Lucerne to Munich via Liechtenstein – Busabout Hop-On Hop-Off Flexitrip

Today for me it’s the final day of travelling on the Busabout Hop On Hop Off network around Europe as we depart today from the Swiss city of Lucerne and head over to the German city of Munich for the fun and festivities of Oktoberfest. Along the journey today we will also stop off at the capital of Liechtenstein, Vaduz for a short lunch stop and in the process get to tick another country visited off our list.

For us to have gotten this far on this journey we have travelled extensively around Europe with Busabout starting a couple of weeks ago in Barcelona and taking in fellow Spanish cities of Valencia, Madrid and San Sebastian. During this time we also experience an unforgettable seven days on the Busabout Iberian Adventure Tour as well as the even more unforgettable experience that is the La Tomatina Festival, also with Busabout.

RECAP: Busabout Hop On Hop Off Network

RECAP: Busabout Iberian Adventure – Spain & Portugal

Although this will be the final trip on the Busabout Hop On Hop Off network the trip won’t come to a close today and there is still plenty of sights to be seen along the way. Tomorrow we will join Busabout again for the three day Busabout Oktoberfest hostel package which is without a doubt one of the biggest highlights of this entire time spent in Europe. After we are finished with Oktoberfest and Munich we head off on what was supposed to be a leisurely overnight train journey to Budapest, however with the Syrian refugee crisis gripping Europe our travel plans were thrown into chaos, more on that in the future.

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Lucerne to Munich – 20 September, 2015

This morning we didn’t have to leave as early as we usually do given that Lucerne is only an optional stop along this leg of the trip. We still needed to wait for the coach to come from Lauterbrunnen so we didn’t need to be outside Backpackers Lucerne until 10:00am. This gave us enough time to have some breakfast at our hotel Ameron Hotel Flora, check out and walk the 20 minutes needed from central Lucerne to the pick up point.

Our guide today was Adam whom we also had on our Paris to Lauterbrunnen leg of the trip and he was also making his way to Oktoberfest for Busabout. Once we were on our way we headed for one of the world’s smallest countries Lichtenstein and its capital city of Vaduz for our lunch stop. Lichtenstein is a strange little country wedged between Switzerland and Austria that is still today governed by the Prince of Lichtenstein with his castle protruding from the top of a cliff in Vaduz looking like something out of a fairy-tale.

Lichtenstein relies a lot on Switzerland and to a lesser extent Austria for its essential services, they use the Swiss Franc and the railways are administered by the Austrian Federal Railways whilst the bus service is administered by the Swiss Postbus system. The official language of Lichtenstein is German just like most of Switzerland and Austria and you’ll even find the Swiss supermarket chain Coop in the capital.

After grabbing a bite to eat and buying my small shot glass souvenir from Lichtenstein it was time to jump back on the coach and continue our journey onto Munich ending our 40 minute adventure in Lichtenstein. It was then a long drive from here to our final destination and we arrived just after 5:00pm, but whilst we were on the coach we organised with some people we met on our Busabout Iberian Adventure tour in Spain to do one of the Busabout optional Activities tomorrow, a city bike tour with Mike’s Bike Tours.

We were able to book our bike tour on the coach with our guide at the special Busabout discounted rate. We then arrived at the drop off point which is the Wombats City Hostel which is quite close to the Oktoberfest grounds, only a couple of block away. We said our goodbyes and organised a meeting time for tomorrow. We weren’t staying in the hostel tonight and for our extra night in Munich that isn’t part of our Busabout tour for Oktoberfest we are staying at the Eurostars Grand Central which is about a 15 minute walk from the drop off point and is a really modern and stylish hotel. It actually cost us less to stay in a hotel for one night than in a share dorm room at the Wombats City Hostel.

We checked into our hotel for the night and straight away went out to explore a bit of the town and to go shopping for our Oktoberfest outfit for tomorrow and the next four days. There are many strategies when it comes to buying your outfit, without a doubt it will cost you far less to purchase one before you leave home. However think about having to carry that around with you in your luggage the entire time which might not be practicable. Of course it will also depend on when you’re visiting Oktoberfest during your trip, for me it was at the end so naturally it was better for me to purchase my outfit whilst there and only have to hold onto it for one more week until going home.

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You’ll see everywhere on the streets what people are wearing so you can get plenty of inspiration as soon as you walk outside. Pop-up style stores are on just about every corner street trying to sell the ‘cheapest’ outfits. Some stores are literally packed to the rafters full of gear for young and old. These stores would be making a killing and this time of year is probably their biggest time of the year. Girls have an array of dresses called Dirndls and accessories to choose from ranging in all sorts of colours but predominantly white, whilst guys can choose from short or long Lederhosen and then choose from green, blue or red checkered shirts making Munich seem like it has been taken over by a swarm of lumberjacks.

I went with the longer Lederhosen covering my knees which can be a bit restrictive when trying to sit down when you get inside the beer halls so keep that in mind, and a blue checkered shirt. Overall my outfit plus socks cost me just over €90.00 so take this into consideration when setting your budget. You can spend a lot more than this on an outfit, but always have in the back of your mind that you are probably only going to wear this once, so don’t go overboard. Trying on my Lederhosen in the shop was an experience in itself with the woman service me not letting me go into a change room and wanting me to strip down in the middle of the shop. To top that off she makes sure it fits you by getting quite touchy feely, but you shouldn’t be put off but that and is something to have a laugh about later.

Once we were done shopping we walked towards our hotel stopping off at a German beer hall for some dinner. Some bratwurst and sauerkraut with a stein of beer really hit the spot and made us even more excited for the festivities ahead. Being a bit under the weather the last few days we were worried this would impact on our Oktoberfest experience, however things were starting to look up again and tomorrow was going to be an exciting time.

Tomorrow we will check out of our hotel and move over to the Wombats City Hostel to begin our Busabout Oktoberfest tour, however we will spend the day exploring more of the historic side of Munich with a Mike’s Bike Tour before hitting up Oktoberfest for the first time tomorrow night.

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BUSABOUT OPTIONAL ACTIVITIES & DROP OFF/PICK UP POINT – MUNICH

PICK UP/DROP OFF POINT

Wombats City Hostel
Senefelderstrabe 1, 80336 Munich, Germany
+49 89 5998 918-0

ACTIVITIES

Gordons Tours
Dachau Memorial Site Tour – Busabout Price: €10.00 Normal Price €22.00

Mike’s Bike Tours
Munich City Tour – Busabout Price: €19.00 Normal Price €30.00

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