After checking the Lander maps, I have not been able to find a Lander ticket that would cover going from the Rhine Valley (Oberwesel) to Wurzburg. Bayern and Baden Wurttenberg cover Wurzburg, but not Rhine. Rhine-Palatinate cover the Rhine, but not Wurzburg. Do I have this correct?
I assume an advance purchase of a specific train is the best option for my family of 4? Would prefer not to be tied down to a specific train time.
Many thanks!
Correct. The Länder tickets cover a Land (a state, Länder is the plural of Land), with slight overlaps near the borders and where lines loop in and out of states, hence Würzburg is covered by both Bayern and Baden-Württemberg.
In this case an advance purchase would be the best option. This also allows you to save time by going on IC and ICE trains, Länder tickets are not valid on these trains, only on local trains.
The following two options also exist, also restricted to regional (not IC/ICE) trains, so would be slower.
Details: https://www.bahn.com/en/view/offers/regional/index.shtml
In addition to the regional Lander tickets, there are also multi-region all-day tickets. But any of these variations are only valid on Regional trains, not IC nor ICE. On this route, the fastest schedules take 3 - 3.5 hours while most regional-only connections take 4 - 4.5 hours.
If your group includes kids aged 6-14, then they'll travel free with a parent or grandparent when you book destination-specific tickets for the party, whether locked in with an advance discount or purchased on short notice for a higher fare.
If you have more train trips like this that you don't want to pre-book, you can also consider a German Rail Pass, with free kids ages 6-11. https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/germany-rail-passes
Thank you! This is exactly what I needed to know to do my cost benefit analysis. And, you are both correct, since our kids are 6 - 14, the best option for time/money is the ICE point-to-point advance purchase. It works out to be only a few euros more than the multi-region/all of Germany tickets.
In doing your analysis, note, as mentioned above, that you only need a two person (not 4) QdL or SW ticket, as your own children under 15 travel free on the 1 or 2 person versions of these tickets.
Connecting using ICE trains will be train specific with a Sparpreis ticket and can be done in 3 to 3 1/2 hours. With the Qdl ticket, you can leave just about anytime after 9 am (M-F). There is an all-regional itinerary with only a single train change in Frankfurt in 3 hours and 51 minutes, departure every 2 hours from Oberwesel beginning at 9:30, 52 EUR.
