The Germany train vs. Car dilemma

For three adults the cost of train or car might be similar. A car allows more flexibility but is a bit more of a hassle in cities. If you are leaving Salzburg to return to Munich, wouldn’t you drive back? There would only be a drop fee if you surrendered the car in Salzburg.

Is there any good reason to use three exclamation marks in the headline?

You plan to travel in two calendar months - therefore it would be two months of Deutschland ticket per person.
The Deutschland ticket can also be used for long journeys but with regional trains only (no IC, ICE or EC). You can check the travel times with "local transport only" in the connection search.

Without being the travel agent doing the work I guess the question is not car or train but car and train.

Work on it further.

For car ensure you have driving permission for Germany, means valid driving license and if necessary an IDP.

• Frankfurt - Boppard (I assume that's what you mean) can be traveled with regional trains and a “Quer-durchs-Land” - ticket (€ 64/3).
• Boppard - Strasbourg: I would book saver fare tickets for the long-distance train in good time. It may be cheaper to split the tickets: Boppard - Offenburg long distance train, Offenburg - Strasbourg local transport with a local bi-national tariff, you have to try that out.
• For Strasbourg - Füssen - Freilassing I would rent a car in Freiburg or Offenburg (at the station there are Avis and Europcar, among others). Not before, because you can only drive into Strasbourg with a French environmental badge. Follow theroute acress the Black Forest and along the Bodensee. Drop off in Freilassing and not in Salzburg to avoid the the high costs of returning the car abroad.
• Salzburg Munich is possible with a Bayernticket.

We visited Germany for a couple of days prior to our River cruise on the Danube starting from Regensburg.
We purchased a Bayern Pass for two on a Friday which was good on Saturday and Sunday. It worked out fairly well, taking the regional trains instead of the more comfortable and fast ICE.

Still, on returning to the Munich Airport from Augsburg to meet our group tour transport to Regensburg on Sunday, we almost missed our meeting time because two scheduled trains were cancelled. We were told that cancellations are common now on the German trains, especially regional trains.

You have a good plan, but just a warning, the drive from Strasbourg or Freiburg to Fussen is not a short drive and when we did it there were no autobahns that I remember for that trip. We did this 35 years ago, so just check before you go on the logistics of that trip.

Trains from Frankfurt to Strasbourg as well as Salzburg to Munich should be easy and quick.

Check on the S Bahn from Munich to the Munich Airport.

We normally rent a car while in Germany. Mainly as we go off the beaten path. But I have done the trains in Germany as well and didn't have any trouble with them (But make sure you activate (I can't think of the correct word) the ticket before getting on the train)

Here are some things to consider with a car: These are things we have learned and or wish someone told us before going.
Make sure to request a automatic if you cannot drive a manual transmission car. (We can drive manual so it wasn't a big deal but I know others who have had this issue)
Take the size of the car seriously. We got the size up from a VW Golf for 4 people and we were a bit smushed. I feel like cars there are much smaller. Don't forget to factor in luggage.
Make sure you slow down when entering a village. You won't see a person speed trap, but there are many camera speed traps. You don't want to get a frowny face.
Also just because it looks like what we would consider a free parking spot in the states, don't forget to look for the parking kiosk and display the ticket in your windshield. Yup got a parking ticket for that one.
If you are in a parking garage, pay the kiosk before you try to leave. You don't want to get to the gate and then scramble to find the kiosk with angry Germans behind you beeping.

Also make sure when you pay the kiosk not to doddle. If you are there too long you might have to pay more and will be scrambling to the kiosk. True story.
There is a card with a clock on it in a pocket in the drivers side door that you use on your dashboard in some cases to let the powers that be know what time you parked. I do get a bit giddy when I get to use this b/c I think it is a cool idea.

If it's my trip... I'm re-ordering Salzburg and Füssen to do this all by train with nice, doable train journeys...

1) Spend the nights of 8/27 and 28 in Strasbourg as planned. Check out on the 29th after breakfast. Leave bags a front desk or at station. Continue your sightseeing in the area on 8/29. Retrieve bags and travel to OFFENBURG for one night (8/29) using the Europass 24h cross-border ticket. The Union and the Ibis are near Offenburg station.

2) Travel to Salzburg on 8/30 at 6:30 am on the ICE and RJX via Zurich. ONLY ONE CHANGE OF TRAIN! This is an extra-scenic train route through Austria's Arlberg pass; I took this route once again, just a few weeks ago:

https://www.seat61.com/trains-and-routes/zurich-to-innsbruck-via-the-arlberg-railway.htm

Arrive Salzburg 16:30. Spend 3 nights in Salzburg. Train ticket price at DB currently: €56 each/adult.

3) On 9/2: Travel on the Bayern Ticket from Salzburg to Füssen. Spend your 2 nights there.

4) On 9/4: Travel on the Bayern Ticket from Füssen to Munich.

Let me add two more reasons for taking the train options suggested:

Greener (Germans and Austrians are much more serious about this than we are)
Everyone gets to relax

What about renting a Tesla? ;o) and use Chargingtime.de

Btw there are going to be a lot of reconstructions of the railway system in the next years as result delays and cancellations will increase

Travel by train between Frankfurt/Bingen south buy train is a mess right now. the lines have major projects going on between Frankfurt and Mannheim. Every train I've been on in this area over the last month has been delayed. You need to factor that in.

As noted you cannot drive in Strasbourg without the proper Crit'air. And parking in Strasbourg is some of the most expensive I have found in Europe.

sta019 and Russ have some good suggestions.

Thanks to everyone helping me out with the transportation issue.
MarkL,Good point about the 30 day ,€49 train tickets . After examining our plans more closely And looking at thr Deutsche bahn website, I think most of our train travel will end up being in the first past of our trip, which is late August. We can purchase tickets for August and then cancel iby the 1st of September.
Currently, we are planning to rent a car in Offenburg, drive to Füssen, and drop it off in Freilassing, due to its proximity to Salzburg.
The only issue we have now is the train situation from Boppard to Gengenbach, where we decided to stay for a few nights, instead of Strasbourg. Looks like the only trains available have 3-5 changes, which seems like a lot for train ride less than four hours?
If anyone has traveled this route and can shed some light, it would be much appreciated.

If you buy the Deutschland Ticket you must CANCEL that ticket by the 10th of August if you do not want to be charged for September. Buy it now, and cancel before the 10th.

Be advised, on those multi-train trips, you can be delayed enough to miss your connection. If there's no later train scheduled you may spend a night in an unplanned location. Likewise, most of the small town stations are nothing more than a platform these days, be prepared.

Thank you for this valuable information, KGC.

Based on your post as well as others, I am becoming concerned about getting from Boppard to Gengenbach.. I am used to trains in other parts of Western Europe being so efficient so I’m a bit shell shocked. I certainly would not be thrilled about the possibility of staying in an unplanned location, then having to pay a cancellation fee at the original place. I have never had the public transportation become such an issue.
I checked out getting a car for the drive from Boppard to Gengenbach; that one day is $200! Maybe it would be more economical if we can rent the car in Boppard, (which means keeping it for three extra days) and then returning it in Freilassing before we go to Munich.

Or, does anyone know if there a car services in Germany that provide transport?
Thanks again, everyone. Our trip is now only 19 days away, so I apologize for my timing, however, I have never experienced any concerns about planning our public transportation ( unless there’s a strike!) in Europe until now.

The only issue we have now is the train situation from Boppard to Gengenbach, where we decided to stay for a few nights, instead of Strasbourg. Looks like the only trains available have 3-5 changes, which seems like a lot for train ride less than four hours?

I took the train from Gengenbach to Boppard in 2022, and had that same issue. But keep in mind they are small places. Coming from Gengenbach, you will almost always transfer in Offenburg. In my case, I had another transfer in Mannheim and then one in Mainz.

When I checked, though, I saw one route that has only 2 transfers—Offenburg and Frankfurt, so you might look for that one. But the transfers are relatively easy. Offenburg is a small station so it won't take too long.

Either way, car or train, definitely keep your luggage to a minimum. It will help with train transfers and the size of your car.

ETA: Well, I saw the date you would be traveling from Boppard, and checked August 27 and you're right. There are a number of transfers that day. Not sure what's going on that day. Maybe some construction? When I check September, the route is much easier with only 2-3 transfers.

Have you checked the cost of renting a car in Koblenz or Mainz? That might be cheaper than trying to rent something in Boppard, which is a smaller place. The other option would be to take the train from Boppard to Frankfurt, and rent a car there for Gengenbach. I'm sure it would be cheaper in Frankfurt.

Offenburg is just a platform with a ticket machine. It's a lousy place to get stuck, but there's usually a train every hour.

Offenburg is just a platform with a ticket machine. It's a lousy place to get stuck, but there's usually a train every hour.

Ha ha, yeah, that's what happened to me. I missed my connecting train to Gengenbach but only had to wait another 20+ minutes for another one.