey from Frankfurt to Munich

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Routes

From Frankfurt Main Hbf to München Hbf/Munich main station

Travel Information

Final Destination: Munchen

All trains also call at: Nurnberg

16 x trains per day

Tickets

Book early and save: Yes

Online bookings usually open: 6 months ahead of the travel date

On the DB Bahn booking site look for journeys that have:

  • 0 in the Chg. column
  • ICE (and only ICE) in the Products column.

Trains departing at different times can be cheaper than others leaving on the same day - so you may need to look through the day's departures to find the cheapest fares.

Reservations:

Book 1st class ticket journey tickets and your seat reservation is included - but they're optional when booking 2nd class tickets, or if you will be travelling with a 1st or 2nd class rail pass.

Opting to reserve is particularly recommended if you will be travelling at business hours and/or during the day on Fridays and Sundays.

Where to book
Ticket Provider Approximate Cost
DB Bahn from €17.90

DB Bahn Guide

DB is the national railway operator in Germany, so its website can be used for booking journeys by German express trains; the ICE and IC trains and it doesn't charge booking fees.
It also sells tickets for journeys by direct trains on all international routes from Germany regardless of whether DB is operating the train service.

It also sells an extensive range of end-to-end journeys which involve making connections both within Germany and in neighboring countries, but journeys between Germany and Britain cannot be booked on DB.

A key feature of DB website worth keeping mind is that it offers 1st class ticket purchasers complimentary seat reservations on journeys both within and to/from Germany.

Seat reservations for daytime in both 1st and 2nd class can also be booked separately from tickets.

Omio from €17.90

Omio Guide

Omio is an online ticket agency which offers tickets for rail journeys in France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and Spain.

The three key advantages of using Omio are

  • it offers prices in multiple currencies
  • it usually offers price comparison with other modes of travel including flights and buses
  • when visiting Europe, you can book journeys in multiple countries in one transaction.

The disadvantage of booking with Omio is that it often adds a booking fee to the final price; therefore when it does so without offering a price advantage, SMTJ doesn't tend to offer Omio as a booking option.

Save A Train from €17.90

Save A Train Guide

Happy rail from €17.90

Happy rail Guide

Happy Rail is a Netherlands rail ticket agency which sells tickets for both national and international journeys within a range of countries including Belgium France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland.

HappyRail doesn't charge booking fees in the conventional sense, but if you're not Dutch you can expect to pay additional transaction fees, which will be added to the total cost.
That's because the most common form of online payment used in The Netherlands is 'iDEAL' and HappyRail doesn't charge a transaction fee for 'iDEAL' payments, but only Dutch residents can sign up to 'iDEAL'.
Other forms of payment include Visa debit cards will incur a fee.

Trainline from €17.90

Trainline Guide

On this journey

Journey Features

High Speed (partial journey)

Good to Know

Every other hour there is also an ICE train between Frankfurt and Munchen which travels via Stuttgart.
However, tickets for the Frankfurt to Munchen journey via Stuttgart aren't seemingly sold online by DB Bahn.
Despite the journey time via Stuttgart now only being around 15 mins longer thanks to those trains now using the brand new high speed line to the north of Ulm.

This is a journey of seven distinct phases:

  1. Between Frankfurt (Main) and Aschaffenburg the railway passes through a string of commuter towns.
  2. Then east of Aschaffenburg, is the most scenic and slowest part of the trip as the railway follows a series of valleys.
  3. As the River Main comes into view on the right, the train will speed up before bridging the river and entering a tunnel which will link it to the high speed line.
  4. The train will spend around 10-15 mins on the high speed line as it nears Wurzburg, just before the station look out on the right for a brief panorama over the river and city.
  5. On to Nurnberg the train will be on conventional railway tracks.
  6. Between Nurnberg and Ingolstadt comes the fastest part of the trip when the train should spend around 30 minutes travelling at more than 270 km/h on the high speed line.
7. Then on from Ingolstadt the railway will pass through the commuter towns to the north of Munchen.
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