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Rail options for One Year stay in Cologne 2015 for 2 adults plus youth(22), weekends all over Europe

Posted by on

I have accepted a work assignment starting Jan5 in Cologne Germany for all of 2015, and the option to extend for 2016. My wife and I plus our 22 year old son, will live in an apartment in downtown, walking distance to the train station, and my work. We plan to travel back to the states for 2-3 weeks at a time, in May and October. Most weeks I will work Monday through Thursday, and have 3-day weekends to travel Europe. We will not have a car, although we may rent one for certain weekend trips. We will of course experience Carnival in Cologne, as well as visit all the castles and river cruises in that region. And we will experience Octoberfest in Munich. But, most weekends we will travel, and it is harder than you think to figure where to go in those 40 or so weekends. Belgium, Paris, and Bavaria, a few times each. Plus all the key sites in Great Britain, France, Italy, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.

With regular weekend travel in mind, I need to validate some of my thoughts on Rail Passes. From my readings in the book, on the site, and this forum, it seems like I need to seriously consider a 4 country saver pass for 10 days in 2 months for France-Germany-Italy-Benelux. Then, purchase point-to-point tickets for any swiss travel. This works out to around $52/person/day with winter discount, or $65 regular price. For $75 a person more, I could make this a global pass and have access to all 28 countries. I understand the Eurostar from Brussels or Paris to London is separate, as well as Great Britain. I have also looked at some of the German country and region passes on the Bahn website, including the Europe Special tickets for 39EU per day, and some at 19EU.

So now we get to the questions... Should I blow a wad of cash now, and buy a 4-country / Global, 10 day pass at the winter discount price, to be used by March 31 for each of us, plus another regular price one to be used after March? Or just wait until I am in country and buy special tickets and point-to-point tickets? And, in either case, would I benefit from a Bohncard 25 or 50?

Posted by
8889 posts

No way buy a Rail Pass, they are only for tourists, and only ever pay off if you travel many hundreds of Km each and every day.
It is much cheaper to wait until you get there, and buy tickets for individual trips. If they are long trips (Switzerland, London, Paris, ...) buy 2-3 months in advance. For short day trips around Cologne the local "Länder tickets" are great value for more than one person.
A Bahncard 25 or 50 may be a good investment.

P.S. what is your 22-year old son going to be doing all this time?
A German evening course would be a good investment for all of you, start NOW with a course before you leave, and continue when you get there. There is nothing more embarrising as going into the supermarket on your first day and not being able to buy what you want because you don't know the German for bread, pork or vegetables, or buying sugar when you meant to get flour.

Posted by
12040 posts

Don't even think about buying an overpriced, 3rd party rail pass. Go with a Bahn Card for your trips operated by Deutsch Bahn, which includes all domestic trains in Germany and some that go to adjacent countries. For the other trips... learn the ins-and-outs of the various national rail companies. Sometimes it pays to buy in advanced, sometimes there's no benefit. But buying a rail pass is usually one of the most expensive options. Ask people on this site questions on specific routes, they can probably give you the best information tailored exactly to your needs.

Just be aware that a Bahn Card is a yearly subscription. You have to specifically cancel it, otherwise it renews automatically every year.

Posted by
34389 posts

It is worth considering that 3 day weekends aren't really all that long, and that for anything further than a couple of hours away you will dilute the weekend a lot with the travel there and back.

Cologne (I lived there one summer many years ago) is convenient to the Netherlands (the Limburg bit, anyway), eastern Belgium, and some of France. It really is on the periphery of the rest of Germany - Bayern is all the way across the country.

Unless you want to look at the insides of trains each weekend for a good chunk of the time you may well find that for the longer distances, and even the middle distances, a discount flight will get you there cheaper and faster.

Buying a Eurail pass will likely be an investment that may not pay off. For the longer journeys by train you have already identified ways to travel less expensively.

From Koeln to London by train involves Thalys or ICE from Koeln to Brussel, then a minimum check in time for the Eurostar of 45 to 60 minutes (more because your train from Koeln may be late so you'll leave earlier, or depend on the Railteam to get you on the next Eurostar) and then a couple of hours on the Eurostar. For a long weekend that's a lot of traveling, IMHO.

Congratulations on the posting. It will be interesting to see you pick up the second year option.

Posted by
16895 posts

Because you will be there for a full year, I expect that a BahnCard 25 or 50 will be a good choice. It's cheaper for your travel partners when you buy them together. For a few years, the BahnCard used to also give you discount in other countries under the Rail Plus offer, but I no longer find that mentioned on DB; enquire locally before you buy it.

If you don't get the BahnCard until later, then it could be a good value to use a Eurail Select or Global pass for 5 weekend roundtrips of a significant length within a two-month period, especially the discounted version for travel completed by the end of March. Reserve early for trips to France on TGV. But note that the direct train from Cologne to Paris is Thalys, not TGV, and the Thalys seat reservation fee for pass holders costs about the same as an advance-discount ticket. You could buy multiple rail passes (I'm not saying you should) but you must activate them all within 6 months of the purchase date.

For some further destinations, flying can be quite affordable; see www.skyscanner.com. If you have a 3-day weekend in Rome, for instance, it would be better to fly than to spend 16-18 hours each way on the train.

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