Car or Train for travel in Germany?

It depends on which towns and which adjacent countries. But for Germany the answer is usually train.

I have always used trains ( and bicycles ). I can think of several itineraries where a car would be prefered, but realistically, that would be after several trips there.

We lived 6 years in Germany with our own car and loved traveling in the countryside and visiting small towns. Driving in cities was often more of a hassle than it was worth. We used a train enough to get a taste for it.

When we started returning for vacations, we wanted to see towns. We learned to prefer trains. They usually take you right near the old town (Altstadt) centers where we preferred to stay and to sight-see. We have made 19 trips since 2006, all by train.

I would not totally rule out rental cars for a drive into the Alps or similar, but especially as I age, I think we will stick to trains. Better exercise to boot. You can of course combine rental cars with trains.

Thank you for the responses!
I was wondering if it was more cost effective (and flexible) to rent a car rather than four train tickets. I understand that within cities cars would be more of a hassle.
Do you buy train tickets online? Is this pretty straight forward?

I was wondering if it was more cost effective (and flexible) to rent a car rather than four train tickets. I understand that within cities cars would be more of a hassle. Do you buy train tickets online? Is this pretty straight forward?

Buying train tickets online is very simple. The easiest way is to use the Deutsche Bahn website or app. For the website, just use this link, which is in English: https://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en You can buy a direct point-to-point ticket between cities, but there are also regional offers, like the Bayern pass, which lets you go anywhere in Bavaria on a single day pass (from 9 am till midnight (I think)). And right now there is a special this summer where you can buy a ticket for €9 and travel anywhere using regional (not express) trains for the months of June, July and August.

You can also search for tickets and buy them with the app (called the DBNavigator), which I highly advise. Not only is it quick, but if you keep your credit card info stored on it, you can buy one at the last minute by jumping onto a train, grabbing your phone and buying the ticket. I had to do that in Berlin when only had a minute or two to catch it. I had it paid for in about a minute, and 2 minutes later the conductor came by, so I was able to show him my ticket without paying a huge fine. It's also handy because you can see all of your purchased tickets at a glance. And if you buy tickets on the website, as long as you are logged in to your account, it will add them to the app.

The Man in Seat 61 is a good place to familiarize yourself with train travel in Germany. It tells you about the various trains (ICE, IC, regional, etc.), what kind of tickets to buy, do you really need 1st class (generally, no), and so on. It's a very helpful website.

You can use that to check distances between cities, prices, type of trains, etc. Right now, with car rental prices going through the roof, there is probably no appreciable distance between the two.

I just got back from a month long trip to Germany and used trains almost the entire time without problem. The only time I rented a car was for 4 days in a small town outside of Münster as I was researching some family history and going to some obscure places. But trains will get you just about everywhere.

I usually buy my train tickets from a ticket automat. There was a learning curve the first time or two that I used it. It requests the same input and is about as complicated as this ticket format on Die Bahn. There is an English option.

https://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

You can use this template to plan a trip and see how it would go.

Usually there are train departures about every hours to a given destination. There are usually discounts for group travel within or between Germany states (Land = State in Germany). You can get steep discounts on faster trains for longer trips by paying in advance. I would use the template above to plan a trip and get a feel for the process.

Cars might seem less complicated but parking, one way streets in town and traffic backups on the autobahns are obstacles. Plus traffic is pretty heavy in Germany; it is easy to find yourself stuck in the wrong lane when moving from one autobahn to another.

I suggest taking the train. Get the tickets for the regional trains from the DB ticket machine, much less stress than having a rental car when those towns you want to see are expected to have lots of tourists thinking the same as you, ie, getting there by car.

I go by train in Germany almost exclusively. By car, when I am driven , only to those small towns and villages in Brandenburg that get only German tourists, if any.

To adjacent countries (Belgium, Denmark, Czech Rep, Poland, etc) the train is the only way to go.

Part 2 here....By train I mean getting around by public transport, train, trams, buses, the S-Bahn and U-Bahn, what is covered in those networks of a city, and if needed, on super rare occasions, taking a taxi.

and in June, July, August of this year you can have unlimited local and regional trains for the entire month for 9€ per person (the whole month, not a single trip) which includes local buses, trams and U-bahn (subway).

The only thing you can't do with that special ticket is use long distance trains which are in types ICE - IC - EC.

So since the car can't compete on price or convenience it can compete on privacy.

You haven't said which adjacent countries you are interested in?

Just returned from Germany where two of us traveled exclusively by train. Costs were €290 for all the trains we took. 30 days, 10 cities. You can compare that to renting a car. We went over into Strasbourg and Luxembourg, also by train.
Most cities you would want to be in the city and have no use for the car at all.

We've been renting cars and driving in Germany for 30 years- mostly doing small towns and countryside but we've done drives from Frankfurt to Munich and Berlin to Frankfurt- never had an issue finding parking in the big cities and then we switch to foot or light rail if we're exploring a city-

With 4 people and the baggage, I'd recommend going with a car rental - you'll likely save significantly on time and money being able get up and go when you want to, pull over and divert to sites that catch your eye without having to lean on train schedules.

Trains are great if you're staying in city centers and you travel light, sleeping near the station or grabbing local transport to get around towns..but I always like having a car, even with the recent increase in costs to rent -

Rail service in Germany is extensive, efficient, safe and inexpensive, better in almost every way than in the rest of Europe. If you think Germany's rail system is less than desirable, you probably won't like trains anywhere.

Trains are great if you're staying in city centers and you travel
light, sleeping near the station or grabbing local transport to get
around towns..but I always like having a car, even with the recent
increase in costs to rent -

You can of course go pretty much anywhere in Germany by car. Naturally there are fewer train tracks than roads, but that said, you can get almost anywhere you'd like to go in Germany by train. Germany has something like 5,500 train stations. What you need to do however is book within a reasonable distance of the train station, as Craig indicates. It makes no sense to be taking a long connecting bus ride or a taxi every time you need to reach a train station for your next journey.

As for staying in CITIES, I'll respectfully disagree with Craig that it's a pre-requisite for train travel. Thousands of Germany's small towns have rail service and make for great places to stay - or travel bases. Just 80 cities have populations of 200,000 or more. The bulk of those 5,500 rail stations lie in much smaller places. Both commuters and visitors (including me!) board the train in small towns multiple times per week to sightsee or to get to/from school/work.

Large cities are generally very bad places for a car - everything works against you. Traffic, widespread pedestrian zones, parking fees everywhere you go. And of course you're paying for your rental car while it sits idle in a city like Munich or Frankfurt for 3-4 days.

Still, some travelers are just car people. If your concept of travel is firmly tied to the enjoyment you get from driving, and if stopping places that catch your eye is central to your enjoyment, then you really have just one choice. Pulling the emergency-stop handle on a train will not result in the sort of fun sightseeing you had in mind. But spontaneity by train is possible with thoughtful planning. Train travelers CAN build in spontaneous travel if they wish by taking short day trips from a well-located base town (where they leave their bags for the day) to other places of interest near their base town. Hop off the train for an hour somewhere, and an hour or two later, when another one comes along, you hop back on to continue your journey.

When I travel solo in Germany, I always take pubic transport, no use having a rental car unless I am going out to villages, and that would only be seeing them in Brandenburg. I've avoided getting a rental car since I can get a ride out there. Germany's public transport net, a combination of S-U-Bahn, regional trains and buses, is so extensive that you can get just about anywhere. This sort of accessibility precludes the need for a rental car. Plus, I don't want to pay for gas by the liter.

Culturally, it's also an eye-opener (if you want that aspect ) taking public transport to the small towns and villages as regards to the locals.