If you are like my husband and me, when we make our annual pilgrimage to Oberstdorf for that wonderful week of ISU adult competition, we like to add a fun side trip afterwards to unwind. In general, this is how we approach planning our side trip adventures.
Oberstdorf is a couple hour train ride from Munich airport (MUC). We go to Google Flights and enter MUC as the departing airport. We then select “nonstop” only from the “stops” dropdown menu. Google shows a map of places that are a direct flight from MUC and also provides roundtrip prices for the dates that I have selected. Note: the tool has the functionality to limit searches to a specific class of service or airline or to search flexible dates.
Below, you can see that for May 13-17, there are coach flights between Munich and a variety of places including Bucharest, Romania for $195 roundtrip.
Google Flights options from Munich
Destination Considerations:
When evaluating where to go post-Oberstdorf, there are a variety of factors to take into account (weather in May, flight prices, hotel options, etc). We happen to be Starwood people. Consequently, we compare these destinations vs. where SPG has hotels (as well as where we would actually want to go!).
Munich is a fabulous departure destination because it is centrally located to so many places (especially for US travelers).
Quick Flights (2 hours or less):
Here is an illustrative sample of destinations 2 hours or less by flight from MUC, Budapest (Hungary), Milan (Italy), Split (Croatia), Warsaw (Poland), Bucharest (Romania), Sofia (Bulgaria), Belgrade (Serbia). The vast majority of these flights are under $300 and SPG/chain hotels are excellent points deals. In addition, Munich is a Lufthansa hub so United points are also an option for flight purchases. In an example of MUC->Sofia, Bulgaria, the Lufthansa flight was $211 or 16,000 United points and $28. I personally value United points at 1.5c each, so 16,000 points equate to $240 of value. That means that using points would be $268 vs. paying $211 in cash and generating additional United miles by crediting the flight to United. I would definitely buy the ticket, but everyone has different sensitivities to cash expenditures.
Hotels:
The Luxury Collection, Sofia Hotel Balkan is only 4,000 points per night. As a reminder, category 3-7 hotels get the 5th night free. Unfortunately, the Sofia Hotel Balkan is only a category 2. However, at only 4,000 points per night, a 4 night stay would total 16,000 points. The Sense Hotel is a category 3, and thus 5 nights would require 28,000 points or 5,600/night. The current sign up bonus on the personal SPG AMEX is 25,000 points. The business version is 35,000 points. After the $3,000 minimum spend, you will have the 28,000 points required. 5 nights at the Sense hotel would run you $1,500 if you were paying cash, so this is a great use of SPG points (over 5 cents/ point). An alternative (and more potentially more lucrative) approach to achieving these SPG points is to sign up for the Marriott VISA that is currently offering 80,000 points and a free annual hotel stay at a category 1-5 hotel on your credit card sign up anniversary. Adding an authorized user and that person making a purchase in the first 3 months will add an additional 5,000 points. Marriott points convert to SPG points at a 3:1 ratio, so this equates to 28,333.
SPG hotel options in Bucharest
Further Afield (2 hours+):
MUC also offers direct flights to places that are VERY hard to get to from the US. Some interesting options that we are considering include Tbilisi (Georgia, 4 hours), Cairo (Egypt, 4 hours), Tel Aviv (Israel, 4 hours), Dubai (U.A.E., 6 hours), Mumbai (India, 8 hours), Johannesburg (South Africa, 11 hours). In addition, a place that we visited a few years ago, Marrakesh (Morocco) is also only 4 hours away.
Conclusion:
Obviously, these are just some examples of the many trips that can be added on to the Oberstdorf competition. If you have specific questions regarding a potential trip, please feel free to email us at Flyerandice.com
