Loco2.com (my preferred booking engine for train travel in Europe and the UK) has created this delightfully presented and very informative 'infographic' about how far ahead to book and which are the cheapest days to travel.
Posted by
11 posts
We can't able to predict the days and fares. Only way is to check each and every day through online through various websites.
Posted by
Basel, Switzerland
8889 posts
Fares only ever go up as you approach the travel date, they never go down.
So the only rule is to buy as soon as you are prepared to commit to a date.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19227 posts
I don't know where they got their fares for Germany, or when. The article shows the lowest same day (full) fare from Berlin to Munich as 131.50£. The German Rail site shows the full fare as 130€ (about 111£ today). They also give the cheapest (Saver Fare) Berlin to Munich fare as 27£, but I found 19€ (just over 16£) on the German Rail site.
Looking at the Loco2 site today shows the route going through Hannover, which costs 12€ more (142€ vs 130€) on the DB site than the more direct route via Leipzig and Nürnberg.
This reinforces what I have felt all along, you get a better selection and lower fares if you book directly with the country's website (in this case Bahn.de). Although it always pays to check all options, I would only use a third party website for routes not offered on a country's website (for instance on spanning several countries).
I just looked up Munich to Interlaken Ost (Switzerland) on the Bahn website. It offered a ticket for an all rail connection leaving at 12:33, as well as a number of less expensive connections using the Munich-Zürich bus. Loco2 could not find any tickets at all for this route, any time.
BTW, while I think it is gererally true that European rail tickets only get more expensive as the travel date nears, I found several cases on Loco2 where the price tomorrow was less than the price for Feb. 15.