Airport - Connections and Airlines, Munich

I took a flight from Cologne to Munich with AirBerlin. The cost was only 58€ in total (I booked in April) and the quality was very good. Of course it is a low-cost carrier, but I think it is definitely one of the better ones. You don't get any food (apart from a small piece of chocolate as a souvenir), but I think that is not necessary on a flight that only takes an hour.

From the airport, it was easy to connect to the city by train.

A nice memory is that when taking off to fly home, it was possible to see the Allianz Arena from the plane!

I've used this airport 6 times in the last 9 months, on 3 trips to Bavaria.

Arrivals have always been easy and fast. Same with departures.

All 3 trips have been on EasyJet, so using terminal 1. Checkin is in the "Z" area, 1 floor below the others, in the middle section of the building. Quick and painless both times (once I only had hand luggage). Passport control can be a little slow, mainly because there are flights to Turkey and Russia about the same time, so they seem to take more time.

Access by car is very easy, and you can drop off right at the terminal door.

If you need to, you can store luggage at the airport. Cost (as of March 2011) is between EUR 2 and EUR 7 (depending on size) for the first 3 hours, between EUR 3.50 and EUR 10 per piece for up to 24 hours, then between EUR 2.50 and EUR 8 for each 24-hour period thereafter.

I flew over to Munich on the 17.10 Lufthansa flight from Heathrow. Flight took 1 hr 50 minutes.

Unlike some of the other cheap airlines, Lufthansa does a decent flight with a coffee and sandwich thrown in.

Then I took the regular shuttle bus into town €10,50 single or €17.00 return.

The bus was a 45 minute journey, dropping us off close to the hotel at the main Hauptbahnhof railway station.

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Munich airport has often been ranked as one of the top 10 airports in the world, and one of the top 3 airports in Europe. In fact, in 2010 it has been chosen as the best airport in Europe. Of all the airports in Europe, I've been to Budapest, Paris (many times), Frankfurt and also Munich, and I can say that I find Munich very traveller-friendly and welcoming. :)
Transiting was a breeze. The airport is well-signposted in English and German. Lufthansa and its Star Alliance partners (such as Singapore Airlines) operate out of Terminal 2. I flew on Lufthansa from Shanghai to Frankfurt, with a transfer in Munich. Unfortunately the stopover was only for about 3 hours in the early morning, and I didn't have the luxury of extending (was on work) so I couldn't leave the airport to enjoy the wonderful sights of Munich. However I enjoyed what I saw of the airport transit area and based on that experience would love to go back again!
The duty-free shop was reasonably good in its selection of perfumes, alcohol and also European and German souvenirs such as beer, sausages, chocolate etc. Since it was a couple of weeks before Easter, there were pretty Easter-themed chocolate souvenirs on sale when I went. I can't be sure, but they might look better than they taste. ;)
Souvenirs, snacks, drinks, magazines and books can also be found at the convenience stores. I finally found my postcards here, and the friendly staff will also sell stamps. If you want to post the postcards, one of the staff kindly offered to help me with that (just give the postcards to her after you're done writing them) and the postcards reached me fine. Figure on about 1.5-2 EUR for a postcard, and 1 EUR for postage.
There're plenty of places to eat, what I saw in the early morning were mainly cafes which open around 0500 to 0600. For a sample of prices (I took photographs of the menu at Dallmayr Bistro), figure on about 6.5-15 EUR for a breakfast set, 5-7 EUR for a sandwich, 2-3 EUR for a pastry/croissant, 2-6 EUR for a coffee/tea -- prices quoted exclude taxes. However I wanted to save my money and eat on the plane, so I didn't get the chance to try anything.
If you're lucky enough (like me) to fly and transit on Star Alliance airlines, you'll be pleased to find that you can enjoy free cups of coffee, chocolate, milk or tea (or even just hot water) at the beverage stations in the transit area of Terminal 2. The options on the self-service machines are only in German, good luck figuring them out. ;) If you're an English-speaker and go to cafes frequently, most of the names won't be too difficult. It took me some time to figure out that "Heisse Schokolade" is hot chocolate (it was easier when I heard another traveller beside me reading it out!), "Milch fur Tee/Kaffee" will give you hot milk and "Heisse Wasser" is hot water. As for tea, you can have your pick of green, Ceylon (English), fruit and vanilla. There're plenty of paper cups, serviettes, sugar and stirrers available. If you read German, there're also a lot of newspapers and some magazines available for free, I forgot if there were any English-language newspapers but I think so.
I found toilets a little scarce in the transit area -- had to walk a little far from where I was to get to one. Either that, or the signs didn't direct me to the nearest toilets. In any case, I found the toilets to be very clean, reasonably spacious and with enough cubicles.
I find at Munich and Frankfurt airports that passengers generally do the check-in process with the self-service machines (great for saving on labour). If you run into problems, then go to the staff standing around and try to get them to help. After choosing your seat and printing out your boarding pass, go to the check-in counters if you have any luggage to check-in, otherwise you can go directly to your boarding gate. At the boarding gate, you can scan the boarding pass at a "ticket gate", if everything goes well (ie you're not trying to board the wrong flight at the wrong place), the gate will open and you can walk down to your plane. Being a rather new traveller with non-Asian airports, I was very pleasantly surprised as this method is much more efficient and easier for travellers who might not be able to communicate with airport ground staff. Of course, that's assuming you know what these "ticket gates" are and how to use them!

The trip from the airport to the city centre in Munich is very straightforward. Take the S-bahn S1 or S8. The trip crosses 4 ticketing zones, so if one is puzzled at the ticketing machine (with all the small prints), just pressed the small orange rectangular button with a 4 on it (if you are going to the city centre). the machine will ask for 9.20 euro (price is correct April 2009), it takes euro notes and will give change.

There are many options for getting into Munich after you arrive at the Airport. The best value looks like the S bahn, lines 1 and 8 head into the centre.

The ticket machines are located downstairs in the centre of a shopping mall area.Takes cash and gives change.

Many options as far as tickets to go for. Consider the Partner one which allows up to 5 people, max 2 adults to travel within specified zones for the day.Ideal for a family but a couple can also use. Cost was 18 euros in March 2008.

We caught the Lufthansa bus from the airport to the central train station, Hauptbahnof in Munich. Our hotel, Eden Wolffe, was directly across the street. I made arrangements for the bus ahead of time online. It was very clean, comfortable and inexpensive. One tip: I printed out a colored photo of the bus I would be looking for online prior to my trip. It made it easier to spot and sort through all the transportation options quickly when we arrived. Had my kids looking for a "blue bus". Worked out great.