Help with moving to Munich

Hi all,

I've been reading this forum for the last week, since I accepted a job in central Munich. Thankfully they are providing full relocation assistance, so I shouldn't have too many issues (or at least a professional is being employed to solve them).

I'm really looking forward to this, however I have to admit, I have only once been to Munich before, and that was a short business trip, which did not provide for much time to explore.

I think the only thing I really want to ask you guys about specifically is for recommendations of areas to live. As I said, the job is in Central Munich (D-80331 Munich), but my wife and I would prefer to live somewhere more rural. She is particularly fond of walking in the country (some 10+ km at a time), and works from home, so wants piece and quiet during the day. Internet access (dsl) is also required, but I am not expecting that to be too difficult. I am after a less than 30 minute commute (train, not car) in to the office. Other than that, we are after an unfurnished house, as our furniture is being moved over (does this mean we may need to buy a kitchen, as I am not sure I fully understand the customs here).

Thanks for any advice you can give.

Chris

P.S. I will be driving my car over from the UK in mid-late Jan '07, so any requests for a "taste of home" will be taken nearer the time.

If you're driving over in January, make sure you have winter tyres fitted on your car, there may be a bit of snow around. Also if you have an accident without winter tyres it could be classed as your fault even if it isn't.

The thing with the kitchen really depends on where you choose to live, some houses/apartments may already have one and sometimes they don't.

Good luck with move!

Moving to Munich - Apartments
Munich City Districts
If You'd Searched, You'd Have Found This...
Where to Live in Munich?

this topic has been covered here quite a lot. do some searching first.

p.s. your wife can walk those 10+km quite easily in the English Garden.

Mulah:
I'll look into the car tyres issue (it's got 4 relatively new Pirelli P-Zero's on it, and 4 wheel drive, so I'd prefer not to have to change them, but thanks for the heads up).

Elfenstar:
As for the 4 searches, if you read my post, I was looking for places OUTSIDE Munich, and I've already read most if not all the ones you pointed out (I do know how to search). I'll read them again in case I missed the post, but everything seems to be referring to living IN Munich.

As for the walking, since my wife walks that 10+km pretty much each day (some days just 5km if she is busy or tired), and especially appreciates solitude, I suspect the English Garden my get a bit repetitive and busy for her quickly.

We live south of Munich in a village on the S7 and its lovely round here, nice area for walking and near to the mountains but relatively easy to get into the city on the S bahn (about 35 mins). Our kids are at MIS so we wanted to be close to the school which was the main reason for moving to this area. Starnberg is also v nice but expensive and gets quite congested.

Foprgot to say - re the kitchen everyone i know seems to have a different story about their kitchen but our place which is a relativerly new property didn't come with a kitchen as part of the rent. We had to buy our kitchen from the previous tenants and will be trying to sell it on when we move out.

If DSL is important to you, be sure to tell the person helping you to locate a place to live that it's a requirement for you.

I suspect DSL is not yet available everywhere outside the city.

As Munich is on a plane if the 30 min are to be adhered to strictly there is no really interesting countryside to be had IMHO, but if you look towards the south you will be just that much closer to the mountains, depending what you are used to you might find that quite spectacular.

I do not live in Munich, but if I did, and I wanted to live outside of town, I would DEFINITELY prefer to live south of Munich. They have some mountains down there that are just the cats meow.

Anyway, congrats and good luck.

Thansk for the feedback, please keep it coming.

To clarify, the following are important:
Quiet location
Easy commute to central Munich (<=30 minutes)
DSL Internet access (the faster the better)
Plenty of country walks (hills / mountains not soo important, at least they do not need to be on the doorstep)
Sufficient shops / supermarkets for day to day living (ideally with sensible opening hours, 9-6 M-F is no use, I understand the laws may have changed recently, but I don't understand them fully)
Parking (for one car)
Ideally looking for a house, not flat/apartment.

Not important:
Schools (no kids, just married, or will be before we move here)
Churchs
Immediate social scene (if we want to go out, we'll travel to Munich)

I appreciate the agent is responsible for all this (and works for me), but as others have mentioned, they don't always know everywhere within 50+km of central Munich (which is not surprising), so I felt it was worth asking here, as I could not find a relavant thread discussing areas outside Munich.

Again thanks for the help.

Yes, but they could be and not only that you could have them to wake up to every morning. Just 2 cents from a jealous Franken. Side note, if you are into wine, you should make a trip to Unterfranken, they have alot of good wine on offer here and they are cheap to boot.

I used to live in Sauerlach which is a nice village outside of Munich.

It is on the edge of the Perlacher Forest, so there are lots and lots of nice walking paths.

It is a quiet little village and is just now in a growth spurt with lots of new houses and not outrageous rent.

The supermarket type stores, Aldi and Lidl are open to 8 on weekdays, and at least 6, if not 8 on Saturdays. The smaller shops are still pretty old-fashioned and close at 5 or 6 on weekdays, and some of them at 2 on Saturdays, but this will be typical in any area outside of the city. (No shops in Bavaria are open on Sundays, except gas stations.)

Parking is definitely not a problem in this sleepy little village.

High speed DSL is available.

Sauerlach is 31 minutes from the city center on the S-bahn (suburban train.)

if you have a relocation center doing the work for you, you can tell them to find you a house or larger apartment outside the city. Friends of mine from NZ just got a place south of Munich in Ottefing and are very happy there, in a larger size house than in a small apartment in the city. You can also make sure they find you a place with DSL, that is usually no problem. There are many threads on what kind of Internet service to get.

Most Places on the Sbahn line have a Lidl/Aldi/Rewe that are open til 8 pm every day of the week, but all the other small shops in smaller towns tend to shut down early during the week and about 1-2 pm on saturdays.

No matter how "professional" your relo agent claims they may be ask the agent dealing with you if they have ever relocated themselves internationally, and experienced the pain and pleasure. If they have not, then they can barely be described as "professional". If they recommend anything without adequate justification then check it (either by asking here, or by getting a second opinion, e.g. from a TT advertiser/specialist). Remember, any recommendation your "professional" might make may also be earning them additional commission on top of the fee they charge you or your company, so their recommendations may be biased or the choice they offer limited. For a small house that additional commission may run to €thousands and may double their income for that month. Even a poor recommendation for phone or DSL may add €hundreds to your annual communications bill or inconvenience and restrictions with the service that you would rather not have.

Living Outside of Munich