German rail pass ?

I would agree that none of your days would merit a pass.

For your two longer trips there are plenty of sparpreise tickets that you can get as you know your dates and times.

Even with booking your longest trips three months out, your costs could still come to about €360 for your five longest travel days, but without any flexibility. For instance, looking at Munich-Cologne fares for travel three months from now, prices for the direct trains range €118-158 for your group. Connecting trains are cheaper, but that would not be my choice when traveling with small children. Traveling with kids may come with unexpected delays/tantrums. I would definitely buy the German Twin Pass for more convenience. If you bump up to the seven-day version, then those two extra days cost only €21 per adult per day. That still leaves some shorter, regional train routes where you'd be looking at regional group ticket options.

I've made some dummy search in 3 months:

Berlin-Dresden; 38 Euro
Dresden- Nuremberg: 52 Euro
Nuremberg-Salzburg: 38-48 Euro
Salzburg-Munich: 38 Euro
Munich-Cologne: 118-158.

A total between 284 and 334 Euro. The pass is 360 for 5 days (plus shipping price of 10-12 euro)

If you want a pass delivered to the USA, then buy it here, not online from DB, which uses untraceable mail service and can also be difficult to enter all the passenger names for a group. Passes are also sold in the German train stations in person. DB online is easy for the regular tickets, however, delivered electronically.

Be honest with yourself about how reliably you think you can keep your group organized and on-time. I personally think it could be worth €76 for the peace of mind to know that four people can miss their intended train and board another one without having to buy a new ticket.

A pass would also cover the Cologne-Cochem train leg, if you're doing it on one of the same five travel days, and would give you a 20% discount on K-D brand ferries on the Rhine and Mosel rivers (without counting as a travel day).

1. Berlin to Dresden: An advance purchase Savings Fare ticket for the bi-hourly EC would cost 38€ for all four of you. It would take longer, but a Quer-durchs-Land-Ticket would give you complete flexibility on regional trains for 52€ for all four.

2. Dresden to Nürnberg: The fastest route is all regional trains (change in Hof). QdLT would cover all four for 52€.

3. Daytrips from Nürnberg: A Tagesticket Plus Price level 10 covers 6 people (up to 2 adults) for unlimited trips in the entire Verkehrsverbund Greater Nürnberg (to Rothenburg or Bamberg for 18,70. A price level 3 Tagesticket Plus covers a smaller area including the Hbf and MobilPlay FunPark in Zimdorf for 11,70€. The TagesTicket would cover S-/U-Bahn, trams or buses from you hotel to the Hbf. A rail pass would cover only the S-Bahn.

4. Nürnberg to Salzburg: You could get a Savings Fare Ticket for a low as 38€ for the four of you. Or you could also get a Bayern-Ticket for slower regional trains for 28€ for all of you.

5. Day trips from Salzburg: A Familie Tagesticket from RVO, the Bahn subsidiary that runs the bus from Salzburg to Berchtesgaden, costs 23€. It would cover the round trip plus most of the buses in Berchtesgaden (not the bus up the mountain from Obersalzberg to the Eagles Nest).

6. Salzburg to Munich: Use a Bayern-Ticket for 28€. In addition to the trip to Munich, it covers any conveyances of the MVV to get you to your accommodations in Munich. A rail pass would cover only the S-Bahn.

7. Daytrips from Cochem: Would be better with a VRM (Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Mosel) Minigruppenkarte (group day ticket), 22,10€ for the entire network.

8. I'll think you'll save enough on these 7 trips to pay for a full fare ticket from Munich to Cochem, but if you can commit to a specific express train from Munich to Cologne, you can get a Savings Fare ticket for Munich to Cologne to Cochem in one day for 134€. If you play with the stopover and the modes of transport you can book a ticket with a specific express train to Cologne and fully flexible regional trains from Cologne to Cochem, so you can stay any length of time in Cologne.

9. Cochem to Luxembourg: Cochem to Trier would be 27,20€ for a fully flexible fare. A rail pass would not cover Trier to Luxembourg.

For the day trips, you can hop on any train anyway. Region rail tickets are valid all day and not train-specific, as are the various regional passes sold directly by Deutsche Bahn.

That Salzburg Munich price given above can be much cheaper.

A Guten Tag ticket on the Meridian service is only €21 all day pass on all the BOB and Meridian trains in the area, add €5 for the second adult and all kids go free.

I work that out at €13 per adult.

Beat that, Germany Rail Pass.

EDIT - written before I saw Lee's post. Both are good ways to save money, both much less than a pass day, with different benefits.

I think it is worth looking at the daily costs of the passes you quote:=

€360 for 5 days is €72 per pass day.
€314 for 3 days is €104.67 per pass day.
€336 for 4 days is €84 per pass day.
€445 for 7 days is €63.57 per pass day.

I suggest that that is what you need to compare....

Nigel, the Bayern-Ticket is good on all conveyance of the MVV (Munich metro). The Guten-Tag-Ticket is only valid on Meridian trains; it is not valid on the S-Bahn or other MVV conveyances. A German Rail pass covers the S-Bahn, but not lesser conveyances (U-Bahn, trams, buses) in Munich. Unless someone is staying in a hotel near the Hauptbahnhof (or Ost), it's probably worth the extra to buy the Bayern-Ticket v-v the Guten-Tag-Ticket.

And, BTW, a German Rail pass is not valid on the BOB.

I think it all depends on 1) if you are willing to commit to a specific train from Berlin to Dresden (there is an EC every two hours), and whether you are willing to commit to a specific train from Munich to Cologne. If so, the three most expensive trips, Berlin to Dresden, Dresden to Nürnberg, and Munich to Cochem will cost 224€, 90€ less than a German Rail Pass. Then, two Bayern-Tickets for Nürnberg to Salzburg and Salzburg to Munich will add 56€ for 280€, total, 80€ less than a 5 day rail pass.

The other four items, day trips from Nürnberg, Salzburg, and Cochem, and the trip from Cochem to Trier are obviously less with local tickets than with a rail pass.

Thanks to all, it's a lot of very useful informations. From what i've read we don't think we will buy the pass. We already know our itinerary so we should be able to get reduced price tickets for the long rides.

We'll see the price difference with the first class but it's almost sure the we're gonna reserved our seats.

I see that there's family wagon on some trains, what are those ?

One more questions: when you say that Bayern ticket also cover local transport it,s for which lenght ? let's take an example: We leave Salzburg at 10 AM, we should arrive Munich around noon. Does the bayern pass cover local transpourt (ubahn, tram, metro bus whatever) for the rest of the day ? In Munich our hotel (motel one OST) is near OST station.

"We leave Salzburg at 10 AM, we should arrive Munich around noon. Does the bayern pass cover local transpourt (ubahn, tram, metro bus whatever) for the rest of the day ? "

Yes.

However, the train that leaves Salzburg at 10:00 exactly is a EuroCity (EC). The Bayern-Ticket is not valid on that train (and, that train does not stop at München Ost). There is a Meridian train (M) leaving at 10:15. You can use the Bayern-Ticket for that train. It gets to München Ost at 12:11.

The EC goes directly to München Hbf. You would need the S-Bahn to get back to Ost. A German Rail pass would include use of the S-Bahn. If you would commit to that specific train, you could advance book it for 38€ for the four of you, and include the S-Bahn on the ticket (book Salzburg to München Ost on the Savings Fare ticket). Then you could get a family reservation for 9€.

You can't reserve seats on a regional train. You can on the express trains (ICE/IC/EC) that you take with Savings Fare tickets.

Thanks Lee !

10 am was only use as an exemple but your advice is still welcome and helpful !

Since we can't reserve seat on regional train is it better so stay with EC and such ? If we use regional pass I guess that we don't have to do it in advance since the price will be the same.

The Family section might provide some of the games and snacks pictured here, but more importantly, kids would be welcome to be kids, not bothering some business traveler, or not next to partiers drinking beer.