München / Munich to Amsterdam by train

How to travel from Munich to Amsterdam by train

The only direct train from Bavaria to the Dutch capital is the overnight Nightjet service.
Though it's also a straightforward journey by day, connecting between ICE trains in Frankfurt (Main).

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Routes

Option 1: travelling through the night on a direct train

Travel Information

Final Destination: Amsterdam

The train also calls at: Arnhem (07:51), connect for Nijmegen; and Utrecht (08:33), connect for Rotterdam and Den Haag

The train is usually scheduled to depart Munchen Hbf at around 22:50 and arrive in Amsterdam Centraal at around 10:00.

1 x train per night

Tickets

Book early and save: Yes

This train is usually scheduled to depart from Munchen/Munich at around 22:50 so target that time when looking up this journey.

Online bookings open:
6 months ahead of the travel date on OBB
3 months ahead of the travel date on DB Bahn

The choice of accommodation - summary:

  • Compartment Seats (Sitzwagen)
  • Couchettes (Liegewagen); 4 berths AND 6 berths
  • Standard sleeping cars (Schlafwagen) with 3 bed, 2 bed and 1 cabins
  • Deluxe sleeping cars with showers (Schlafwagen) with 3 bed, 2 bed and 1 cabins

Click the train guide below for more info including the rail pass reservation fees:

The first price you will see on the OBB ticketing site will be for the compartment seats.

Travelling with a rail pass:

Rail pass users must reserve before boarding this train and you can now book rail pass reservations without paying booking fees on the OBB website (OBB operates these trains).
Though the process for doing so isn't particularly obvious, hence the step-by-step guide.
If you'd rather not do so, rail pass reservations can be arranged and paid for at the Reisezentrum travel desk in Munchen Hbf; ideally do this when you first arrive in Munchen/Munich on the preceding train on your itinerary.

Where to book
Ticket Provider Approximate Cost
NS Intl *

NS Intl Guide

NS is the Dutch national rail operator and it operates a bespoke website for the booking of international rail journeys from and to The Netherlands.
Therefore it offers tickets for journeys by:

  • Thalys trains to Bruxelles and Paris
  • IC trains to Berlin via Hannover and Bruxelles via Antwerpen
  • Eurostar to London
  • ICE trains to Basel and Frankfurt (Main) via Koln
  • the Nightjet trains to Austria and Germany

NS International also sells tickets to a range of destinations in Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Italy and Switzerland, which involve a change of train in Germany, along with the destinations in France, which can be accessed by making a connection in Bruxelles.

OBB *

OBB Guide

OBB is the national rail operator and its booking service offers journeys by express trains within Austria, as well as international journeys which don't involve making a connection outside of Austria.

It pays off to book online, as the discounted 'Sparscheine' tickets are only ever made available on the website, and when making international journeys to and from Austria, these Sparscheine tickets tend to be cheaper.
OBB can offer particularly good value for money when travelling with children on international rail journeys, but something to watch out for when travelling between Austria and Germany on daytime trains, is that reservations are an optional extra; but if you book 1st class tickets with the Germany railways website DB, the reservations are complimentary.

OBB often takes a unique approach to its booking path, but a key thing to keep in mind is that the first price you will see for any journey is that of a Second Class seat.
The costs of upgrading to first class, a reservation, or a sleeping cabin etc, is then added to this price.

DB *

DB 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.

Two types of ticket have recently been made available;

  1. Cheaper 'Young' tickets which can only be booked by those aged 15-26 on the travel date.
  2. Flexi Plus tickets, which are now the most expensive type of ticket, but they're the only type of 2nd class tickets which DO include a seat reservation.

On this journey

Journey Features

Night

Good to Know

On departure from Munchen Hbf the coaches heading to Amsterdam will be joined to another train heading to Hamburg, so if you see 'Hamburg' on the departure screens, then the info will also be for this train.

Don't be concerned about joining the wrong part of the train, your reservations will be in the part of the train that will be heading to Amsterdam.
And the train conductor will greet passengers travelling in the sleeping cabins.

Option 2: travel by day, connecting between ICE trains

Travel Information

Typically connecting in: Frankfurt (Main) hbf
Train 1, final destination: Essen Hbf (usually)
Train 2, final destination: Amsterdam CS

Though on multiple dates reconstruction works on the railways in the area around Frankfurt (Main) will be preventing either one of these trains calling at the city's main station.
When that is occurring, the connection between trains will usually be available in the station at Frankfurt Flughafaen, where the transfer between trains can either be made on the same or immediately adjacent gleis (platform/track).

Sunday - Friday = 4 x connections per day

Saturday = 3x connections per day

*The usual final connection of the day is not available on Saturdays.

There are no direct daytime trains between Munchen/Munich and Amsterdam, so this the fastest routing for a train journey between the two cities.

The journey time shown above are dependent of making a typical connection between trains at Frankfurt (Main) hbf of between 20 and 25mins.
However, this connection is not guaranteed!
It is not particularly unusual for the ICE trains from Munchen/Munich to arrive more than 20 minutes late at Frankfurt (Main).
Though if need be tickets can be transferred free of charge to a subsequent departure on from Frankfurt; and there are also options for extending the connecting time between trains when making a booking.
The 'Ticket Information below' has more details.

Tickets

Book early and save: Yes

Online bookings open: 6 months ahead of the travel date

There are multiple routings for train journeys between Munchen/Munich and Amsterdam, but DB's cheapest 'Europe Saver Fares' are seemingly only available when making this journey via Frankfurt (Main)

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

  • 1 in the Chg. column
  • ICE (and only ICE) in the Products column.
    • a journey time* of between 7hr 35 and 7hr 40 mins

General booking tips:

Use the earlier/later buttons to search for the cheapest ticket prices.

Journey options 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.
There can be particularly large differences in prices per departure on this route.

The cheapest 'Europe Saverr Fare' deals can also be hard to track down on this route, particularly if you will be making this journey on a Thursday or Friday.

Making the connection or extending the transfer time:

These journey times shown above and the associated train specific tickets are are all dependent on making a transfer between ICE trains in Frankfurt (Main) station of around 25mins.
This connection is not guaranteed; it is not particularly unusual for the ICE trains from Munich/Munchen to arrive late in Frankfurt (Main) hbf station.
IF the ICE does arrive too late then tickets/reservations can be swapped free of charge to subsequent connections at the Reisezentrum travel desk; though the trains for Amsterdam depart from Frankfurt every other hour.

OR minimise your chances of encountering this stressful scenario, by

  • clicking on the 'Change' button on DB
  • clicking on 'Change Other Data
  • increasing the 'Duration Of Transfer to 'more than 45 mins'
  • and then click 'Search'

You can then access journey end-2-end train specific tickets which allow more than 30min to make the transfers between trains; though the connections you will then be offered can involve making the transfer between trains at other stations than Frankfurt (Main() hbf.
And these alternative routings can be more expensive.

Reservations are recommended for this journey, particularly on the train between Munchen and Frankfurt (Main) and they're optional when booking 2nd class tickets and for both 1st and 2nd class rail pass users.

Where to book
Ticket Provider Approximate Cost
DB Bahn from €35.90

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 €35.90

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 €35.90

Save A Train Guide

Happy rail from €35.90

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.

Omio from €35.90

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.

Journey Features

Scenic - NoHigh Speed (partial journey)

Journey description:

This is a journey of six distinct phases

  1. Until Ingolstadt the train will be travelling on a conventional railway through a series of commuter towns.
  2. In Ingolstadt station the train will move on to the high speed line and travel at more than 275 k/mh for around 40 minutes until it reaches the outskirts of Nurnberg
  3. Between Nurnberg and Wurzburg the train will be back on conventional tracks
  4. On departure from Wurzburg comes the part of the journey with a wow factor, the train will be on the high speed line for less than 15 minutes, but there are some nice views as the train crosses some long viaducts; in particular look out for when the train will burst out of a tunnel and then immediately cross the River Main.
  5. Between there and Aschaffenburg comes the slowest, but most scenic part of the trip when the railway winds through some valleys.
  6. From there to Frankfurt the railway passes through a series of towns.

Journey Features

High Speed (partial journey)

Good to Know

All trains also call at: Arnhem connect for Nijmegen and Utrecht connect for Den Hagg and Rotterdam

Journey description:

There are few scenic highlights on this trip, though if you'll be reaching journey's end before dusk, on the right the railway line is beside a canal for the part of the journey between Utrecht and Amsterdam

What gives the journey the wow factor is when the train travels at more than 280 km/h on Germany's fastest high speed line between Frankfurt Flughafen and Seigburg/Bonn.

The video was taking on a train travelling in the opposite direction, but it gives a sense of  what a thrill this train ride can be; this is a journey when it's especially obvious that you're travelling on a high speed train!

Though this high speed part of the journey only takes 40 mins, so for the majority of this trip, the train won't be travelling exceptionally fast.

The train which typically departs Frankfurt at 16:28 will reverse direction on departure from Koln

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This second version of ShowMeTheJourney is exciting and new, so we are genuinely thrilled that you are here and reading this, but we also need your help.

We’re striving not to let anything get in the way of providing the most useful service possible, hence a facility has been set up with DonorBox which can be used to support the running costs and make improvements.

Instead of advertising or paywalls, your financial support will make a positive difference to delivering an enhanced service, as there’s a lot of ideas which we want to make happen.

So if you have found the info provided here to be useful, please consider saying thank you.

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