Garmisch-Partenkirchen Travel Forum

We have reservations for Edelweiss for Dec and supposed to fly in to Munich but due to change in plans, we now have to fly to Stuttgart. How far is the airport from Edelweiss Resort? Are there any transportation aside from car rental?

If you are flying to Stuttgart, train travel is another option. You need to let us know exactly when you are travelling in December. Also your scheduled arrival time in Stuttgart would be helpful. The new train schedules will come out in early December. Once that schedule is out, looking up the available connections and prices will be fairly easy. I did a check under the current timetable and travel time from Stuttgart to Garmisch is between 4 and 5 hours, depending on the train. In some cases, you will only have to make 1 train change, some will have 2 changes. Again, the new schedule will let us know. A few things to note, you might want to go to the Edelweiss site, and book any tours you wish to go on, NOW. Some of the trips can fill up pretty quickly. A second thing you will want to factor in, if you are there over the holidays, is that Garmisch and Partenkirchen will probably virtually shut down from early afternoon on the 24th, and possibly stay that way, until the 26th or 27th. The lodge will run at full mission though. If you have snow there, or are staying until New Years, you will have LOTS of skiers. They have a famous ski jumping event there that day. If you need more info, you can contact me on the VT e-mail. There are a lot of other things I could give you info on. Gary

DB timetable
http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en
From: STR airport
To: Breitenau

If you stick to regional trains you can do this trip
- on a Sa or Su for EUR 33,00 (Happy-Weekend-Ticket)
- on a weekday for EUR 54,00 (Baden-Württemberg Ticket + Bavaria Ticket)
These are the prices for 2-5 persons (together)
Select at the DB timetable as means of transport "only local transport" if you're interested in these tickets.

To lostsooner55:

Thank you for the information. This is my first time to post and I appreciate your help. We are scheduled to arrive in Stuttgart on Dec 27 and return to the US on Dec 31 (short trip). Arrival time is around 9am. My next question is what time does the train start running? Flight from Stuttgart is 11am on Dec 31. Coming from Edelweiss, will we have enough time or should we try to stay the night in Stuttgart?

One quick question. You have looked at the Edelweiss site, and are certain you are eligible to stay there ? The train schedule looks ok. You can take an S-bahn from the Stuttgart Airport, (Flughafen), to the Stuttgart train station, (Hauptbahnhof), an ICE (fast intercity train), then a regional train on to Garmisch. Just reverse that for the return to Stuttgart. Use Google, type in bahn.de, click on link, (in blue), that says English. That gets you to the ticket selection page. In the "from" block, enter Stuttgart Flughafen, the "to" block, Garmisch-Partenkirchen. In the "dates" block, "outward" is 12-27, pick your travel time, 10:00 should be ok, Your "return" date is 12-30, as the earliest train leaving Garmisch on the 31st is 6:04 A.M. (THAT WON'T GET YOU TO THE AIRPORT IN STUTTGART IN TIME TO CHECK IN FOR AN INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT AT 11A.M.). When you get to the "pricing" block, select "bahn 50 card, 2nd class". You will then see a list of trains available. You do need to reserve a seat at the time you purchase the ticket, (I WOULD DO THAT NOW). The fare that comes up with the bahn 50 fare, is roughly 140 Euros, round trip, and that covers BOTH of you. I hope these "detailed" instructions were'nt rude. That wasn't my intention. Gary

The main reason the instructions were so precise (?), is that the bahn 50 card (2nd class), selection saves you about 120 Euros over standard fare. If I didn't mention it, you might contact your hotels now, and let them know your scheduled arrival times, so they don't give away your rooms. I think check -in at the Edelweiss is 1500. They might give away your room if they have someone without reservations standing there. Better to be safe than sorry. I looked at the winter tours through Edelweiss. My one recommendation would be to take their tour to Neuschwanstein. It's $39 per person, but worth it. During the winter it's beautiful, and much, much, much less crowded. It lasts from 0830 until 1700, and is on Saturday. They have other tours you can look at for the various days. Really all you have additionally for a tour is Friday. Garmisch is a very pretty town. There is a large pedestrian zone, and you can walk clear over in to Partinkirchen and back in probably an hour. I'm rambling, and it's 1:20 A.M.. I hope this hasn't been too much information. GARY

one other quick question. What airline are you using to and from Stuttgart ? Not being snoopy, it's just that some of the European discount airlines use outlying airports as their travel hubs. That means you have extra travel time considerations and additional expenses to get to the "main" cities like Frankfurt, or Stuttgart. Gary

I have given you incorrect information on the pricing for the train unless you have a bahn25 or bahn50 card already. I apologize, I wasn't thinking. Gary

Where I was incorrect, was telling you to use the drop down menu and click on bahn 25 card or bahn 50 card. You leave that block at standard fare. You can check for the availability of savings fares for each train seperately. To qualify for the savings fares however, (1) you must be travelling from and back to the same city, (2) your ticket is for the specific train you select, only on the specific date you select, (3) you must purchase the tickets at least 3 days in advance, (4) discounted seats have to be available on that train. The savings fare 50 has additional requirements. In reality, if the seats are available on the train you select, the price I gave you will be pretty close to accurate. Gary