I've spent a fair bit of time trying to find the best options for train travel on this forum, both with Rick's general articles on the subject and from the many helpful posts, but I'm still bewildered. I'm traveling with my wife (one of us over 65, one over 60) and our 17 year old grandchild. I know about the Twin pass and the 49 Euro regional train pass, and the regional passes, but trying to compare these to the incredible number of prices for individual tickets is extremely difficult to me.
We are flying in and out of Munich. Traveling for about 22 days. Except for a 4 day excursion to Berlin, and maybe a few days between there and Munich (thinking some Martin Luther towns like Erfurt and Wittenburg), we are planning on the rest of the time in the south (mostly Munich, Nuremburg, probably Rothenberg, definitely Black Forest, and the Tyrol area around Innsbruck and Salzburg (which I have read are both included in a German Rail Pass).
I have looked at prices for the GRPass, and it looks like for a Twin pass and a youth pass it'll be about 769 Eur for 7 days or about 959 for 10 days. The idea of buying sparpreis tickets more than a few days in advance doesn't seem attractive to me because if we are delayed, my understanding is they'd be no good.
My questions are: Would we be better off getting the GRP for 7 days, or 10 days, or getting the 49 Eur pass (realizing that our travel dates straddle two months) and just buying an ICE ticket to/from Berlin separately, OR getting the Bayern pass and buying other tickets individually, OR (to make it even more confusing) possibly renting a car for part of that time, particularly the Black Forest and/or Rothenburg.
And is it accurate that the Twin pass can only be bought in Germany? Can it and the youth pass be bought at any major train station? Can they be bought at the airport in Munich?
It's great to have so many options, but the math is blowing my mind.
Posted by
Berlin
3008 posts
At Deutsche Bahn station of Munich airport you will find a DB Reisezentrum (travel agency) which shall provide all services. On the linked website you can checkout services of and informaton about all train stations in Germany. They are operated by DB.
Without knowing all your destinations and dates doing the maths is not possible for an uninvolved person.
Roughly calculated 6x D-ticket is 294 EUR. If you add cheap saver fare connections between Munich, Berlin and Erfurt - all legs booked separately for all 3 of you one-way without transfer - you shall finally be below the mentioned sums. But I do not know how many long-distance train travels you plan besides "4 day excursion to Berlin".
Possibly a combination of 5 days GRP and D-ticket for 1 month (per person) can be the price winner but I do not know the dates and if the long-distance travels will fit into one calender month.