Point-point tickets vs Rail Pass vs Car rental

The most-often-here-recommended car rental broker gave me a quote of 431€ for a compact car for 21 days.

Did that quote include CDW? And how compact was the compact car? And what about parking fees?

This is a tad tricky for me to follow in paragraph form. Do your calculations in bold ($465, $577) exclude the pre-purchased saver fare?

"...the rail pass option would cost $686 for a 15 day pass..."

The 15-day pass at the NORMAL DB price is now €493 (2nd class flexi) at DB, as far as I can tell. That's $525. Where did you price the rail pass? What am I missing?

The same NORMAL price 7-day pass at DB is priced at €277 ($295) but you're showing $386?

The quote did not include CDW. This source always says to use your credit card, so, in my opinion, it is not equivalent to using public transportation, where I have no liability exposure.

The quote was for a compact, the smallest car that I would be willing to drive on the autobahn.

Parking was not included. I don't think I will need to pay for parking anywhere I am going.

Russ, it's for 2 people, not 1. And I included the 58,90€ for the Saver Fare. That was, in fact, the number one expense on my sorted list.

A 15 day Twin pass was $686 with the 20% discount; today it's $880. I am showing the lower price with the 20% discount last month because I did the analysis last month. If the rail passes with the discount had been a better price than individual tickets, I would have bought them then at the lower price.

Got it. Thanks for the note.

Lee,

That's a very detailed analysis. I was quite surprised at the difference for a rental car, as I didn't think it would be that much. Rail passes are certainly not the good deal they used to be!

In my experience, if you use advance purchase tickets and regional and local passes, the cost of tickets often won't be much more than gas for a car, let alone rental of the car. And make sure you behave yourself. This website is loaded with tales of people who added to the cost of a car by exceeding the speed limit by just a little - something you don't have to worry about with the train.

"Rail passes are certainly not the good deal they used to be!"

That's true for many itineraries, mainly because saver fares and local/regional day pass offers (like the ones Lee mentions) have blossomed over the years. I can hardly imagine a trip to Germany without them. I/we tend to plan heavily and to travel much like Lee does - a relatively tight travel radius, slower local travel that involves mostly "Nahverkehr" (local/regional transport,) pre-booked rooms that pin down my main travel legs. That said, rail passes aren't to be overlooked... There's a lot to consider, and they may be the right choice in some cases.

• Free-spirited non-planners with a rail pass don't have to bother with tickets and don't have to pay exorbitant walk-up prices. They don't even have to know where they're going after their flight lands.

• Late planners will often find that pre-purchased DB saver fares for long distances are nearly as expensive as the walk-up price on the dates and at the hour they wish to travel.

• Wide-ranging itineraries tend to render the local/regional offers unhelpful; no one wants to spend 8 hours and make 3 changes of train when they can do the trip in 4 hours with 1 change using high-speed trains.

• A cheap DB saver fare (valid for a specific train) can be rendered nearly worthless if bought for a journey right after a flight. If the flight's late, the ticket is void, but with a rail pass, no problem. You just get on the next train.

• Not all 1-country rail passes are equal. A German Rail pass permits travel on just about any train - without reservations. And of course Germany's rail system is incredibly extensive when compared with those of most other European countries. And the GRP now offers several FOREIGN destinations at no additional cost. Also, the TWIN PASS in Germany can mean big savings for couples and groups.

Tom: I mean I am liable for any damage done to the car. I could have purchased CDW; that would have increased the cost of a rental significantly. This company always says to use your credit car for insurance, but, besides reports of people being denied CC coverage on a technicality, you have to pay the damages yourself and then try to get reimbursed by the credit card company. When I use public transportation, I don't have to worry about any of that.

Russ: In 1988 I spent 14 days (12 full, 2 partial) in Germany. The only pass available then was a 16 day continuous pass for $160 - not a bad deal, even at 1980s prices. In 2000 I bought a 5-day flexible pass, also for $160. When I got home I looked up the prices of the trains I had ridden, and figured I just about broke even vs point-point tickets. Had I been buying individual tickets, however, I would have used a few slightly slower, less expensive trains and saved money. In those days the only "regional pass" was the Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket on weekends. The Bayern-Ticket was not yet available.