Train Help

April 18: train from Amsterdam to Cologne—spend the night in Cologne

Buy Saver Tickets now to save money, and buy seat reservations for an additional 4.50 EUR each. buy at www.bahn.com.

April 19: train to St. Goar—K-D boat trip from St. Goar to Bacharach with senior discount?—train to Mainz—spend the night in Mainz

Buy a Quer durchs Land ticket for 2 people for 52 EUR. Take regional train after 9 am to St Goar, take the boat (QdL ticket also gives a discount I believe), then regional train to Mainz. Buy out of a vending machine at the station.

April 20: train to Nuremberg with 2-3 hour stop in Rothenburg (RS suggestion)—spend the night in Nuremberg

Again, buy a 52 EUR QdL ticket and use regional trains and start after 9 am. Buy out of a vending machine at the station.

April 21: train to Prague-spend 2 nights in Prague (April 21, 22)

Take a bus. Buy advance tickets to save money and guarantee seat on the bus time you want. Buy at www.bahn.com.

April 23: train to Vienna—spend 3 nights in Vienna with day trip to Bratislava (April 23, 24, 25)

Buy this when you get to Prague. The new Regiojet service is cheap. Buy at the station ticket office.

April 26: train to Budapest, spend 5 nights in Budapest (April 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)

Buy in advance to get a good price. Buy at www.oebb.at

Have you read the "Man in Seat 61" website?
That is THE source of info on how to find out about trains, buy tickets and all the tricks you need to know.
Start here: https://www.seat61.com/Europe-train-travel.htm

Yes. I have been looking on seat61.com. It is very helpful but I still need some guidance.

Do we qualify for purchase of the Bahn card and would it be a good idea?

Thank you!

Problem with the Bahn Card is that you give them your credit card number and they renew it automatically every year unless you notify them in writing that you wish to cancel. It does not help with Prague to Vienna to Budapest tickets.

I'm also going to say that you will need to consider what to do with luggage during a stop over in Rothenburg. No lockers at the station. I've left luggage at tourist offices elsewhere in Germany. You might also consider staying over night there. Its a different town after the day tripping hordes are gone. The nightwatchman tour is entertaining and informative with Herr Baumgartner's practiced dry-humored delivery. Then use a VGN Tagesticket plus to take the train to Nuremberg.

April 18: train from Amsterdam to Cologne—spend the night in Cologne
April 19: train to St. Goar—K-D boat trip from St. Goar to Bacharach with senior discount?—train to Mainz—spend the night in Mainz

You have plenty of time to visit Cologne on April 18 and still reach St. Goar by evening. That's what I'd do. St. Goar is a much more pleasant and scenic spot to spend the night. Just stow bags at Cologne station during your visit there.

TICKETING to St. Goar: The fare to Cologne alone will cost €30 each that day. But I see fares to St. Goar (with a 5-hour stopover in Cologne) for just €35. Use the DB itinerary page.

CRUISE on April 19: First off, don't cheat yourselves out of a visit to Rheinfels castle in St. Goar. See that first. Secondly, don't cheat yourselves out of a nice cruise. Board the 12:20 boat in St. Goar - and end your cruise in Bingen, or you will miss half the best scenery! You'll be in Bingen by 14:30. (Note: a 2-hr. cruise stopover in Bacharach is possible; arrive 2 hours later in Bingen.) THEN take your train to Mainz. It's only €7.20 each for a local train ticket from Bingen.

If you cut these days up as I've outlined, I think you will have a nicer stay, and you will find trains for A'dam to Mainz (total = about €84 for two) a good deal less expensive than they'd be with the suggestions made in an earlier post.

There are in fact lockers at Rothenburg station:

https://www.bahnhof.de/bahnhof-de/Rothenburg_ob_der_Tauber-1039650

But stopping in Rothenburg will involve a lot of changes of train. You need to look over the Mainz - Rothenburg-Nuremberg schedule at the DB website to see whether it looks doable for you.

An alternative and logical stopover would be Würzburg, a place your train to Nuremberg will stop anyway, and also a Romantic Road town. Würzburg has the Residenz Palace (UNESCO World Heritage status) and some other nice sights as well. Lockers are at the station for your bags. After a visit there you catch a direct train to Nuremberg.

http://www.blaek.de/_images/baet/A_Mainbruecke-05.07.jpg
https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/wunderbares-wuerzburg
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/169
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGnK0kf_HMA

Take a bus. Buy advance tickets to save money and guarantee seat on the bus time you want. Buy at www.bahn.com.

It's always worth it to compare prices at www.busliniensuche.de. The DB bus is not the only one going from Nürnberg to Prague and vv. Besides the ubiquitous Flixbus there is the Czech RegioJet, which in fact operates some of the DB buses. If you look up the link given above you will see that for some departure times there is a DB IC bus and a RegioJet bus leaving at the same minute. It's the same bus, but often one of the two vendors has a lower price. E.g., on Mar 15 going at 10:05 from Prague to Nürnberg the DB offers tickets for €14.90 (if booking today) while the RegioJet is €25.00.

BTW, if you are not in a hurry, taking the train may be a nice and convenient alternative to the bus. You could do an intermedeate stop at the well known belle epoque spa of Mariánské Lázně. There is an easy transfer from the Czech train to the German one at the border station of Cheb. Buy your ticket from the E-shop of Czech Rail not from DB - it's way cheaper. Prices start at approx. €15.

I am so grateful for the helpful advice I have received Based on your suggestions, i have booked 2 hotels which can be cancelled if necessary. So this is my modified plan:

4-18--18 Train from Amsterdam with 5 hr. layover in Cologne, then on to St. Goar. Spend the night at Hotel Rheinfels

4-19-18 Visit Rheinfels castle in St. Goar. KD 12:20 boat from St. Goar to Bingen. Train from Bingen to Rothenburger. Spend the night at Hotel Rothenburger Hof

Suggestions for what to do next and how to get there?? Still want to get to Prague on 4-20-18 or possibly 4-21-18 if I "steal" a day from Prague, Vienna, or Budapest. I assume we should take local trains to Nuremberg and then bus from Nuremberg to Prague as suggested. Is that doable in a single day??

I just reviewed our itinerary and it looks like we have one extra night that we could spend somewhere after we leave London but prior to our arrival in Budapest. Pretty sure that's a good thing!

Ideas: Another night in the Rhine Valley? Nurnberg? Prague? Vienna? Someplace that would be great for a relaxed day of easy biking??

For a day of easy biking, St Goar. Take bikes on the regional train to Koblenz, then change to the train to Cochem. From there take the bike trail along the Mosel as far as you like down river toward Koblenz. When you've had enough, just board the next train at whatever town you are back to Koblenz and then to St Goar. Hopefully you have good weather. You can use a VRM Minigruppenkarte for 23 EUR covering both of you and travel after 9 am on regional trains.

You can also, of course, just bike along the Rhine around St Goar without making a big excursion of it.

Rothenburg o.d.T. to Prague can be done with advance tickets in 5 hours starting at 9:06 am and costing 19.90 EUR per person with Saver Tickets. Trains to Nuremberg, then bus to Prague.

Just an add-on to Sam's comment about the Bahn card. I used it on one trip, saved me money, and I cancelled it soon after I got home, without a problem. Just don't leave it too long, lest you forget.

It sounds like staying in St. Goar might be a good choice since we could bike from there if the weather is good or if not just spend a little time in the Mosel valley.

Question: RE: Rothenburg o.d.T. to Prague can be done with advance tickets in 5 hours starting at 9:06 am and costing 19.90 EUR per person with Saver Tickets. Trains to Nuremberg, then bus to Prague. Are you finding 19.90 EUR for both train and bus? Are you seeing them priced together like that somewhere?

Your plan now skips Mainz altogether?? You were planning a night there before, and you still have time for a night there if you like. It's a nice city. However, you have to travel to Nuremberg to reach Prague anyway - it's the most logical stopover if you want an additional one, and also a great place to visit. And it breaks up the trip to Prague nicely. But adding time to St. Goar makes sense too.

It might be possible to fit in some biking on the Rhine, but you are already shortchanging your sightseeing time in Germany (2-3 days in 2-3 different places) and you are already going to the best place ever for spring biking - the Netherlands - where you have 5 nights and are surrounded by lovely, tulip-covered territory. That's really the place to squeeze in a bike ride!

Biking at Keukenhof: https://keukenhof.nl/en/discover-the-park/activities/
Biking at Zaanse Schans: https://www.dezaanseschans.nl/en/discover/bike-rental-and-cycling-routes/
Biking near Volendam and Monnickendam: http://www.holland-cycling.com/where-to-go/day-trips/142-volendam-cycle-route

Yes, train and bus combined in one ticket, bought now, train/bus specific, refundable only by paying 19 EUR fee. Cost is 39.80 EUR for 2. Ticket is called a Sparpreis Europa Tschechien. I used April 21 as travel date.
www.bahn.com

About Rothenburg to Prague... Your current plan is to arrive in R'burg in the evening of Apr. 19. You would leave the next morning at 9 am? You need some time in R'burg to make it worth the trouble to travel there.

Suggestion... Let's say you finish up the cruise in Bingen on April 19 in the afternoon as planned and travel to Rothenburg...

April 20: see Rothenburg in the a.m., travel to Nuremberg in the afternoon by train, spend a few hours in Nuremberg that day.
April 21: see more of Nuremberg in the morning; afternoon bus to Prague 14:50 - 18:25

(IF you stay another full day on the Rhine, just move the dates forward.)

Ticketing: It is possible to travel across those 3 days all the way from Bingen to Prague on a single ticket with scheduled stopovers in Rothenburg and Nuremberg of approximately 18-22 hours each. I found a price of €39.90 for an Apr. 19 departure from Bingen, €29.90 on Apr. 19. That covers all buses and trains between Bingen and Prague.