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5 day visit do we need to buy rail pass?

I have read all the sites I can find on this and am still mystified. #1 We will travel from Paris to Colmar on May 28 (those tickets alone are $246 total). #2 From Monday thru Thursday we will be taking short hops to Ribbeauville, Riquewihr, maybe another French city, or Freiburg, lastly Basel (for airport). Would a pass be our best option, or individual? I apologize in advance for any misspellings and for not "getting" this. Help is Most appreciated as I need to go ahead and book our Paris to Colmar tix to get the exact needed time.

I have also seen Konus cards mentioned, but can't seem to find them anywhere we will be.

Posted by
19274 posts

The Konus card is for people staying in the Black Forest (Germany), and gives unlimited transport on trains and buses in the Black Forest area. It is not valid in France.

Posted by
82 posts

Thank you!

Any advice on the pass - or just stick to individual tickets?

Posted by
10627 posts

I usually don't answer train questions because it's not my area of expertise, but only one other person has answered, so this will at least bump your question back up to the top.

You can look on the SNCF (French train) website for the tickets. You are traveling to Colmar on the Sunday of a holiday weekend, so all the lowest price tickets are sold out. The earlier you buy them, the better. I can't tell you anything about a pass because I've never used one, but you'd have to get a seat reservation for the Paris-Colmar trip, in addition to the pass. The seat reservation, if any are left for passholders, are expensive.

You can look on SNCF or DB (German Train) websites for the Colmar-Freiburg leg and DB for the trip to Basel. Ribbeauville and Riquewihr are local train tickets you buy when you are ready to go.

There is another site where you can get all the long-haul tickets at the same cost as the national carriers and the websiet is easy to use : trainline.eu. See www.seat61.com for everything you need to know about trains in Europe.