German Rail Twin Pass

It's possible that the best pass is no pass at all. Germans buy tickets when they travel, not passes, and they often save € that way over the prices visitors pay for their railpasses. Savvy travelers often do the same. If you can be more specific about your journeys - "We will travel by train in Germany 4 days, 2 short trips and two long trips" - including the dates of those journeys if known - we can advise you more effectively.

Hard to say, since you haven't told us what the other day's trips are. Since you still have about 2 months, you should be able to get good prices on most long trips in Germany using advance purchase, Sparpreis (Savings Fare) tickets, which start at 49€ for two people, in 2nd class, which in my opinion, is perfectly fine (I haven't used 1st class in Germany for 25 years). If the short trips are in a single Land, Länder-Tickets regional passes) are probably a better deal than days of a rail pass.

For the trip to Prague, the Bahn runs an Intercity bus with bathroom and snack bar:
1) a fifth day of the rail pass would only get you to the Czech border on the bus.
2) you could get a rail pass extension which would extend the German Rail pass (including the bus) to Prague, but for only travel to Prague, that wouldn't be cost effective,
3) you could get advance purchase tickets on the Bahn IC bus from Munich to Prague for as low as 29€ per person,
4) you could take one of 3 direct daily train connections from Munich to Prague using a Bayern-Böhmen-Ticket for two for 30,50€, which would cover you to Pilsen, then Czech Rail Tickets for about 3,60€ per person from Pilsen to Prague.

The German Twin pass offers hop-on convenience - reservations are optional on most routes, except for a Munich-Prague bus which is partly covered by pass. For 5 travel days in 1st class, the pass costs $348 per person. Since I've been happy with 2nd class, that price for comparison is $258 per person.

We depart from FRA airport train station around noon to Cologne on Sept. 12.
We depart from Cologne to Heidelberg around 3pm Sept. 13
We depart Heidelberg to Dresden around 9am on Sept. 15
We depart Dresden to Munich around 9am on Sept. 18
We depart Munich to Prague around 9am on Sept. 23

Staying in Prague until our flight to US on Sept. 26

You have 5 long distance trips. A quick look at available saver fares for trips during normal hours of travel indicates that the railpass is going to look very good against point-to-point tickets as the lower saver fare prices have already sold. Also, a saver fare from FRA to Cologne, since it is train-specific, might have to be forfeited if your flight is late.

Use this DB page if you wish to check p2p fares within Germany on your own. (It will also show fares for the trip to Prague from Munich.)

You should consider the 4-day, first class German Rail twinpass Sit'n'Save Promo - €335 for two plus about €36 for two in reservations.

Then Prague: instead of the extra railpass day using the (slower) train option to Prague, use DB's direct IC Bus from Munich. Current saver fare at DB is €29 each - purchase online. The bus leaving Munich at 10:00 arrives before the train journey that begins in Munich at 9:00.

Sit'n'Save promo
IC bus to Prague

Or you can go with the 5-day railpass (€360 for two + €45 for reservations) to the Czech border and purchase 1st class border-to-Prague tickets from Czech Railways. Check costs on your own for that:

Czech Railways

Thanks ever so much for the suggestions. Especially the bus to Prague since our son and his fiance are joining us in Munich for the OktoberFest and traveling to Prague with us. We actually arrive in FRA the evening before our train to Cologne and are just staying at the airport Hilton.

Using the ICE from FRA to Köln (1 hr) at full fare, Sparpreis tickets from Köln to Heidelberg to Dresden to Munich, and the IC Bus to Prague, the point to point fares come out to 379€, or about $515, the same as a 2nd class rail pass. However, taking the IC train down the Rhein to Köln (an hour longer but more scenic) and using the train with a Bayern-Böhmen-Ticket, the total fares would be about 317€ or $430.

So, with point to point tickets, you could save about $85, but it would come at the price of flexibility and a little more time.

The real killer here for point-point is the trip from FRA to Köln. Since you, I assume, are flying into FRA that morning, and the flight could be late, you can't use train specific, non-refundable fares, which are a lot less than full fare.

"We depart from Cologne to Heidelberg around 3pm Sept. 13
We depart Heidelberg to Dresden around 9am on Sept. 15"

Just a suggestion about this part of your trip.

I realize you'll have bags with you on the 15th. But it really would be at least a misdemeanor in the book of travel law to just stay on the train all the way to Heidelberg as you pass through one of Germany's most interesting areas - the UNESCO-World-Heritage-preserved Middle Rhine Valley. Since you have the 14th in Heidelberg, I think you should spend several hours of the 13th checking out some of the old-world villages and maybe a medieval castle as well. 2 worthwhile options:

A.) The 9:53 train from Cologne gets to Koblenz at 10:46. Stow bags in a locker there and catch the 11:14 bus to Braubach, home of Marksburg Castle, the only never-destroyed Rhine Castle.

A shuttle takes you to the castle; the 12:00 tour is normally in English:
Marksburg Express

Have stroll around town and a nice lunch in Braubach's old town after your castle tour:
Market Square in Braubach

Return by train to Koblenz on one of the hourly trains (takes 12 minutes) and fetch bags. There's 14:53 train from Braubach.
The direct 15:48 train from Koblenz to Heidelberg takes less than 2 hours.

B.) Alternatively, you may wish to visit Oberwesel's big wine festival, the Weinmarkt. The 9:56 MRB train from Cologne has a 22-min layover in Koblenz for stowing your bags; it then gets to Oberwesel at 12:25. Return to Koblenz, after 2 hours of wine and food at the festival, on the 14:33 train, arriving in Koblenz at 15:08, fetch bags, and catch that 15:48 train to Heidelberg.

Oberwesel is a handsome town:
Wine market photo
town wall walk
town and Schoenburg Castle-hotel

Railpass reservations: the Sit'n'Save promo requires reservations on high-speed trains, so for option A above, the 2 trains you'll use for Cologne-Koblenz-Heidelberg need reservations. For option B, the Koblenz-Heidelberg leg must be reserved. You can just hop on the other trains since they're all regional trains.

"So, with point to point tickets, you could save about $85..."

The p2p savings fares have been available for sale for your dates for quite some time now - and at this point prices really are all over the place, depending on your hours of travel, since prices increase as the low priced-tickets sell. That $85 in savings depends on low prices that may be available only at certain hours that Lee has selected for this price work-up. You will need to go into the DB itinerary page yourself to see what prices are available at times that are acceptable for you to travel. Morning departures for the trip to Dresden between 8:00 and 9:00are running €150 - €170 for two. Between 9 and 11, they range from €90 to €190. But if you're willing to leave at 5:47 or 6:02 am, the price for two is €49. If you wish to postpone p2p purchases, the prices will almost surely be higher later on.

The railpass cost, however, will remain constant (except for currency fluctuations, of course.) You can buy the pass much closer to your travel date if you wish, or even once you arrive at FRA.

Russ, thank you for your suggestions. This will be our 5th trip to Germany and we have done the middle Rhine both by train and boat. We were only in Koln for a brief period aboard a Viking Cruise and wanted to return to further explore the cathedral. Thus our brief visit there. The 12th is our wedding anniversary. Any restaurant recommendations moderately priced?

We do plan to take the slow train to Heidelberg on Saturday to take in the scenery. As I said in previous post, we actually arrive the 11th into FRA but the flight does not arrive until 8pm from LHR. We are flying from the west coast and staying at the airport Hilton overnight thus train schedule on Friday the 12th not a problem.

We have not been to Heidelberg thus want to spend some time there and will probably take a Sunday afternoon river cruise for a few hours from Heidelberg.

We have also been to Dresden and Prague on a land tour with Collette Tours and we saw just enough of both cities to whet our appetites for a return visit to further explore. And as I said before we are in Munich for several days for OcktoberFest. Third visit to Munich, once before during the fest. This time both our sons and their fiances are joining us in Munich. We are actually on a land tour package for the Munich portion of the trip with hotel and fest activities included,

I started to look at your itinerary and wondered why? Dresden and Prague are close together vs Dresden to Munich and Munich to Prague. You can get Sparpreis fares from Dresden to Prague on the ECs that do it in 2 hours for 38€ for two. So why not do Heidelberg to Munich, Munich to Dresden, and Dresden to Prague. Even with the ICE from FRA to Köln, with 49€ Sparpreis ticket from Köln to Heidelberg, Heidelberg to Munich, and Munich to Dresden, and 38€ tickets from Dresden to Prague, the total fares is 319€ ($444). If you take the IC up the Rhein to Heidelberg, the total fare is 277€ ($377).

Lee, we arrive a week ahead of our sons who are joining us for Munich portion. That is the reason we are coming back to Munich from Dresden rather than Dresden to Prague. Our one son is then going to Prague with us. His work schedule does not permit him to come with us the first week of our travel, thus the back and forth which I don't mind. Just booked the Munich to Prague bus for the 4 of us..