Germany Road Trip 2025
Part 1: Munich
Continuing with our 'Making Memories with Moms' series since 2022, we are back with another trip with our moms this year. This time, our destination was Europe - Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein. We kicked off our trip in Germany, and drove around the entire country in 10 days covering a total distance of 2856 kms (1775 miles), and continued our journey in Switzerland by trains. This was a hectic trip but we are so thankful for the opportunity to enjoy all the amazing places and sceneries with our moms, making memories that will last for a long time.
10-Days Road Trip Around Germany, Luxembourg & Liechtenstein
Trip Planning
Back in 2010, I had the opportunity to travel around Europe and visited a few countries on that trip. I usually prefer not to revisit countries that I've been to before but this trip was an exception. Hubby had always wanted to do a road trip in Germany, and I've been wanting to revisit Switzerland after watching Crash Landing on You, so we decided to plan a trip that would allow us to visit both countries and invited our moms to come along with us.
We booked our flights in June 2024 when the flight first opened for booking, but I procrastinated till December 2024 to finalize our itinerary and book our accommodations. Switzerland is an expensive country to visit but fortunately, we were able to use points and miles for to book our flights and pay for some of our accommodations, which made the trip cost slightly more 'reasonable'.
7 May 2025 (Wed): US/Malaysia - Munich
Even though this was a multi-week trip, we all traveled light with only our backpacks as we would be hopping around a good bit.
Arrived Huntsville airport at 8.15am. Almost had a panic attack at check in when the staff informed that there was problem with our tickets as the system was showing that we 'missed' our first flight. Apparently, our tickets were not issued correctly when we changed our first flight (to a later flight) due to a schedule change by American Airlines. Thankfully, the AA staff was able to fix and issued our tickets after a few phone calls to her supervisor...phew!!
Flight #1: 1.5 hours from Huntsville to Charlotte at 9.30am. Redeemed our flights from Huntsville - Charlotte - Munich for 19,000 AA miles + $5.60 per pax.
Arrived Charlotte at 11.50am with a 4-hours transit in Charlotte. I was able to secure Oneworld Emerald status for this trip with my Alaska Gold 75K status (from a temporary status match), which gave me access for 2 to the AA Admirals Club lounge in Charlotte. However, all 3 of us were able to get into the lounge thanks to a nice AA lounge staff. The food served were good enough for a free lounge.
Flight #2: 8hr 45min from Charlotte to Munich at 4.25pm on American Airlines. As always, I was 'strategic' with my seat selections and intentionally selected both ends of the middle section of 4 for the both of us. My strategy was successful and we were supposed to have the whole row for just the two of us...until a lady requested to switch to our row because she couldn't fit into her bulkhead seat (because the armrest was fixed and couldn't be lifted for her to sit comfortably in the seat)...ughh!!
While we were traveling from the US, mom was traveling solo from Penang - KL - Abu Dhabi - Munich and enjoyed the lounges in Penang and KL. Redeemed 3,400 Enrich points + RM33.76 for flight from Penang to KL on MAS, and paid $354.90 (RM1,573) for the flight from KL to Munich on Etihad.
8 May 2025 (Thurs): Munich
Arrived Munich at 7.10am. We timed our arrival perfectly and our flights landed 5 minutes apart from each other, but mom got through immigration and baggage claim much faster than us. Even though we arrived at the same terminal, Munich airport had different immigration area for each flight so we had to walk to another area to look for mom.
Bought the group day travel card (for 2-5 pax) for Zone M5 for €30.50 using the ticket machine at the airport train station. A one-way ticket from the airport to the city would have cost €14.30/pax so it was much cheaper to get the group day ticket for the 4 of us. A day travel card can be used on airport trains, regular trains, buses and trams. Took the 8.10am train S1 from Munich airport to Munich Laim station. The journey took about 35 minutes.
Arrived Munich Laim station at 8.50am. Even though we were able to see our hotel from the train station, we still had to walk about 15 minutes to get to our hotel. Fortunately, the weather was nice and cool, which made the walk a pleasant one.
Booked our hotel in Munich for 13,500 Wyndham points per room per night (2 rooms). For some reason, the hotels prices in Munich for that night were very high so I was glad to be able to book this hotel with a pretty reasonable number of points. The hotel was pretty basic but had all we needed for a comfortable stay. There was also free coffee in the lobby.
While the moms rested in the hotel, hubby and I walked from our hotel to Enterprise - Munich Laim to pick up our rental car at 10am. We had to wait for about 45 minutes because there was only 1 staff working on that day. We opted to pick up our rental car from this location instead of the airport or train station as it was cheaper. It worked out perfect as this location was close tou our hotel.
After waiting for an hour, it was finally our turn to pick up our rental car. It was my first time picking up rental car from a basement garage, which wasn't ideal as it was too dark to properly inspect the car, and to take photos and videos around the car. The staff also didn't have time to clean the exterior of the car before handing it to us but at least the interior was clean.
Our rental car (compact SUV) for 9 days in Germany with different drop-off location costs €330.82 ($371.21). Thought we'd get a German car but got a Ford Focus instead.
Parked our rental car in the hotel and took the train to the city since we had the day travel card. We also didn't want to deal with parking in Munich. It was a short 15 minutes ride to Marienplatz station.
It was already 12.30pm by the time we got to the city so our first stop was lunch at Hofbräuhaus Beer Hall.
Hofbräuhaus Beer Hall is a 3-floor beer hall dating back to the 16th century serving Bavarian cuisine, music and upbeat vibe. There were musicians playing in the beer hall and we sat next to a group of uncles who were enjoying their beer gathering.
Ordered big beers, pork knuckle, sausage platter, potato dumpling, and 1/2 Bavarian roast chicken.
Finished lunch at 1.50pm and it was time for sightseeing. First stop...Marienplatz.
Second stop...Odeonsplatz. Here we begin the ABC tour of Europe...
ABC = Another Big Church/Cathedral/Castle
ABC #2...Frauenkirche. I remember walking around Munich all by myself and visiting this church on Christmas morning in 2015. Pretty impressed I was adventurous and daring back then!
ABC #3...St. Michael's Church
€1 public toilet in the train station...so fancy that it takes credit card too! Yes, hubby was desperate enough to pay to use this...lol!
Most places in Germany accept credit cards, but we still withdrew some Euros from the ATM machine using our Charles Schwab debit card just in case. Travel tip: When withdrawing cash from ATM or using credit cards in a foreign country, always decline conversion (choose the local currency).
Finished our sightseeing at 3.15pm and it was time to head back to rest. We made a quick stop at Aldi Sud to buy some bread and sandwich for dinner befor returning to our hotel. Hubby also found his favorite wafer biscuit (Manner) here. Wrapped up our day early as everyone needed rest after the long travel, and I had to make it back to the hotel to join a 3-hour work call.
Next stop...Neuschwanstein Castle & Rothenburg!
