Need Train Ticket Advice

All your trips are possible by regional train only, which means you'd have nothing to purchase in advance - you'd only need to gather schedule information at this point.

That said, a couple of important questions...

1) What is your scheduled arrival time at FRA, and on which day of the week / arrival date?

2) Are you overnighting near FRA airport upon arrival? Or thinking of going directly to Rothenburg?

3) After you wake up on Nuremberg, will you sightsee there, or head straight to Munich??

These trips already have answers...

• R'burg > N'berg: Two VGN Tageskarte Plus tickets (each good for 2 persons.) 2 x €22.10
• Day trips to N'stein and Salzburg: Bayern Ticket covers trains and bus to the N'stein stop.

1. Arriving in FRA at 9:45 am, Friday 6/2
2. Planned on going straight to Rothenburg after arriving in FRA. Looked at schedules on DB which has an 11:34 departure (2 stops/transfers in Wurzburg/Steinach, arrival in Rothenburg 14:36. Is this a good option?
3. Leaving Rothenburg 6/4 in am with train to Nuremberg (sightsee for the day, stay overnight), then leave morning 6/5 for Munich. Thought a Monday would be a good travel day since museums etc may be closed, arrive in Munich and do RS walking tour. Thanks for the additional tips with Bayern Ticket.

For the Frankfurt to Rothenburg leg, check the price for the fast ICE train to Wurzburg. If you get tickets early enough, I think the shorter time is worth it.

I'll check it out, thanks!

You would PROBABLY make that 11:34 ICE train. But flight delays and airport situations might interfere, and if you don't make it, you'd forfeit the €125 saver fare ticket. A new ticket on the next high-speed train sequence will cost €247

Alternatives:
1) Buy the €247 flex preis ticket, good that day at any hour.

2) Ride only the regional trains instead. Tickets will be totally flexible - and cheap.

Your targeted journey above takes 3 hrs. 17 min's. There's an 11:09 regional train sequence that takes 3 hrs. 42 min's. It arrives at 14:51... the SAME time your high-priced high-speed train sequence deposits you there. Fare for 4 adults = €65. This day pass is the "Quer durchs Land Ticket" and available at FRA airport ticket machines.

Now, if you don't make the 11:09, there are 12:09 and 13:09 options from FRA using the same ticket.

You can find the regional-train schedules and pricing by clicking "only local transport" when you do your search.

Will get back to you on the other journey shortly.

Nürnberg > München regional train ticket options for MONDAY 6/5:

Regio-ticket München - Nürnberg Day pass that covers your train trip only, €51 for 4 adults. Valid from 9 am on.

Map of routes:
https://bahnland-bayern.de/de/ticket/regio-ticket-muenchen-nuernberg

Bayern-Ticket Day pass: Covers your train trip + all public transport within Munich upon arrival. Valid from 9 am on for unlimited travel, €54 for 4 adults.

As before, buy these time-flexible passes from a ticket machine (or perhaps app) on the day of travel. Find schedules at DB by clicking on "only local transport."

Sample regional train schedules, both direct:
9:08 - 10:58
9:36 - 12:16

High-speed train options with saver fare (inflexible) at current prices; pre-purchase essential for savings; flex price is around €200:
8:59 - 10:02, €144/4
9:00 - 10:42, €76/4
9:28 - 10:39, €76/4

Day trips from Munich...

IMO Salzburg has too much to see and do as a day trip from Munich requiring nearly 4 hours on the train. I would find a way to spend a night there. 5 nights in Munich brings no particular joy.

Neuschwanstein: not worth 5 hours round trip on the train unless you intend to also do some sightseeing in Füssen and get out into nature on one or more hikes from town. IMO, of course.

VGN Tagesticket Plus day pass information for Rothenburg > Nuremberg:

https://www.vgn.de/en/tickets/all-day-ticket-plus/

Regional trains from FRA airport depart from the "Regionalbahnhof" station. Signage in the terminal is good:
https://anneschuessler.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/P10201091.jpg

I haven't added up all the cheap fares above, but would the 49€ ticket x 4 folks noodle out better, and include all local trains and all local transportation, with complete flexibility for such short trips?

You should download the DB app. All you need is on there.

For the plans outlined by the OP, the D-land ticket would beat the cheapest combination of day-pass options by around €60. But for non-European visitors, obtaining the D-land ticket is no slam dunk, if comments on the D-land Ticket threads are any indication... more like a Houdini act. And the subscription must be properly cancelled, or it doubles in price.

In light of the impending union strikes - and any subsequent strikes not yet announced - I guess the bigger question is whether or not the labor dispute gets resolved and the trains will be running when the OP needs them. This group may in fact end up having to rent a car to carry out their plans. Or they may have to alter their plans to include fewer destinations, or different ones - or they might even choose to scuttle the entire itinerary. Tickets and day passes for regional trains are non-refundable, but they can be purchased day by day depending on train availability and the group's choices, making refunds a non-issue. The D-land ticket subscription is a non-refundable, all-or-nothing package.

Buy the €247 flex preis ticket, good that day at any hour.

Or split the ticket and save $33:

ICE flex price FRA -> Würzburg 4 x 40 = 160€
RB Bayernticket /4 pax) Würzburg -> Steinach -> Rothenburg = 54€

obtaining the D-land ticket is no slam dunk, if comments on the D-land Ticket threads are any indication

There is now sufficient evidence that purchasing works for North Americans as well, as long as the purchaser follows recommended procedures such as that of Man in Seat 61 and does not insist on his or her personal method, such as purchasing the DT through a Verkehrsverbund website, even though it has been clearly stated that the only successful way is to purchase through the respective app.

I would still like to see someone try the VRS app, because it has the best cancellation policy (on the last day of the month).

Nifty tactic for trimming the flexpreis ticket fare, sla019. Nice job on your part at sorting out D-ticket access tricks for us fur-ners as well.

The gate to the D-Ticket is still quite narrow, it seems. Does it help to knock three times, stick out your tongue while spinning on one foot, then sing the national anthem? What marketing logic explains why the ticket is only available via app, but not by website? Why is "Man in Seat 61" worried that the app links he provides for the VBN may stop working? Could accessibility at the VBN be an inadvertent loophole that will get "fixed" at some point? Just curious what your thoughts might be.

@Russ

What marketing logic explains why the ticket is only available via app, but not by website?

You can book the DT on many websites but only by direct debiting. There is no logic to this at all, only a historical reason: The current federal government, in its typical mixture of bigmouthedness and disinterest in the railroad system, had decided to introduce exclusively a "modern" electronic ticket. So the transport associations hurriedly updated their apps (except DB, of course, which finds so much customer service excessive as usual). Then at some point, the transport minister in his Berlin spacestation realized that in fact quite a lot of small carriers don't belong to any transport association at all and are also too poor to afford a fancy app. So for a " transitory period," they and all others are allowed to use also the traditional booking procedures, where direct debiting is the standard payment method, and it's even accepted when carriers issue a paper ticket. Of course, all this is funny or even ridiculous, but it is the consequence of the hasty introduction of the ticket (experts had said that at least a year of preparation would be necessary), which only happened because the government finally needed a "success" after all its mediocre performance so far. It's fine with us customers, because the vendors (except DB, of course) outbid each other in free additional offers, just to sell as many tickets as possible to avoid a liquidity gap - because the question of the distribution of the subsidies (after all 3 billion per year) is of course still completely unresolved.

Why is "Man in Seat 61" worried that the app links he provides for the VBN may stop working?

That remains his secret. As far as I can see, it works fine, and as I've written elsewhere, my daughter, who lives in Princeton NJ, and her husband booked their tickets for June using the VBN app. Bremen is poor, but VBN going bankrupt is not really legally possible.

Thanks for that.

I dont know if this will work for you but its 49e per person for the month on regional trains. We used it last year and thy had a special for 9e/month. It was great. Have fun Those are all great places.

https://www.deutschland.de/en/news/launch-of-the-germany-wide-49-euro-ticket#:~:text=From%201%20May%2C%20passengers%20will,and%20regional%20public%20transport%20nationwide.

If you have booked your flight to Frankfurt/Main on Lufthansa or another airline that partners with German Rail for the Rail&Fly ticket, check and see if you can still book Rail&Fly with the airline from FRA to Rothenburg odT. If you can, it's only 30€/adult for a fully flexible ticket from the airport to any Bahn station in Germany. The Rail&Fly ticket is fully flexible; you can use it for any train, even an ICE, on the day of arrival or the day afterward. This would allow you to avoid the risk of losing a train specific, advance purchase Savings Fare ticket if your flight is late arriving in Germany.

Taking an ICE from FRA to Würzburg and regional trains from there to Rothenburg results in a 3H17 minute trip. Using regional trains all the way, the trip from FRA to Rothenburg would take 3H51, 34 minutes longer if you take the S-Bahn to Frankfurt Hbf and board the RE to Würzburg there. Or, you could leave the airport 9 minutes later if you take the Hesse Landbahn (HLB) from the airport to Hanau Hbf and catch the same RE to Würzburg there.

Part of the time difference is due to a 20 minute change of train in Würzburg from the RE to the regional train to Steinach vs 40 minutes from the ICE to the regional train.

Either way, you can use the same local RMV Gruppen Tageskarte to Kahl am Main for 32,50€ and a 4 person Bayern-Ticket from there to Rothenburg for 54€, 86,50€ total. So, you would take 25 to 34 minutes longer, save money, and not have to worry about losing train specific tickets if you flight arrives late.

BTW, Kahl am Main is the first station in Bavaria on most routes from Frankfurt to Würzburg, so you need a local, RMV, ticket to Kahl. From there you can use the Bayern-Ticket.

Reading through Lee's post, I believe his suggested regional train journeys are the same ones I suggested. But I don't see the point of that two-ticket strategy for your group of 4 adults... With the QdL Ticket / day pass the four of you will get to Rothenburg for €65 (€21.50 less) on the exact same trains, and it's the only ticket you will need.

Good point, Russ. I missed that one.

BTW, the RE between Frankfurt Hbf (or Hanau) and Würzburg, at least when I was on it, is a very nice, double decker train. You won't be giving up much by not taking the ICE.

For 1 person, I think the "RMV + Bayern Ticket" math works out more favorably than for the QdL ticket on these FRA > Rothenburg post-flight junkets.

But no matter the size of the group, I don't think it's that enjoyable to make this 3-4-hour train trip (or any train trip longer than about 30 minutes) immediately after an overnight transatlantic flight which had you immobilized and cramped up for however many hours. I'd much rather spend some time sightseeing in Frankfurt or in nearby Mainz... drop bags at a hotel, get some food, refreshments, probably a shower, and keep active for several hours so as to fend off jet-lag. The next morning, get on an early morning train, spend the entire afternoon and evening exploring Rothenburg, and by bedtime, you will surely have run out of Rothenburg. It's a small place.

Thanks everyone for their suggestions and comments. It's a lot to sort out but the options are much appreciated :)