Munich to Starnberg and the Alpine Foothills: A Convertible Day Route
This route heads south-west from Munich through the lake district and into the alpine foothills, returning via a different road. It works best between May and September with the top down — a Ferrari Roma Spider or BMW 430i Cabrio suits the pace and the narrow lakeside stretches. We can have the car waiting at your hotel or residence by 8 a.m., briefed and fuelled, so you simply walk out and drive.
Behind the wheel
- 01
Maximilianstraße to the B2 South — Morning Departure
Leave central Munich early enough to clear the Mittlerer Ring before commuter traffic thickens. The B2 south toward Starnberg is a clean, direct road — roughly 30 km, mostly two lanes once you pass Krailling. Keep windows or roof open through the Würmtal valley; the air changes noticeably as you leave the city. No toll, no vignette needed. If your car was delivered to a Bogenhausen or Lehel address, you'll reach the B2 in under fifteen minutes.
- 02
Starnberg Lakeside — Coffee and First Views
Park near Starnberg's Seepromenade — there is paid parking close to the waterfront. The western shore of Lake Starnberg is quieter than the town side and worth a short walk before the cafés fill up. The lake is 21 km long, and from the promenade you can see the alpine ridge on a clear morning. This is a good place for an unhurried coffee before the drive south. If you are in a convertible, note that lakeside roads from here toward Tutzing are narrow and lined with old plane trees — beautiful but demand attention.
- 03
Tutzing to Murnau via the Western Shore Road
Follow the lake's western edge through Bernried toward Seeshaupt, then continue south on smaller roads through the Pfaffenwinkel toward Murnau am Staffelsee. This 50 km stretch is the core of the drive: rolling farmland, distant views of the Wetterstein range, and almost no traffic midweek. The road surface is good but undulates — in a low-slung sport car, take the crests gently. Murnau's old town sits above the Staffelsee and has a handful of good lunch spots with terrace seating facing the mountains.
- 04
Murnau to the Kochelsee Viewpoint
From Murnau, a short drive east brings you to Kochel am See. Just before the town, a rising road offers one of the best open viewpoints in Upper Bavaria — the Kochelsee below, the Herzogstand ridge behind it, and the Walchensee valley beyond. There is a gravel pull-off where you can stop without blocking the road. This is the turn-around point; from here the A95 motorway is only minutes away for the return leg. If you want to extend the day, the Walchensee toll road climbs higher, but it adds an hour.
- 05
A95 Return to Munich — Late Afternoon
Join the A95 at Murnau or Kochel and head north toward Munich. The A95 has stretches with no speed limit — if you are in a Ferrari 296 GTB or Audi RS6, this is where the car can breathe, but traffic density increases closer to the city, especially after the Starnberg junction. Stay aware that Munich's Umweltzone begins inside the Mittlerer Ring; all our fleet vehicles carry the required emissions sticker. We coordinate collection from your hotel or residence at a time that suits you — no need to find a return depot.
About Munich
The right car depends on what the trip actually involves. A weekend built around Starnberg or Tegernsee suits an open-top GT or convertible on the lakeside villa roads south-west of the city, while a family heading to Neuschwanstein via the A95 and B2 will get more comfort out of an SUV or a spacious sedan over the 120-kilometre run. Business travellers moving between Messe München, the Hauptbahnhof and hotel addresses in the centre generally do better in a sedan built for repeated short transfers rather than a car optimised for open road.
Munich's old town is dense and largely built around pedestrian zones, so a car chosen for the city itself matters as much as one chosen for the routes out of it. Street parking around the Altstadt is limited, with underground options near Marienplatz and Maximilianstraße covering much of the demand in that area. The city also operates a low-emission zone, so entry into the centre depends on the vehicle carrying the correct Euro-standard compliance and emissions sticker rather than being a matter of choice on the day.
Trips beyond the city change the planning slightly. Alpine routes toward Garmisch-Partenkirchen call for winter tyres between November and April, and a car without them is not suited to that stretch in the colder months. A day trip east to Salzburg crosses into Austria on the A8, which means an Austrian motorway vignette is needed for that leg — a detail worth confirming before departure rather than after. Drivers drawn to the de-restricted sections of the A8 and A9 toward Nuremberg or Stuttgart should treat those stretches with the same traffic awareness as any other autobahn driving, not as an invitation to push a car beyond sensible limits.
Demand in Munich is not flat across the year. Late September into October brings Oktoberfest traffic around Theresienwiese, which affects how a car moves through that part of the city during the festival period. January sees a rise in business sedan interest tied to trade fairs such as BAU, and summer weekends push convertible interest toward the lake district. None of this changes what a car can do, but it does affect how much room there is to be flexible about timing and vehicle type as those periods approach.