New Direct Train Launching Between Paris And Munich

Following London–Germany, Poland–Croatia, and even an unexpected Switzerland–Denmark link announced only weeks ago, Europe’s Railway Revival has unveiled yet another exciting route that will make cross-border city-hopping even easier:

Whether you're looking for greener alternatives to travel, or you simply love hopping on trains any chance you get across the pond, you will soon be able to travel from Paris, all the way to Munich, in the south of Germany, now without changes.

‘How soon?', you may be asking? Well, how does 2026 sound to you?

A collaborative project between the French SNCF and the German Deutsche Bahn, the new high-speed train going from Paris to Munich is set to launch at some point next year, strengthening links between two of Europe's most beautiful cultural hotspots.

From its sparkly Eiffel Tower to the Haussmann-designed townscape and all the world-class museums in between, Paris is the elegant, timeless dame that never quite loses its luster despite all the naysayers and detractors she's gathered over the years.

On the other hand, Munich is the vibrant regional capital of Germany's culturally distinct state of Bavaria. It's somewhere you go for lively beer halls, meat-heavy food, and once a year, the legendary Oktoberfest, which draws in tens of millions of visitors keen on partying the ‘Bavarian way'.

Right now, you can already travel from Paris to Munich, though not directly: you would typically have to switch trains in another major German city, such as Stuttgart or Mannheim.

No biggie, especially when changes are quick, but they can be a bit of a hassle when they involve different platforms, and you're unloading and loading heavy bags again onto trains.

The current average journey time is 6 to 7 hours, including changes, but once the direct link launches, it will be shaved down to only 4h40. This is thanks to the massive investment in high-speed rail across Europe, particularly for routes under 620 miles long.

How Much Will Tickets Cost?

There are at least five fast direct trains planned per day, and both the French TGV high-speed trains and the German ICE are expected to run on the route.

Infrastructure projects are already underway in the lead-up to the launch, including the opening of a new station in Stuttgart, an important transit hub, and the extension of the high-speed line to Ulm, where trains can easily continue down to the Bavarian capital.

Fares have not been unveiled, but we can speculate:

This isn't a night service, so tickets won't be anywhere as expensive as those seen on the Paris–Berlin or Paris–Vienna line, but medium-distance train journeys in Europe aren't exactly the cheapest, either (unless you're booking early).

With this in mind, we can theorize that the cheapest tickets, booked weeks in advance, can cost as cheaply as $40–50, while last-minute options should average $150–180.

You may be wondering, what exactly is the big deal here, considering you can easily just get a very short 1h30 flight to Munich from the French capital?

That's a valid point, but dare we say, a shortsighted one.

Again, how many hours in advance do you leave for the airport usually? Or then, how many deep breaths have you had to take as you waited scrutiatingly-long minutes, if not hours, at security to get your bags checked?

And then of course, at your destination, how stressful is it usually to find the easiest shuttle service to the city center, especially in Europe, where airports are typically located miles away from the cities they serve?

Even if you're not exactly interested in the environmental argument, avoiding European airports is a good enough reason to choose rail over flights, but have you even done the maths here?

Overall, that 1h30 flight easily becomes a 4–5 hour journey once you factor in commuting to and from airports, and all the usual delays. The Paris–Munich train will take only 4h40, so in reality, you might actually be opting for the fastest, least-stressful route:

Train stations sit right in the city center, so you don't have to leave home 3–4 hours early like you would for a flight.

There are no annoying wait lines at train stations, nor security checks leading to bottlenecks

You can bring up to 2 pieces of hold luggage on most European trains at no extra charge

Trains in Europe are not like trains in America: seats are nice and cushy, Wi-Fi is available, and there's plenty of room to move around, contrary to planes

The journey times often even out: taking the train will take as much time as flying once you add in commuting hours before, and after flying.

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Lufthansa Reopens First Class Lounge In Munich

The Lufthansa First Class Lounge in Terminal 2 at Munich Airport is now open again. First Class travelers can enjoy the stylish lounge with its modern design and comfortable ambience on over ten thousand square feet. A newly designed gastronomic area with an "à la carte" restaurant, a front cooking buffet and a newly designed bar offers the highest level of exclusivity.

The lounge also offers a variety of amenities such as quiet retreats, elegant washrooms, well-equipped work areas with printers and photocopiers as well as extensive entertainment facilities with TV areas and a large selection of newspapers and magazines. From now on, the lounge will be open daily from 05:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.

The reopened lounge rounds off the Lufthansa First Class experience at Munich Airport and is part of a major premium offensive. Among others, First Class guests can also look forward to a renovated First Class check-in area in Munich. In this summer timetable, the new Lufthansa Allegris First Class in the A350-900 will fly from Munich to the destinations Chicago, San Francisco, San Diego, Shanghai and Bengaluru. It sets new standards with two individual suites and the extraordinary Suite Plus.

Germany’s Oktoberfest Opens After 2-Year Hiatus

The beer is flowing at Munich’s world-famous Oktoberfest for the first time since 2019.

With three knocks of a hammer and the traditional cry of “O’zapft is” — “It’s tapped” — Mayor Dieter Reiter inserted the tap in the first keg at noon on Saturday, officially opening the festivities after a two-year break forced by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Oktoberfest has typically drawn about 6 million visitors every year to packed festival grounds in Bavaria’s capital. The event did not take place in 2020 and 2021 as authorities grappled with the unpredictable development of COVID-19 infections and restrictions.

Those worries were put aside this year. The city announced in late April that Oktoberfest would go ahead, and Reiter said Saturday that “it was a good decision.”

“I’m glad that we can finally celebrate together,” Bavarian governor Markus Soeder said at the opening ceremony. “There are many who say, ‘Can we, can we not? Is it appropriate now?’ I just want to say one thing: We have two or three difficult years behind us, no one knows exactly what this winter will be like, and we need joie de vivre and strength.”

Three hours before Reiter tapped the first keg, revelers rushed to secure seats in the huge beer tents as the gates to the festival opened.

They will need significantly deeper pockets than at the last Oktoberfest, with brewers and visitors facing pressure from inflation.

A 1-liter (2-pint) mug of beer costs between 12.60 and 13.80 euros (dollars) this year, which is an increase of about 15% compared with 2019, according to the festival’s official homepage.

This year’s Oktoberfest, the 187th edition of the event, runs through Oct. 3.

Soeder told the daily Muenchner Merkur newspaper in comments published earlier Saturday that the number of coronavirus infections would probably rise following the Oktoberfest but “at the same time, thankfully, we aren’t measuring an undue strain on hospitals anywhere.”

“That speaks for us being in new phase of corona,” he said, adding that authorities would try to protect vulnerable people but not prevent celebrations.

Munich’s Oktoberfest Back On After Pandemic Pause

Germany’s annual Oktoberfest festival is finally on again for this fall, following a two-year hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, the head of the famous Bavarian beer festival said Thursday.

“The Wiesn will take place,” Clemens Baumgaertner told reporters in Munich using the locals’ Bavarian colloquialism for the Oktoberfest which is referring to the big lawn, or Wiese, where the boozy celebrations are taking place.

He said said the popular beer festival in the Bavarian capital will be held without any pandemic restrictions from Sept. 17 to Oct. 3 — Germany’s national day.

“It will take place like we know it from 2019, and not in any other way,” Baumgaertner added.

The Oktoberfest, first held in 1810 in honor of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria to Princess Therese, has been canceled dozens of times during its more than 200-year history due to wars and pandemics.

In the years before the coronavirus outbreak, around 6 million revelers visited the celebrations annually, many of them dressed in traditional Bavarian garb — the women in Dirndl dresses, the men in Lederhosen, or knee-length leather trousers.

Some 487 beer breweries, restaurants, fish and meat grills, wine vendors and others will be present and opening hours will be even longer than in the past, with the first beer tents opening at 9 a.m. in the morning and closing at 10:30 p.m. The last orders will be taken at 9:30 p.m.

A one-liter (two-pint) mug of beer will cost between 12.60 and 13.80 euros ($12.84-14.07) this year, which is an increase of about 15% compared with 2019, according to the official Oktoberfest homepage.

Typical Bavarian dishes sold at the Oktoberfest will include specialties such as the “slaughter plate” with blood and liver sausage and pork belly; pork roast with crunchy skin, bread dumplings and sauerkraut; slices of roasted ox or braised venison ragout with homemade spaetzle pasta.