Apologies if this has been asked previously but we are trying to work out the best value train tickets for our trip to Germany in December/January where we will be staying with family.
There are 4 of us (one student, one adult and 2 retirees) and we plan on making the following train journeys over a 3 week period:
Berlin - Osnabruck
Osnabruck- Munster
Munster - Osnabruck
Osnabruck - Cologne
Do we buy a rail pass or individual tickets?
Would very much appreciate your advice.
Thanks!
Do the arithmetics on http://www.bahn.de/p_en/view/index.shtml and you'll see how cheap these trips are when booked in advance.
One thing to remember when buying e-tickets from the Deutsche Bahn: have the credit card ready with which you've bought them. The ticket collector will probably ask for it as a kind of ID.
For the small number of trips you'll be making, buying P-P tickets would be the least expensive method. I'm sure your relatives will be able to help in choosing the best tickets for each journey. I haven't looked at each of the trips you'll be making, but I'm not sure there will be much benefit in buying these in advance. Just buy at the local rail stations from a Kiosk or staffed ticket office.
Check whether advance buying gives you discount by comparing a price for the next day and one for the actual day of your trip. I think I saw some considerable differences.
Osnabrueck, Muenster, and Cologne are all covered by the NRW group ticket at 42 euro total per day if you travel local trains after 9 am week days, or all day weekends. Osnabrueck and Muenster are so close there is probably a cheaper VRR ticket. So Berlin-Osnabrueck is the only one that needs advance purchase long distance tickets for cheap.
First place, do you mean really mean Munster or do you mean Münster? There is a difference (those two dots over the u are not just ornaments). The town of Münster (pop. ~300,000) is on the way from Osnabrück to Köln. Munster (pop. <17,000) is between Hannover and Hamburg. All four of you can travel from Osnabrück to Munster with a Niedersachsen Ticket for 35€ (valid all day long on regional trains in the state of Niedersachsen).
The retired folks are probably eligible for the senior discount pass....40-50% discount on trains, some city buses and trams. You can go to the German rail site and order the card. It will be sent to you in the United States mail in about a week. Do not have to be a citizen of the EU to get the card or discount.
You are advised that you may be asked to show proof of age when using the card in Germany /Austria, but I was never asked.
As for a rail pass, I have never seen any significant advantage to buying them, either as cost effective or convenience.
However there are certain routes/areas in Germany where you can purchase a VERY cheap group ticket, such as the Black Forest region. for example, unlimited travel for up to five people.
group travel
@Ann, the only senior discount I am aware of is the Bahn50 card which gives a 50% discount off flexible fares. You have to purchase this card. The normal price is 255 euro for one year. 60 and over allows you to buy it for 127 euro. If you know of any thing better, give us the particulars. I love senior discounts.
@ Lee, does using a Niedersachsen Ticket mean you need to go via Bad Bentheim as shown at: http://niedersachsenticket.de/infos-zum-ticket/
The normal price per person is 12.50 euro for the hourly direct Regional Bahn that takes about 37 minutes. It looks like the NRW group ticket works for this train.
For innocent bystanders, Osnabrueck is in Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), and Muenster is in North Rhine-Westphalia (Nord Rhein-Westfalen). Their Laender Ticket validity regions overlap a bit.
And I did jump to conclusions that the OP was referring to Muenster, Westfalen (with umlaut).
Advice for ALL Train Passes - just by point to point. With the exception of Switzerland, train passes are usually a waste of money and sometimes involve more headaches than just simple p2p tickets.
Sam, I agree with your question to Anne. If you are not talking about a Sr. Bahn Card, please provide us a link. Besides the problem with the Bahn Card, that you have to amortize the discounts against the cost of the card, it is also an abonnament, a subscription, and renews each year unless you submit a written request to cancel the subscription. Beware.
I see most routes from Osnabrück to Munster to be via Hannover or Bremen.
As is true with most Americans, the OP does not realize that u and ü are entirely different vowels. Note he spells it Osnabruck, not Osnabrück. He might as well have spelled Münster, Minster. For the record, and I am sure Sam knows this, ü is a gerundete vorderzungen Vokale, a vowel pronounced with the tongue forward in the mouth, like an 'e', and the lips rounded, like a 'u'. It is not a 'u'. See here (my mentor).
I would have assumed he was going from Osnabrück to Münster, then back to Osnabrück, then to Köln, via Münster, but it begs the question, why not just go from Osnabrück to Münster, then to Köln? That's why I thought it might really mean Munster.
Either way, he is better off using regional passes vs a rail pass.
Hi,
I am assuming your group is going to Münster/Westfalen since that is consistent with the direction of your itinerary. Münster/Westfalen used to be one of my favourite cities, I visited the place on my first trip to Germany. The other place Munster/Oertze I didn't get to until 1999. Interesting place too since it's in the Truppenübungplatz. Very few North Americans visit Münster/Westfalen. The last time there in 2011 I'm not sure I saw or heard any Americans in the Innenstadt. Osnabrück got British visitors back then because of the large British garrision. You won't see any Americans in Munster/Oertze unless it's totally by chance. Going there you would have to transfer in Celle or Uelzen.
If your family members are driving you around , say for day trip r/t, I would suggest going to Detmold, see the Hermannsdenkmal.
With your itinerary I would not suggest getting a Pass, the trip is too short, you have only one long ride, and all the four rides are planned out. I use a Pass but would not with a group, your concentrated itinerary, and limited rides. Buy the point to point tickets
Just realized when I took out my senior discount card that is for the Austrian railway, which I apparently wrongly assumed transfers to D B Bahn.
The card says OBB Vorteils card, senior card with discounts of 45-50%.
The German rail appears to have only a 25% discount card, still significant.
To add on to what Fred said about Detmold, one of my favorite medium sized towns in this area, be sure to see the Freilichtmuseum http://www.lwl.org/LWL/Kultur/LWL-Freilichtmuseum-Detmold/?lang=en on the outskirts of town if you are interested in seeing how your/our German ancestors lived a century or more ago in this part of Germany. I loved this outdoor, interactive museum. BTW, my 2 favorite small towns in this area were Lemgo and Celle-- beautiful and with an interesting history. A nearby memorable excursion might be Bergen-Belsen, the concentration camp in the Lüneburger-Heide http://www.lueneburger-heide.de where Anne Frank died.
We spent 7 months in Bielefeld many years ago and this was a wonderful area to explore. There is also a car museum outside of Osnabrück, but we didn't visit it. http://www.automuseum-melle.de. There was, until 2009, the Karmann automotive manufacturer in Osnabrück.
edit: Sorry, I didn't contribute anything to your train ticket question above! Under Offers, check routes and prices several months before your long distance journeys and you'll find significant savings for journeys within one region (Regional), within the entire country (Sparpreis) and from Germany to other neighboring countries ( Europa-Spezial). Put all the members of your group and their ages into the search on bahn.de and you should see some very reasonable tickets if you are able to commit to a specific train and time.
No rail pass. No Rail Europe (third party reseller). Buy from Deutsche Bahn.
