Train Help

These are all "Laender" tickets, you buy them out of vending machines (kiosks). You get them at the train station on your day of travel. Read this. https://www.bahn.com/i/view/USA/en/prices/germany/laender-ticket.shtml
Some of these are even cheaper because they are in regional transit districts.
Berlin-Potsdam is in the Berlin Verkehrsverbund
Nuremberg-Rothenburg and Nuremberg-Bamberg are in the Verkehrsverbund Greater Nuremberg.
There is also a Guten Tag ticket for Munich-Salzburg

All of these require travel after 9 am weekdays on Regional trains only. No ICE/IC/EC trains. They are good all day on weekends.

Even Munich-Nuremberg can be done with the Laender ticket, although it is more time than buying a ticket for the ICE trains.

Why doesn't the train list include the longer legs linking these destinations, such as Berlin-Nuremburg and Nuremburg-Munich? If you're not getting a pass, then those would be your best candidates for advance-discount tickets (if you're ready to lock in dates and times).

You wouldn't normally add extra days to a German Rail Pass to cover in-city transport, but on the same days that you're already using, it does cover S-Bahn (but not U-Bahn or city buses).

Thanks. It does all seem quite complicated.

Laura, we already have transport for those legs.

Greater Nuremberg Verkehrsverbund
http://www.vgn.de/en/tickets/all

Berlin Verkehrsverbund
https://www.vbb.de/en/index.html

Not quite as easy as buying a can of Coke out of a machine, but close. For a 2 EUR service charge, you can also buy them at ticket windows with the help of a human being.

The Meridian Guten Tag Ticket cost 2€ less than the Bayern-Ticket, but it does not include any transport of the MVV (Munich metro). The Bayern-Ticket does. So if you need public transportation to get to the Haupt- or Ost-Bahnhof in Munich, you are better off with the Bayern-Ticket.

Also, make sure that the regional train from Munich to Salzburg is a Meridian train. There are some regional trains of the Bahn (RE or RB) on that run. I don't think the Guten-Tag-Ticket is valid on them.

It does all seem quite complicated
At the ticket window they'll give you the appropriate ticket when you make clear you're travelling with two persons and after 9.00.
For the trip to Potsdam you just have to ask for a return ticket.
Use this site www.bahn.de/p_en/view/index.shtml of the Deutsche Bahn for your planning.

Unless you are staying right next to a station in Berlin or Nuremberg, and not planning to use any public transport in Potsdam or Bamberg, a day travel pass covering all the necessary zones will probably be cheaper and definitely less hassle than a simple return train ticket.

I see you're staying four days in Berlin - for this specific length of stay a four-day tourist Berlin Welcome Card might actually be value for money compared to day passes, including the discounts it offers. Make sure you get one covering the full Zones ABC so you can reach Potsdam.

Your day trips from Nürnberg are on a Saturday and Sunday, this was prescient planning on your part. Both Bamberg and Rothenburg are within Nürnberg's metro transport network, abbreviated VGN. A VGN TagesTicketPlus covers 2 adults and up to 4 children, cost €18.70 for the whole VGN area, and is valid for unlimited travel on both Saturday and Sunday.

http://www.vgn.de/en/dayticket?Edition=en&p=-1