Public transport in Munich
Munich has a very well-developed public transport system, which includes the underground (U-Bahn), bus (Bus), tram (Tram) and S-Bahn (S-Bahn).
Everything that moves within the city belong to MVG (the website is also available in English), the suburbs belong to MVV (the website is also available in English).
Travel scheme
You can find a travel schemes at the following links:
City - https://www.mvg.de/dam/mvg/plaene/netz-und-tarifplaene/netz-tarifplan.pdf
Suburbs - https://www.mvg.de/dam/mvg/plaene/netz-und-tarifplaene/netz-tarifplan-region.pdf
Or all in one place - 
Maps
Mobile apps
Before moving on to tickets and fares, I would like to suggest that you look into the following applications from MVG:
MVGO - one app, drive everything
In addition to travel plans, it is also possible to construct routes within the app, after which the app will tell you which ticket is suitable for the selected trip. You can also buy tickets in the app.
Tickets and prices
First of all - children under 6 years of age are entitled to free public transport in Germany.
The city, together with the suburbs, is divided into fare zones M, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, where M is the Munich or inner fare zone and the numbers indicate the suburban fare zones. The cost of a ticket or trip is calculated on the basis of which zone or zones you intend to use public transport in.
Prices for all possible tickets broken down by fare zone can be found here
The following types of tickets are available for April 2023:
Deutschlandticket for 49 euro
A new kind of ticket that you can buy in the app and use straight away. Of course you can also order a card, but you will have to wait for it. The ticket is valid throughout Germany for all public transport, plus regional trains. Intercity trains (e.g. IC, EC and ICE) are not covered by the ticket. One more thing - the ticket is valid as a subscription, i.e. every month the amount will be automatically debited from your card and a new ticket will be available. You can read more about this ticket here.
Ticket for a short trip. Kurzstrecke.
Price €1.90
Valid for 4 stops by tram/bus or 2 stops by U-Bahn, S-Bahn or express bus (routes starting with X..)
One-time ticket. Einzelfahrkarte.
The cost depends on the number of zones you want to travel in. You can see a table showing the prices for the different fare zones at this link.
For children aged 6 to 14 years old a special price applies to all zones - €1.80
Any number of transfers and to any public transport are allowed. The maximum travel time is 2-3 hours.
Streifenkarte
There is also a cheaper option for teenagers aged 15-20 - Streifenkarte U21
The cost is 16.30 euros (for teenagers 15-20 years old 8.90 euros).
Please disregard the price in the picture, this was the price back in 2017.
The ticket is a piece of paper with 10 strips marked on it, which must be punched before you can travel. The number of strips that must be validated depends on the distance travelled. For a child aged 6-14 years one strip has to be validated regardless of the travel distance. For travel in zone M, 2 strips must be validated. Each additional zone on the route is plus one strip.
For example, we need to drive from the airport to the city centre. The airport is in fare zone 5, the city centre is in fare zone M, so we need to validate 7 strips (2 in zone M + 5 for each zone in the suburbs). The return route is counted in the same way.
Special rule for short trips: If we are travelling no more than four stops by bus or no more than two stops by metro, train or express bus, one strip must be validated.
For a clearer view, see the price table at.
Now how to validate the stripes. The most common mistake is to validate each strip separately. This is not the way to do it. As you can see in the picture, each strip has an arrow that points from bottom to top. The arrow shows us in which order the lanes are to be counted. To go from the airport to the city centre count 7 lines, bend the ticket along the line indicated by the arrow on the number 7, and validate the ticket in the ticket machine. Strips 1-6 will be left untouched, and strip 7 will have the station name, date and time. After the trip, another 3 strips are left, which means that the ticket can be used to make one short underground ride (after stripe 7, counting 1 stripe again, bending the ticket along the line to which the arrow on numeral 8 points and validate the ticket). On the way back we can use the remaining 2 strips for a long trip to zone M, validating the stripe number 10 for that (8 used strips + 2 strips for zone M). I hope the algorithm is clear.
Daily ticket. Tageskarten.
Prices start from €8.90 for an adult and depend on the fare zone for which the ticket is purchased. There is a ticket for a group of up to 5 adults, with prices starting from 17 Euro. Here you can have a look at it visually.
For a child aged 6-14, a day card costs €3.50 and is valid for all fare zones.
If you need to transfer your bicycle on the underground, you will need a special daily Fahrrad-Tageskarte, which costs 3.30 euros. There are restrictions on transporting bicycles on the underground. For example, bicycles are not allowed during rush hours from Monday to Friday, except on public holidays, from 6:00 to 9:00 and from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.
All day tickets are valid until 6am the next day.
IsarCard
A ticket is for a long period. It can be for a week or a month. Both tickets are valid until 12 noon on the day following the end of the validity period. The validity of a ticket is calculated from the date of purchase. For example, a week ticket bought on Wednesday will be valid until 12 noon on Thursday of the following week.
The price of the ticket depends on the zone for which the ticket is purchased. More information on prices can be found here. The IsarCard can be extended with an additional Anschlussticket. For example, if you have a monthly pass for zone M and need to go to the airport, you can buy an additional ticket for the missing zones.
Also, a special feature of this ticket is that you can bring up to 3 of your children under the age of 15 with you free of charge on weekdays between 9am and 6pm.
The monthly ticket also has the following variations, which cost slightly less:
IsarCard9 Uhr - all the same as a regular monthly IsarCard with the only difference being that it is not valid from 6am to 9am. The cost again depends on the fare zones chosen.
IsarCard65 - a monthly pass for people over 65.
IsarCard S (Sozialticket) - a monthly pass for socially disadvantaged people
Tickets for pupils and students
365-Euro-Ticket MVV - as the name of the ticket tells us - it costs 365 euros and is valid for 1 year from the date of purchase for all fare zones at all times. It can only be used by pupils and students. If you follow the link, you will find in the Frequently Asked Questions what documents are required when applying for a ticket.
Ausbildungstarif I (bis 14 Jahre) and Ausbildungstarif II (ab 15 Jahren) - tickets for students under 15 and from 15 years of age. You can buy tickets for a week or a month. The main difference with the IsarCard is that these tickets are valid strictly from Monday for a week ticket and from the first working day of the month for a month ticket. The ticket consists of a card with a unique number and the actual monthly or weekly ticket linked to it, which can be purchased from a ticket machine in the metro. On weekdays, the card allows you to travel to and from your place of study. On weekends and holidays you can travel with the card without restrictions in the fare zones selected during the purchase. You can extend the validity of your ticket by purchasing an additional ticket for the selected zones - Ausbildung PlusCard. The price of the ticket depends on the fare zone selected.
Semesterticket - another option for higher education students from a specific list of higher education institutions, which can be found at the link. The ticket consists of two parts - the Student Ticket with the MVV logo (you can use it for the whole semester to travel in all fare zones from Monday to Friday between 6pm and 6am, yes yes, from 6pm to 6am, ride at night. On weekends and holidays, any time) and the IsarCard Semester (purchased in addition to your student card and entitles you to use all fare zones at any time). The ticket price varies from semester to semester, for the Winter Semester 2023/2024 the price of 77,30 € for a student ticket and 224,70 € for an additional IsarCard Semester. With the introduction of the Deutschlandticket, which I have written about above and which costs 49 EURO per month, the decision has been made to withdraw the IsarCard Semester as there is no point in this ticket in this case. The link says that in the winter semester 23/24 the price of the Deutschlandticket for students is going to be reduced to 29 Euros.
Special offers
AirportPLUS-Ticket - an all-day ticket that is valid in all zones. Ticket price 16 euros.
MVV-Thermenticket - round-trip ticket to the thermal springs in Erdinga + prepaid 4 hours in the centre itself. You can of course buy the missing packages at the ticket office. Ticket price 38,70 euros.
CityTourCard - The ticket is more for tourists and allows you to move around the city and get discounts at participating theatres, museums, bars and restaurants. The price depends on the zones chosen and the number of days chosen, see more details at.
München Card - The ticket entitles you to travel around the city on public transport in selected fare zones, as well as discounts of up to 70% on various excursions, museums, exhibitions and other entertainment programmes in the city.
Bayern-Ticket or a ticket for those who decide to drive around Bavaria.
If you decide to get out of Munich but still stay within the state of Bavaria, the Bavarian Ticket may be just what you need for that. The Bavarian Ticket is a special offer from Deutsche Bahn that is valid only within Bavaria and entitles you to use all trains (except ICE, IC), subways and buses (there is a list of buses where the ticket is not accepted) of Bavaria (here you can view the original). You can also use the Bavarian ticket to travel to Salzburg in Austria. The ticket allows up to 3 children aged between 6 and 14 to travel free of charge. The cost of the ticket depends on the number of adults for whom the ticket is purchased (maximum 5) and the class of the ticket (1 or 2), see the link for prices. First class will give you more comfortable seats, fewer people in the carriage. The ticket is valid for one day, if you need to travel by night train - there is a night Bavarian ticket for that (you can see the validity times for day and night tickets at the link).
Important: There are blank spaces on the ticket where you must write down everyone who is travelling on the ticket. No corrections! Otherwise you will have to explain for a long time to the inspector how you got the correction in your ticket and you will end up paying a fine for the travelling without a ticket.