Train Passes for Germany

Why do you want to buy a rail pass for them? Surely that would be the most expensive option, especially as there is significant regional travel. They should find out how Marco is buying his tickets and do the same. As noted in one of your previous posts, a Bayern ticket is an example of a way to travel very cheaply.

You'd need to do some price comparisons yourself. Compare the price of a German rail pass with point-to-point prices for individual journeys at www.bahn.com, using journey dates three months in advance for the long trips (Frankfurt Airport-Heidelberg, Heidelberg-Munich, Munich-Innsbruck, Munich-Frankfurt Airport, and Munich-Koeln) to see advance discount fares. Also check the prices of the Lander-Ticket day tickets that Emily mentioned. These are day passes for single German regions that also include local city transport, and are often cheaper than a point-to-point return journey for trips within a region. The Bayern Ticket will cover trips from Munich to Salzburg, Fuessen and Rothenberg, and a Baden-Wuerttemberg Ticket will cover Heidelberg-Stuttgart. (Note that Lander Tickets cannot be used on the very fastest ICE, IC, EC or RJ rail services, but RE Regional Express services are fast enough for those journeys.)

Hi,

At their age the boys can get the Youth Pass, ie for those under 26. That comes in handy if they decide on a whim on going elsewhere in Germany other than those places listed, day or night.

Munich to Innsbruck:

Regional trains will take about 1 hour longer each way. They can use day passes without being committed in advance to a specific train but they can't use the ticket before 9 AM on workdays. Use a Meridian Guten Tag ticket (26€ for two, 31€ for three) between Munich and Kufstein and a 36€ (for 2 or 3) Austrian Rail Einfach Raus ticket between Kufstein and Innsbruck (round trips in the same day). That's 31€ each for the two Americans, 22,33€ each if Marco buys his ticket with them.

Note: part of the travel, between Kufstein and Innsbruck, would not be covered by the German Rail pass, so with the pass you'd still be looking at an Einfach Raus ticket between Kufstein and Innsbruck. The Guten Tag ticket would replace a rail pass in Germany between Munich and Kufstein for 26€ for 2 (13€ each) or 31€ for three (10,33€ each). Either way it's much less then using a rail pass.

Munich to Hohenschwangau:

A Bayern-Ticket (28€ for two, 33€ for three) will cover any transportation in Munich to get to the Hbf, Munich Hbf to Füssen, and the bus from Füssen to Hohenschwangau. That's 14€ each for 2, 11€ each for three. Again, can't use it before 9 AM workdays. That's per day, but you would use two whole days of the rail pass with an overnight stay.

Munich to Salzburg:

If the are staying in Munich close to the Hauptbahnhof or to Ostbahnhof and don't need to use additional transit in Munich MVV, a Meridian Guten Tag ticket (13€ each for two, 10.33€ each for three) will suffice. If they need transportation in Munich, a Bayern-Ticket (14€ each for two, 11€ each for three) will be the best deal.

Looks like the five shortest trips, Munich to Salzburg (RT 1 day), to Kufstein (RT 1 day), to Hohenschwangau (1 day), back to Munich (1 day), and Heidelberg to Stuttgart (RT 1 day) would total 68€ if the Länder-Ticket was split 2 ways, 54€ is split 3 ways, less than the extra of 85€ if the pass was 5 days longer. You'll have to add up the price of the longest 5 day trips to see if a 5 day German Rail pass works.

The single-country German Pass is very convenient to use. They each might choose 7 travel days within a month for $261 or 10 days for $335. If one will complete travel by May 31 then he can save 20% more over these examples using the current special offer. This is cheaper than buying full-fare tickets along the way and also compares well to advance-discount tickets for specific dates and times. The pass covers direct trains between Munich and Salzburg, Munich and Innsbruck, and back through Munich to Fuessen, but not any local trains in Austria.

Separate tickets to Paris are on sale now though DB and booking soon will give you the best price, if the group decides a plan.

We are doing quite a bit of travel in German by train in June and it ended up being cheaper for me to book individual tickets. But the German Rail Pass was awfully tempting to avoid all the hassle of printing out tickets, etc. I priced it all out and matched against the pass price. Good luck!