December/NYE Trip to Germany itinerary

Two questions:
(1) why stay at a hotel near Munich airport? Unnecessarily hard to visit sights in Munich from there. Since you arrive in the AM, you are likely unable to check into hotel that early anyway, so you might as well keep moving forward and go to a hotel in town.

(2) Why go back to Munich at the end? You can fly out of Hamburg or some other closer city rather than waste a day getting back to Munich. Book it as an open-jaw ticket. You could do Heidelberg at the end and fly back from Frankfurt.

Yes, you have some long cross-country travel days with this itinerary.

Too much ground travel for 8 nights, IMO. It sort of looks more like a series of train trips, punctuated here and there with a few sights where your feet actually touch German soil. "Doable" maybe but it looks like a LOT of time on the trains when you start adding it up, and doable doesn't necessarily make for an ideal trip. In Osnabrück the sun will likely be gone only a few hours after you have arrive and checked in. The Hamburg-Munich trip will take up 6 daylight hours at a time of year when daylight hours are in very short supply. I take it you already have your flights into and out of Munich. And do you have a B&B booked that you cannot cancel? Have you already bought your rail pass? What kind, how many days, I wonder? There are changes you could possibly make of course, but we don't know exactly what is set in stone and what isn't, which makes suggestions very tricky.

Yes, I do agree that there is a lot of time spent travelling on the trains. However, we got a great deal by booking a vacation package with our Flights and Hotel together, round trip in and out of Munich. There isn't much we can do to get around that. I suppose that is the price you pay for saving on the total cost of the trip.

I have not ordered the rail passes yet, but am planning to order a 7-day twin pass with the Autumn special they have going on right now. I will order this from the DB website as soon as I inform my bank not to freeze my account with this transaction.

but am planning to order a 7-day twin pass

I can't see the need for a seven day's rail pass. You need one (or rather: can use it as an alternative to prepayed saver fare tickets) for three days at most. Compare the price of the pass to discounted tickets for the three days you nee to use long distance trains. Since your travel times are more or less fixed, it is not a big disadvantage to use tickets that commit you to a specific train. But you may save a lot.

neklkelsey, I count 4 long train trips (ignoring things like Munich airport to city, that is a short hop on a S-Bahn (suburban train):

• 28 December - Munich to Füssen (Neuschwanstein) and return
• 30 December - Munich to Heidelberg, Heidelberg to Osnabrück
• 31 December - Osnabrück to Hamburg
• 3 January - Hamburg to Munich

30 December is too much, you are zig-zagging across the country, and trying to fit a visit to Heidelberg castle into the same day.
Either overnight there (and enjoy the rest of Heidelberg), or pick somewhere more en-route for a few hours stop.
If you look on the DB website ( https://www.bahn.com/en/view/index.shtml ), the direct route from Munich to Osnabrück requires a change in Hannover. Why not spend a few hours there?

Why Osnabrück (other than the cheap ticket)? You are racing the length of Germany (Hamburg-Munich), there are lots of other places to see.

I would add in a day trip to Salzburg, easy be train from Munich.

Finally, the biggest point, a 7-day train pass is overkill for only 4 long distance trips. Buying this as advance purchase tickets may be cheaper. Though admittedly for these peak dates you may have left it too late to get the cheapest tickets. DB is currently offering Munich to Osnabrück on 30 December for € 95.90. Does your pass (÷4) undercut that?

I thought we could use the twin pass to take the train from the airport station we are right by to the Hbf to get us into town when we go into Munich. The tickets for our long distance trips are very high, I'm assuming people are traveling for New Years Eve. I think it would give us some flexibility for any changes we might decide to make once we are there also. However, I am concerned of ordering these before we get to Germany as I've read stories of people who printed their pass at home being denied once getting on the train!

twin pass to take the train from the airport station we are right by to the Hbf

Fare from Munich airport to city centre is € 11.20 (4 zones see here: http://www.mvv-muenchen.de/en/tickets-fares/fares/index.html ). Is that a cost-effective use of a pass day? And if you stay in a city-centre hotel you only need to do that trip once, and you have everything at the doorstep of the hotel

The tickets for our long distance trips are very high, I'm assuming people are traveling for New Years Eve

Yes, this implies the train will be full, so a seat reservation is strongly advisable.

Concur that all you need is a 3-day Flex Twin 2nd class pass, which is 292 EUR.

As Chris suggested, stay in central Munich, the cost of the S-Bahn into the city is not worth a pass day. Just buy it out of a vending machine when you arrive.

Going to Neuschwanstein is something of a wash with adding a 4th pass day. Nominally it is additional 22 EUR. But you could use a Bayern ticket for this as well, which is 31 EUR bought out of a vending machine on the travel day. You do have to travel after 9 am weekdays, but it will include the bus from Fuessen train station up to the castle ticket office (or very close). With the rail pass, you will have to buy tickets, which will probably make it about even. but when you get back to Munich, the Bayern ticket is good on all the public transport in Munich (bus, tram, U-Bahn, S-Bahn) until 3 am the next morning.

Assume you have friends/relations in Osnabruck to visit. Its not to high on anyone's tour list.

Assume you have airline tickets purchased already.

"Concur that all you need is a 3-day Flex Twin 2nd class pass, which is 292 EUR."

That's the normal price for the 3-day twin pass and the only price available. It's not part of the Autumn Special. The 5-day price:

German Rail Pass Flexi Twin 5 Days/1 Month Promo - €302

So I'm not grasping this recommendation for a 3-day pass. For only €10 more, I see no reason not to go for the 5-day promo flexi twin pass. You get two days more than your original plans called for... Use both for the airport trips at beginning and end... OR... stay over in Heidelberg and use one of the extra days to travel to Osnabrück; use another day for one of your trips to/from Munich airport (which leaves you one airport trip to pay for independently of the rail pass - that's about €22 according to Chris F.)

"I am concerned of ordering these before we get to Germany as I've read stories of people who printed their pass at home being denied once getting on the train!"

So... did you learn whatever it was that they had done incorrectly?? You do need to be meticulous about following instructions online and when you use the pass. (If you have specific questions during the purchase process, you need to contact DB.) The Flexi passes CANNOT be purchased online, however - they must be mailed; only the Consecutive passes can be printed at home.

If you definitely want to print at home... the 7-day consecutive promo twin pass (€318) would be adequate for travel 12/28 or 29 - 1/3 - everything but that first airport trip (buy that at the station, €22.)

(This is still too much train travel but it looks to me like you're married to your plans.)

Hi,

On the way back: There is an EN night train direct Hamburg Hbf to Munich Hbf you might consider as an option. I've done that night train a few times, it arrives in Munich at a decent hour in the morning. I would fly out of Munich since there is a non-stop flight from MUC to SFO. The night train option gives you an extra day in Hamburg and its environs.