Hello FT friends in Germany!
I'm planning a trip with 2 friends. We are visiting from the US and we all big car nerds so the trip will predictably involve renting a car and visiting all the car museums and lots of driving around, both on the autobahn and country roads. That being said, we will also use public transport while in the city because we are not crazy. All 3 are seasoned travelers and have been the Germany before, just not MUC or STR.
We have 1 week between 27 Sep and 4 Oct. The outline of the trip is roughly as follows:
26-Sep 2025 Friday LAX-MUC LH453
27-Sep 2025 Saturday Arrive in afternoon, check in hotel in Munich, do things around the city
28-Sep 2025 Sunday BMW Welt & Museum, stay in Munich
29-Sep 2025 Monday Audi Forum Ingolstadt, stay in Munich
30-Sep 2025 Tuesday Travel to Stuttgart, stay in Stuttgart
1-Oct 2025 Wednesday Porsche Museum & Factory Tour, stay in Stuttgart
2-Oct 2025 Thursday Mercedes Museum, stay in Stuttgart
3-Oct 2025 Friday Travel to Munich, stay in Munich
4-Oct 2025 MUC-LAX LH452
You may notice, the only thing we have planned so far is the car stuff. We will fill the down time with visits to other tourist spots and beer gardens since it will be Oktoberfest :D
First request - would love your opinion on time. We purposely spaced out the visit to car museum one per day so we have plenty of time to do other things and travel in between. I feel like we won't be very rushed but let me know what you think.
Second, I need some help deciding where to stay in both MUC and STR - as mentioned, none of us have visited MUC or STR before so we don't have much reference point. We have elite status with Bonvoy and IHG so a property from those groups may be preferred. Not very price sensitive so don't recommend us stay at a youth hostel but also no need to spend 1000€ a night for fancy rooms. Proximity to BMW Welt in MUC and Porsche Museum in STR is a plus but generally we just want to be able to walk or take short train rides to where we want to visit while we are in the city. And especially since it will be Oktoberfest so we will do it responsibly and will not drive after we drink.
Last thing I need advise is when and where to rent a car. The easy thing would be to get a car from the airport when we arrive but realistically, we will only be driving for 3 days - going to Ingolstadt, going to Stuttgart, and returning to Munich. We will probably tack on some other destinations in those 3 days so we can explore some nearby places (suggestions welcome!) So I was thinking of picking up a rental car from somewhere in Munich on Monday 29-Sep and returning it on Friday 3-Oct. Let me know if this is a good plan or I should just get a car from the airport. The point is not trying to save money on rental car but to minimize the hassle of dealing with parking the car when we are not enjoying the drive.
I'm planning a trip with 2 friends. We are visiting from the US and we all big car nerds so the trip will predictably involve renting a car and visiting all the car museums and lots of driving around, both on the autobahn and country roads. That being said, we will also use public transport while in the city because we are not crazy. All 3 are seasoned travelers and have been the Germany before, just not MUC or STR.
We have 1 week between 27 Sep and 4 Oct. The outline of the trip is roughly as follows:
26-Sep 2025 Friday LAX-MUC LH453
27-Sep 2025 Saturday Arrive in afternoon, check in hotel in Munich, do things around the city
28-Sep 2025 Sunday BMW Welt & Museum, stay in Munich
29-Sep 2025 Monday Audi Forum Ingolstadt, stay in Munich
30-Sep 2025 Tuesday Travel to Stuttgart, stay in Stuttgart
1-Oct 2025 Wednesday Porsche Museum & Factory Tour, stay in Stuttgart
2-Oct 2025 Thursday Mercedes Museum, stay in Stuttgart
3-Oct 2025 Friday Travel to Munich, stay in Munich
4-Oct 2025 MUC-LAX LH452
You may notice, the only thing we have planned so far is the car stuff. We will fill the down time with visits to other tourist spots and beer gardens since it will be Oktoberfest :D
First request - would love your opinion on time. We purposely spaced out the visit to car museum one per day so we have plenty of time to do other things and travel in between. I feel like we won't be very rushed but let me know what you think.
Second, I need some help deciding where to stay in both MUC and STR - as mentioned, none of us have visited MUC or STR before so we don't have much reference point. We have elite status with Bonvoy and IHG so a property from those groups may be preferred. Not very price sensitive so don't recommend us stay at a youth hostel but also no need to spend 1000€ a night for fancy rooms. Proximity to BMW Welt in MUC and Porsche Museum in STR is a plus but generally we just want to be able to walk or take short train rides to where we want to visit while we are in the city. And especially since it will be Oktoberfest so we will do it responsibly and will not drive after we drink.
Last thing I need advise is when and where to rent a car. The easy thing would be to get a car from the airport when we arrive but realistically, we will only be driving for 3 days - going to Ingolstadt, going to Stuttgart, and returning to Munich. We will probably tack on some other destinations in those 3 days so we can explore some nearby places (suggestions welcome!) So I was thinking of picking up a rental car from somewhere in Munich on Monday 29-Sep and returning it on Friday 3-Oct. Let me know if this is a good plan or I should just get a car from the airport. The point is not trying to save money on rental car but to minimize the hassle of dealing with parking the car when we are not enjoying the drive.