My wife and I are travelling from Amsterdam to Bacharach by train in September. We would like to stop in Cologne to see the Cathedral, that I understand is right next to the train station. Should we buy a train ticket from Amsterdam-Bacharach or Amsterdam-Cologne and Cologne-Bacharach? Thanks.
Posted by
Green Bay
20103 posts
You can buy a single ticket at www.bahn.com where you specify a stopover on the way. When in the travel-planner, put in "Amsterdam Centraal" start, "Bacharach" end, date and time you want to start, then down below you'll see "add intermediate stop". Click on that and you'll see a box "1 intermediate stop" and next to it two boxes where you enter the location, in your case "Koeln Hbf" and the time you want to stop. 2 hours may do it, or maybe 3 depending how long you want at the cathedral. Then continue from there. You'll get a list of proposed itineraries and prices. Choose the one you want, or go back and adjust the stopover time.
You can store luggage at the station luggage lockers.
Posted by
Paradise
6644 posts
Sam's instructions should work for you alright as long as you don't mind a SET stopover period. Most of the resulting itinerary choices will schedule you on a long-distance, high-speed ICE or IC train sequence to reach Cologne, and again on the same type of train leaving Cologne for Koblenz and Bacharach. The Saver Fare rules say you MUST ride such long-distance trains exactly as scheduled, so your stopover is not flexible in the event you want to spend more or less time in Cologne.
However - if you choose to schedule and ride the regional trains from Cologne to Bacharach, there is no such requirement for this segment. You can stay an hour in Cologne, or 5 hours, etc... and this way, your "train-specific" ticket to Bacharach becomes time-flexible (for the Cologne-Bacharach segment anyway.)
To buy such a ticket online, you need to enter a stopover in Cologne (any stopover time length will do) AND you need to...
click on "More means of transport", then...
deselect the IC and ICE trains for the travel leg(s) after Cologne.
You will then be pulling up only regional trains for the 2nd part of your journey, and all of the options will provide flexibility for when you leave Cologne. Your ticket will show specific travel times for the RB and RE trains to Bacharach, but you can ignore those times if you want and use any regional trains you like leaving Cologne.
Posted by
OP
48 posts
Thanks for the info...I'm assuming that you recommend buying the tickets now opposed to at the station on the day of the trip.
Posted by
Green Bay
20103 posts
On the day of the trip, you will be paying the Flexpreis, which is the maximum. Right now, you would pay 180.80 EUR for two from Amsterdam Centraal to Bacharach. 30 days from today, tickets are 89.80 EUR for two. These are tickets that are train specific, at least for the Amsterdam-Cologne leg, and can only be changed for a fee of 19 EUR up to the day before you travel, plus any difference in ticket price.
Posted by
OP
48 posts
Thanks for the info... you guys are a great help!
Posted by
Paradise
6644 posts
I see from your dates on a separate thread that you'll be in Europe in early September. FYI there's a wine fest in Oberwesel, about 5 minutes north of Bacharach, Sep. 8-11 and Sep. 15-17 as well, with wine stands, street music, and Saturday night fireworks.
http://www.oberwesel.de/uploads/pics/P1060485.JPG
Oberwesel's town wall walk is fun while you're there: