Hotel Review: Hilton Munich Airport Hotel and an Afternoon at Marienplatz

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If you’re following along with our epic family trip to Europe, then you know we left off after landing in Munich, Germany from Naples, Italy. We flew just one hour and 16 minutes on one of Lufthansa’s a-320. As I wrote in the trip report, we had some of the friendliest flight attendants of all time. RELATED: 12 Things to Know Before You Travel to Europe

Quick recap of our trip
When I purchased the tickets two weeks before our trip, the cheapest and most direct tickets were on Star Alliance carriers (to get to Europe, we flew Air Canada from Toronto to Barcelona). We then took a seven-day cruise to Rome, spent two glorious nights in Rome, took the train to Naples, a ferry to the island of Ischia and spent two nights in the island’s best hotel, the Regina Isabella Resort.

When we walked off the jetway in Munich. my six-year-old son asked what all the paper things were on the shelves (pictured above). Legitimate question for a kid; stacks of newspapers aren’t something you see very often these days, especially free ones by an airport gate.

Most of the newspapers were in German but he asked if he could have one. He grabbed the New York Times and started reading it as we pushed him along in his three-year-old sister’s stroller. Passersby were doing double takes like, this kid must be super smart.

It was just after 8am and we were at the beginning of an eight-hour layover before our nine-hour flight to Toronto. As I wrote in this article about how much time you should leave for a layover, we were playing it safe. In short, these days you don’t want to chance missing a flight so leave plenty of time between connections.

I purchased business class tickets for cheap (just $400 more than Premium Economy), so we could have just gone to one of Lufthansa’s lounges, showered, hung out and even put our carry-on bags in one of their lockers. But I wanted to make the final leg of our incredible trip special.

I had heard great things about the airport’s Hilton hotel, which is right on property. I tried to book a day room online but couldn’t. Since we were arriving and departing at odd times, it made for a complicated booking so I reached out to my friends at Hilton to see if they could help. They ended up getting us a room for the day. It was fantastic to have a home base to make a long layover feel short.

We followed the signs to the hotel (the airport needs a few more to help point travelers in the right direction) and walked the three to five minutes to the entrance (from either Terminal 1 or 2).

The hotel delivers an impressive first impression with its high glass ceilings and walls. It was bright and airy and the unexpected palm trees give off Mediterranean vibes.

Walking in, I couldn’t help but notice the sign boasting that the Hilton Munich Airport was voted the Best Airport Hotel in Europe by SkyTrax in 2018. But after our short stay, I can see why.

There was a short line at check-in. I got talking to the agent and one of the interesting things she told me was that this hotel has a lot of American customers that come every week from the U.S. to work and then go home on weekends. Talk about a long commute. I did notice a lot of business travelers and the staff was setting up for a company event later that evening.

While I checked us in, the kids discovered a little play area that had a small putting green and foosball. Perfect for keeping them entertained.

Once in the west wing’s glass elevator, we used our keycard to get to our room on the fourth floor.

The moment we got off the elevator and into the hallway, we saw that there was a mountain theme, which carried on into the room. There’s even a signature scent for both the room and the hallway.

The beds looked super comfy and we were all tired from getting up at 3:30am to catch our flight to Munich from Naples. But I knew that if we hung out in the room for too long, we’d be tempted to crawl into the cozy beds and take a little nap. But that would have made for a really long flight and would have been a waste of a layover. So we all rallied!

We just dropped off our bags, freshened up a bit and charged our devices. FYI: Although the hotel hosts a lot of American guests. you do need to bring a plug adapter as they only have European power ports. I mean, of course … you are in Europe. We used multiple gadgets. A universal power adapter, a single adapter and a compact European power strip, which was perfect for travel to continental Europe.

But if you’re just charging your iPhone, they had a charging pad recessed into the nightstands, by each side of the bed so no phone cord is necessary.

Unfortunately, the hotel didn’t have any complimentary water and the 1L bottle in the room was a steep 6 Euros. But they did have a tea kettle.

FYI: If you’re looking for inexpensive bottles of water, don’t hit the McDonald’s that’s in the main quad of the airport because they charge €3.55 for a small bottle. They also charge for extra packets of ketchup.

I quickly checked some emails, looked up directions to the train station and then we went out to explore a small part of Munich.

It was a beautiful summer day. If you read my 12 Things I Learned in Europe This Summer post, then you know we took the train into the city center to have lunch and to (literally) give my kids a taste of Germany.

Multiple people told us to go to Marienplatz so we took the S8 train into the city. The station is right under the airport so it’s just two- to four-minute walk from the hotel. There were plenty of automated ticket machines but no manned booth.

I found the machines confusing (as did other tourists), even though you can easily translate it to English. We ended up missing the first train by a couple of minutes because my credit card required a four-digit pin and I had to unlock my debit card to use it.

The S8 took 38 minutes and ran every 20 minutes. The ride was enjoyable as the cars are clean, there’s plenty of room and we had some nice country views.

We got dropped off in the center of Marienplatz, where we walked around for a bit and went into a church to light a candle for my dad.

We grabbed some currywurst, French fries and a coke (15 euros, cash only).

I also bought two packets of raspberries (5 euros) from one of the many good-looking fruit stands. But unfortunately, they each had mold on the bottom berries.

And of course, we couldn’t leave Germany without each getting a tasty pretzel.

We took a different entrance to the train station than the one we’d come up from, which was a mistake so we couldn’t find the S8. However, a local told us to just take the S1 and it would take us back to the airport. It did but it was more of a local train so it took about 20 minutes longer.

Back at the hotel we all, took showers, which felt great and freshened up for our next flight. There were only two towels but since we were in a hurry, I didn’t feel like calling down to housekeeping. I just used my kids towel. Why does daddy always get seconds of everything? Ha!

We rolled downstairs about two hours before our flight and used the express checkout.

A short three minutes later, we were in the airport and we didn’t need to check-in again since the agent in Naples had checked our bags through to YYZ and we already had our tickets to Toronto.

I will write about our MUC Airport experience and the flight to YYZ shortly but my wife and kids can’t wait to go back to Munich and spend a full night in this fantastic airport hotel.