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Rail pass vs paying pt to pt fare

Going on a trip to Bavarian Alps and Salzburg area. Compared rail pass price vs point to point fares from DB and OEBB website. Seems like point to point is cheaper than 7 Travel days within 1 month Eurail Pass. I thought pass would be cheaper. Am I missing something?

These are trains I plan to take:

Munich Airport to Garmisch-Partenkirchen - Sunday 8/31 at 4pm

Garmisch-Partenkirchen to Reutte in Tirol/Fussen - Tuesday 9/2 at 8am
Reutte in Tirol/Fussen to Garmisch-Partenkirchen - Tuesday 9/2 at 5pm

Garmisch-Partenkirchen to Innsbruck - Thurs 9/4 at 8am
Innsbruck to Salzburg - Thurs 9/4 at 4pm

Salzburg to Hallstatt - Sat 9/6 at 8am
Hallstatt to Salzburg - Sat 9/6 at 4pm

Salzburg to Werfen - Sun 9/7 at 8am
Werfen to Salzburg - Sun 9/7 at 2pm

Salzburg to Munich Airport - Mon 9/8 10am

Posted by
22549 posts

These are all short trips with local trains. A rail pass has to cover long distance trips, so is usually more expensive than just buying tickets outright.

Also. if you are staying in Salzburg, I believe you will get a guest mobility pass to use regional transport in Salzburger Land for free, so no charge to got to Werfen and back.

Other tickets, you can use a Regio Ticket Werdenfels to go from Munich airport to Garmisch Partenkirchen for 29 EUR for 1 person plus 10 EUR for each additional person for up to 5 adults traveling together.

Salzburg to Munich airport can be done with a Bayern ticket for 32 EUR for 1 person plus 10 EUR for each additional person for up to 5 adults traveling together.

There are other regional offers you can research further.

Posted by
9193 posts

We purchased a Bavaria Pass that included fare for both of us last year. Purchased it on Friday and it was good for Saturday and Sunday. It was by far the cheapest way to go.
It only applies to Regional trains.
We frequently didn't have a seat, it was my impression that regional trains are usually crowded, but we did travel on the weekend.

You plan to visit Austria, which may not work for a Bavaria pass.

Posted by
5875 posts

Rail passes from Eurail are a luxury, not a cost saver. A lot of people don't understand this until they do the math, like you have done.

While the above from Sam is very much correct, I would only add that the Innsbruck to Salzburg leg is not regional travel. That trip requires a long distance train and takes about 2 hours. There are two operators for this journey - Westbahn and OEBB. As the tickets only get more expensive closer to the day of travel, I suggest that you buy these tickets now as well as a seat reservation.

https://westbahn.at/en/ticket-shop/buy-tickets/?tv=a&do=2025-08-27

https://www.oebb.at/en/

Posted by
7630 posts

"From 1 May 2025, the Guest Mobility Ticket will enable all overnight guests to travel freely across all public transport services in the Province of Salzburg..." The green zone surrounding Salzburg on this map is the area that is covered.

Hallstatt lies outside this zone, so your Guest Ticket covers just the Salzburg Hbf > Straßwalchen segment. You will need normal tix for Straßwalchen onward (and of course BACK to Straswalchen) for your long outing to Hallstatt.

Werfen OTOH is covered.

Long list of additional routes that are included:
https://www.guestmobilityticket.at/en/

I am surprised that your intentions in Germany do not include the easily accessible town of Mittenwald, easily the most charming town in the area and full of natural delights. 20 train mins. from G-P... See this link for sights/activities for spending a day there.

G-P also has a Guest Card with various freebies and discounts, including local and area buses you will likely need:

https://www.gapa-tourismus.de/guest-card#/pois/BAY/f91d6606-cede-4d09-97ee-0efda56702db/rvo--buses--regional-buses-

https://www.gapa-tourismus.de/guest-card#/pois/BAY/a0af23b8-6c37-4674-b8ac-dd1556354cbf/city-bus-garmisch-partenkirchen--green-buses-

Free guided tour of G-P too:
https://www.gapa-tourismus.de/guest-card#/pois/BAY/4010a1f8-a80a-4eac-a5f6-2188040cc0a5/ortsfuehrung-partenkirchen-in-englisch

More:
https://www.gapa-tourismus.de/guest-card

Posted by
7630 posts

Innsbruck > Salzburg: Long-distance trains are not the only option. Travel by regional train only via Rosenheim and Kufstein is indeed possible. Just takes longer, that's all. Do a search that specifies only "local transport" and you wll find such journeys.

Posted by
22549 posts

But if you buy a nonrefundable ticket now, you can get the Innsbruck to Salzburg RJX train for Sept 4 at 4:16 pm for 19.90 EUR. It is called a Sparschiene ticket.

Posted by
7630 posts

I would probably choose the Sparschein over the regional ticket as well for that particular stretch, as Sam described it. Currently, one-way at 16:16 on 9/6 is available at the €20 each price.

The task of comparing railpass to p2p tix is quite complex and also depends hugely on personal preferences. Much depends on your travel date, on how far in advance you purchase, on the hour of travel, whether you want flexibility for a given journey, whether a given day pass (like the Einfach Raus Ticket in Austria) is available at the hour of your choice. (This day pass may be a consideration for one or more of your journeys within Austria, btw.)

https://www.oebb.at/en/tickets-kundenkarten/freizeit-urlaub/einfach-raus-ticket

Sometimes one's preferences can be swayed by the offers. A day trip within Austria on the Enfach Raus Ticket, which has a weekdays-after-9-am restriction, might be OK for late-risers - whereas early-risers might be motivated to pay more for an earlier departure... or instead motivated to move such a day trip from a weekday to a Saturday so that leaving at 7:30 is an option w/ the Einfach Raus.

As for G-P > Innsbruck that same morning... at 8:02... this is a regional-only trip; just buy at the station for the price of €20 each.

Posted by
12 posts

Thanks everyone for your advise and suggestions. I will look through and research what is suitable for my trip. Very much appreciate your quick response.

Posted by
12 posts

Went through all above suggestions. You folks are extremely helpful.

Couple of things I wanted to check.
- I see that Reutte is covered by Bayern ticket. Will I be able to use it for my family on my day trip from GP to Fussen via Reutte for the train and bus?
- Einfach Raus Ticket will be usable for day trip from Salzburg to Hallstatt?

Posted by
7630 posts

Einfach Raus: Yes, but travel must be within Austria only; try an itinerary at the oebb.at site with a "via" of Bischofshofen to route this properly for this day pass. I think the trip will require 4.5 - 5 hours or thereabouts. Actually, I think oebb.at has a button you can click to yield journeys that are OK with the Einfach Raus Ticket... I don't use the site all that much...

Füssen: AFAIK you can ride the train on the "Ausserfernbahn" Route all the way through Austrian Tirol and back into Germany; any stop on that route within Austria is fair game. When you search on the DB site for G-P > Füssen, DB will automatically suggest a change from train to bus in Reutte or in another town, depending on the travel date/time.

The train is covered by the Bayern Ticket. The bus to Füssen is not, AFAIK.

Posted by
12 posts

Thanks Russ!
Looks like the train route using Einfach Raus Ticket will be too long. We will go with shorter route via Attnang-Puchheim.
Good to know Bayern Ticket covers Tirol.

Posted by
7630 posts

Attnang-Puchheim as the via??? I think you might have something wrong there. Better check. The fast trains (about 2 hours) go via Wörgl and Kufstein and pass through Germany. You will want to look at advance-purchase SAVER fares for those.

Posted by
12 posts

Innsbruck to Salzburg we are going through Worgl.

For Salzburg to Hallstatt, the OB app is giving train RJ 547 and R 70 from Salzburg Hbf to Hallstatt Bahnhof with 1 change at Attnang-Puchheim which is 2.5 hours.

Posted by
7630 posts

Innsbruck to Salzburg we are going through Worgl.

Right. That'll be on the fast trains with a pre-purchased Sparschein.

For Salzburg to Hallstatt, the OB app is giving train RJ 547 and R 70 from Salzburg Hbf to Hallstatt Bahnhof with 1 change at Attnang-Puchheim which is 2.5 hours.

This journey, the default option, uses the RJ (railjet) - it is NOT eligible for the "einfach-raus" ticket. But you CAN use the "einfach-raus" ticket if you wish - you would just need to substitute the long-distance RJ train with regional equipment (like the S train.)

Is this a Sat or Sun? If so... You would travel on the same tracks via Attnang-Puchheim. But instead of the RJ train at 8:11, you'd board the S2 train at 7:35 (followed by the R70 from A-P, arr Hallstatt 10:47, same train as you found with the default plan.) OR...
...you could leave on the S2 train at 8:34, followed by the R70 at 10:08, arr Hallstatt 11:24 (2 hrs. 50 min's.)

On weekdays... ...the e-r ticket is good only after 9 am. The 9:34 - 12:47 S train + R 70 combo would be your first option.

I have no idea about the composition of your family, which affects pricing, or what day of the week you are using, so I can't look at pricing of the RJ/Sparschein ticket to the e-r ticket. To compare the e-r option, just use that "e-r" button to modify the default search, then hit "search" again.

The e-r ticket is not tied to a specific journey - you would have flexibility to use it at a different time of day than originally planned, and of course the same e-r ticket is good for the return to Salzburg later the same day. And it does not require pre-purchase.

Posted by
12 posts

Very much appreciate train details Russ!!
We are family of 3 (including my husband and 26Y son). I like the flexibility of the e-r ticket. We are doing Hallstatt on Saturday or Sunday depending on which day has better weather. Using your tip, now I can find the S2 regional train using the e-r button option. We will go with this option.

One more question. To take the bus from Reutte to Fussen and back, do you know if I can buy the ticket online or is it easy to purchase at the bus station before boarding the bus?

Posted by
7630 posts

"One more question. To take the bus from Reutte to Fussen and back..."

The Bus 100 fare is not a Bayern Ticket route; from Reutte to Füssen is €6.10 ea. x 2 for the return, so it adds €12.20 ea. to your expenses.

Do you care about seeing Reutte? Is your goal Füssen - or Neuschwanstein?? Either way... The SIMPLEST trip is the DIRECT Bus 9606 from Garmisch-Partenkirchen at 9:40 am from G-P Bahnhof. I believe this bus runs daily. It makes 3 additional pick-ups in G-P, bypasses Reutte entirely as it runs through some very attractive German countryside, ending up at N'stein at 11:51, then hitting stops in Schwangau and Füssen right afterward.

The train + bus trips take just as long, and you would pay separately for the bus, as indicated above.

Return RVO bus trip options:
- DIRECT (16:13 - 18:20)
- W/ ONE CHANGE: Bus 73 to "Echelsbacher Brücke, Rottenbuch" stop with 13-minute transfer period; then bus 9606 to G-P: (17:08 - 19:20)

You can find these schedules at the DB site.

Here also is a full timetable for RVO Bus 9606:
https://cms.static-bahn.de/wmedia/dbregiobus-bayern/kursbuch/RVO_9606_010225.pdf

For RVO Bus 73:
https://cms.static-bahn.de/wmedia/dbregiobus-bayern/kursbuch/RVA_73_010925.pdf

Individual adult day pass: One ticket covers all your RVO bus travel for a day: RVO-Tagesticket: Erwachsene (Adult) = 13,60 EUR

(While the G-P guest ticket covers some of the RVO network for free, it is best to just buy the day ticket; since you are going round trip, the uncovered segments you would have to pay for separately cost just as much.)

P. 4 of this RVO doc shows the price for the adult daypass:
https://assets.static-bahn.de/dam/jcr:5123e39e-9720-42bf-9a88-4428829a9e92/Preistafel%20Streckentarif%20RVO%202025.pdf

Tickets are available from the driver.

My 2 cents: I don't particularly recommend the day trip to Füssen or N'stein. I'd spend time closer to G-P if I had to choose... The Wieskirche, Schloss Linderhof, Mittenwald... There's a lot you can see in this area without trekking to Füssen.

Posted by
7630 posts

I neglected to comment on the Bayern Ticket idea...

  • "I see that Reutte is covered by Bayern ticket."

The smaller region of "Werdenfelser Land" has its own day pass (with no restrictions on travel before 9 am on weekdays) - the Regioticket Werdenfels. You might consider it instead for local day trips. It covers the railways and buses you see on the map at the page below (including the train to Reutte.) It will cost more than the RVO bus passes, so don't use it if you are just using those buses... but it will cost less than the Bayern Ticket for trains and also opens up early-am weekday train train travel if you need it.

https://bahnland-bayern.de/de/ticket/regio-ticket-werdenfels

Posted by
12 posts

Good information on direct bus routes and Regioticket Werdenfels for the day trips. I’ll check with my family on their preference between Fussen or exploring area closer to GP/Mittenwald etc

Thanks a bunch!!