German Rail Night Train Questions

1. They're about as comfortable as an economy airline seat. Except the average flight won't stop at intermediate stops 10 times during that trip, like your train ride will. You wont get much sleep at all. So you'll be a zombie in Baden Baden.

2. And the price you're quoting is a super saver discounted price. I Dont think you can upgrade those. In the unlikely event a couchette berth opened up on the day of, you'd have to pay the full price fare.

My advice- either fly or take the train the next morning.

Thank you Clean

I just had a look on the DB website ( https://www.bahn.com/en/view/index.shtml ) for the night of Friday 29th June to Saturday 30th June.
There are seats available at €29, but there are also some couchette places available at €139 (6-berth), and single berth sleepers at €219. These are all the "Normal" fare, the cheap tickets have indeed sold out.

However I too would not recommend this. I would much rather get one of the hourly faster day trains, for example:

Berlin Hbf depart 06:30, Baden-Baden arrive 12:16, € 37,90
Berlin Hbf (tief) depart 07:49, Baden-Baden arrive 13:25, € 59,90
Berlin Hbf depart 08:30, Baden-Baden arrive 14:29, € 47,90
Berlin Hbf (tief) depart 09:49, Baden-Baden arrive 15:25, € 59.90
Berlin Hbf depart 10:30, Baden-Baden arrive 16:29, € 67,90

Etc. I would not fly, by the time you have added getting to and from the airport, check-in time etc. It won't be significantly faster, and train is more comfortable.
I hope you are looking on the DB website, and not a reseller.

I hope you are looking on the DB website, and not a reseller.

https://www.trainline.eu sells tickets without a markup and I see that same € 37,90 ticket on the morning of June 30th

I use the DB Bahn site.

If I were going to Baden Baden from Berlin, I would take the night train. Getting in at 0527 is fine. If it were a later arrival time, the conductor ca 0530 would come around making announcements. This is what I experienced taking the night train to Berlin 3 years ago.

The 2nd class seats are fine, satisfactory, no problem, no problems sleeping either; lots of people sit in the general seating area, at least on the nights trains I've been on. They're all locals. Every recent trip I take night trains. I always sit in the general seating area, a bit more preferable than a compartment. I certainly will not pay for a couchette or a sleeper.

I'd take a day train. You can take the 5:38 with a change in Hannover and be in Baden-Baden by 11:25. Time enough to check-out the spa, walk through the casino, and get a train to Strasbourg for the evening.

Thanks for the ideas everyone. Never thought of that Sam. Will check that out.

So I was a fool and should have bought the nonstop 6:30AM train from Berlin to Baden Baden for $47USD when I had the chance. That same route is now $83. This is on an ICE train. Do these ever go back down in price? You know how with airlines that the flight prices for the same flight constantly change.

Do these ever go back down in price?

On the contrary, prices increase the closer you come to your travel day.

Boba, no train prices never go down. There is a quota of tickets at the lowest price, once those sell out, it just goes up.
This is the same "demand pricing* used by cut-price airlines. The more demand, the quicker and higher the price goes up. At the end, only the most expensive tickets are left, for the people who absolutely must travel that day, no matter what it costs.
It's called capitalism!

I would do this.

6/29: Berlin Hbf 18:30 to Frankfurt Hbf (22:54)
Walk to a cheap hotel and sleep in a real bed.

6/30: Breakfast. Frankfurt Hbf 7:50 to Baden-Baden (9:15.)

This trip can be done on one saver fare ticket for €47.90 at current prices. Just schedule a stopover of 8hrs 20min in Frankfurt.

Russ, thank you. Did not think of doing that! It still gives me few days I wanted in Berlin doing during my last last spending the time at Topography of Terror, Checkpoint Charlie, and Stasi Museum. I want to do all those together since they are right next to each other.

This board has been very helpful.

Wow, I never knew you could do that! I've played around on Bahn's site and never noticed that you could do it. Russ, you deserve a gold metal!

I prefer chocolate medals :)

You can do this stopover trick across two calendar days - but for final destinations in Germany, you normally have to reach them by 10:00 am.

Chocolate medals of course!

Just curious, you discovered that feature right away? I never ever would have noticed this! Found some cheap hostels within a 5 minute walk from the train station. Area seems a bit seedy but the price is right. I'm not really into hostels since I'm not in my 20s anymore, like clean, like privacy, and like quiet but for 1 night I will make it work.

It was about 5 years ago that I made an overnight stopover (which just happened to be in Frankfurt) on a saver fare ticket between Luxembourg and a small town near Nuremberg.

Well once again thank you very much. I just booked according to your suggestion :) Even though it is a bit more expensive than what my 2 original plans were, this actually ends up working out much better giving me more time in Baden Baden and Triberg.