Train from MUC airport to Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Go to www.bahn.de and buy a ticket.

www.seat61.com/germany.htm can also be helpful.

As Badger says, use www.bahn.de or even better the DB App.

My advice is to just use “regional transport only” option when searching for trains. This will give you trains that you can purchase a regional ticket for (like a Bayern ticket) when you arrive, and just hop on any regional train that shows up on that list. Spot checking a random mid morning schedule I see the regional trains take anywhere from 3h45m and 4h45m and all cost 27€. An ICE fast train only saves about 30mins and costs more than 40€ and you would be tied to that specific train.

DJ

Thank you badger and d.j. For the info.

€27 is the price for ONE person using a Bayern Ticket (the day pass for Bavaria) on regional trains only.

Additional travelers on the same BT cost €9 each up to 5 persons.

This ticket is valid weekdays from 9 am on, at any hour on weekends. There are no refunds for the BT- so it's unwise to purchase it far in advance.

To find journeys by regional train, look under the "Types of transport" heading and click "only local transport" (this is the correct wording on the DB site) when doing your search.

Good points Russ. Yes adding an additional person is only 9€ on a Bayern Ticket and I neglected to mention the after 9:30am limitation.

Funny that the website says "only local transport" and the apps says “regional transport only”.

I highly recommend downloading and getting familiar with the DB app before you travel. You can quickly buy your tickets while standing on the platform, it gives you real time train information, and you can even buy tickets for local transportation orgs, such as MVV or VGN. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve used the web interface for Deutsche Bahn in over five years, all my tickets have been purchased using the app since that time.

DJ

We greatly appreciate all the info. Driving days are over for us, and travel by train, new/very confusing.

When are you making this trip and with how many people? Don't just blindly assume that the regional connection is the best way to go. Learn to use the Bahn schedule and fare webpage and look at alternative connections.

With 2 months advance purchase, I can see a Savings Fare ticket with some refund flexibility for less than 31€ for one person, not much more than the 27€ Bayern-Ticket fare. And the trip takes 3H27, over a half hour faster than the best regional connection and almost an hour faster than some.

Of course, if there are two of you, the Savings-Fare price doubles for two whereas it's only 9€ more for the second person on the Bayern-Ticket.

And, since if you are apparently coming directly from the US, you can never be sure of arrival times. A train-specific, Savings Fare ticket is a risk.

On the other hand, if you are flying Lufthansa or maybe one of the other airlines, you might be able to pick up a Rail&Fly ticket for about 30€/P that's good all day for your choice of trains, even fast ICEs.

I am getting up in age and really appreciate not having to drive while traveling in Germany. That said, there is a learning curve to using the railroad and it can be tough to take a long, complicated ride right after a flight. You might consider a mid trip stopping point to become acclimatized and familiar with the train system..

There is a direct Regional Express train to Regensburg, another beautiful city. It is one of our favorite stops and we often stop there the first night. Or you could also continue on to Nürnberg with just a single connection. We often use "stepping stones" to make our rail trips more manageable.

In any case I would play with one of the Dbahn travel query pages. This is the one easiest to use for us: https://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en. When you get to Germany there are Dbahn travel offices in the major train stations to help you: including the airport, Regensburg and Nürnberg.

I want to point out what an excellent suggestion Gary Mc has just made about taking a "stepping stone" approach for this MUC > Rothenburg journey. It's a smart move not just for seasoned citizens but for families with kids, West-coasters, people who've made a connecting flight of many hours, or anyone who doesn't sleep well on planes. A logical one-night stopover in this case would be Munich itself (45 minutes from the airport and on the way to R'burg) or the interesting and attractive small-town alternative of Freising (10 minutes from the airport, then in the morning 30 to Munich the next day and on to Rothenburg after that.) From either of these places, you'll be refreshed and better prepared the next morning for the train ride to Rothenburg.

There is a direct Regional Express train to Regensburg

Yes, there is a direct regional train (RE 22) to Regensburg from the "S-Bahn" station at the Munich airport. You don't have to use any other train or bus catch this train to Regensburg. It's uses the station at MUC. It's the only regional train that currently does; all the rest of the trains are S-Bahn.

It leaves the station from platform 1, same as the S1, and goes around the new "Neufahrn Curve" to Freising and then on to Regensburg. It leaves the airport station at 16 minutes after the hour, and takes 11 minutes to get to Freising, faster than you could get there by bus or the two-S-Bahn connection with a change at Neufahrn.

The best fare, even for one person, is the Bayern-Ticket, 27€ for one person. Then you need another Bayern-Ticket the next day for Regensburg to Rothenburg.

I think if I were doing it, I would minimize my jetlagged travel time and just go 20 minutes by bus (or 11 minutes on the RE 2) to Freising (3,70 MVV fare) and spend the night there. Maybe have dinner in the Biergarten at Weihenstephan. Then go to Rothenburg the next day with a Bayern-Ticket