Train travel in Germany

The Man in Seat 61 has the answers you seek.

If you are going short distances every day, look at getting Laender tickets. This give ability to travel all day after 9 am weekdays or anytime weekends one one ticket. They must be within a particular German "Land", kind of equivalent to an Australian province, just not nearly as big. These are sold for up to 5 people traveling together and the first person is one price, like 25 EUR say, then 5 EUR for each additional person. You must use local and regional trains only, no ICE or IC trains. That is not a problem if you are traveling in short hops. You can hop on and off as you please as long as you stay within the Land boundary. Prices are all different depending on the Land.

If you are crossing a Land boundary, you can buy individual tickets, or a QdL ticket, which is an "All Over Germany" ticket, which is more money.

More info here: https://www.bahn.com/en/offers/regional

There are also subregional ticket offer in transit districts, called verkehrsverbunden My favorite is the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Mosel, aka the VRM. Covers lower Mosel Valley and middle Rhine. wine country.
https://www.vrminfo.de/en/timetable/pis-information/overview-maps/vrm-rail-network-map/

Also at some stage the Deutschlandticket will be introduced: A month's unlimited travel on regional trains €49...
Starting April 2023 Germany will offer a €49 ticket for a month's unlimited travel on regional trains all across Germany.

This is the successor to the popular (but temporary) €9 day ticket created after the pandemic to ease the cost-of-living crisis. Unlike the €9 ticket, the Deutschlandticket will be a permanent product, sold as a cancellable rolling 1 month subscription, good for regional trains run by DB and by other operators across the whole of Germany, but not valid on faster ICE, IC or EC trains.

Update: There are now rumours that the Deutschland ticket won't be available from April or May, but later. The launch date is not known.

More details (in German only at the moment) at www.bahn.de/angebot/regio/deutschland-ticket.

(Just remember to cancel your subscription after you've been, assuming that this actually happens)

That looks like a heckova deal! Like you say, just remember to cancel it when you leave.

"We want travel from Hamburg to Frankfurt in short hops over one month."

The nationwide day pass for Germany (Quer durchs Land Ticket) and the regional day passes (Länder-Tickets) will indeed be very advantageous for a group of four adults. In addition, there are smaller regions controlled by local transit authorities which normally offer cheap group day passes, so many of them that you will never learn about all of them from the Man in Seat 61 or from Rick Steves because these entities are way too minute for their broad scope.

Let's say one of your "hops" ends in the Rhine town of St. Goar, where you plan to spend 4 nights. How will you get around once you're there? Well, St. Goar is under control of the VRM transit authority, where a day pass for a small group like yours provides for travel within the VRM zone at €25. VRM zone map below shows the destinations you might head out to:

https://www.vrminfo.de/fileadmin/_processed_/d/e/csm_VRM_Schienennetzplan_2021_mit_Streckenverzeichnis___neu_117e571126.jpg

Here's a map of the dozens and dozens of local transit authority zones in Germany. Whether you're in Hamburg, or Cologne, or Frankfurt, you'll probably need one of the local day passes for any short outings you take:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Karte_der_Verkehrsverb%C3%BCnde_und_Tarifverb%C3%BCnde_in_Deutschland.png

Also, there are certain places of interest to tourists where FREE local train travel is offered with your accommodations.

If you have an idea WHICH TOWNS you'll be staying in on the way and which outings you want to take from those places, post them here for more specific help.

The towns we plan to visit are Hamburg, Lundberg, Bremen. Hannover, Goslar, Quedlinburg, Dresden, Leipzig, Erfurt and Frankfurt.
I realise they are in different regions

I'll only comment of a couple of towns/cities listed in the itinerary.

First of all, very good choices. Hamburg is the cultural center of North Germany, well worth your time exploring, You picked a few cultural gems...Goslar , Dresden and Leipzig. Hopefully, you're setting aside ample time for these places without being pressed for time.

If you can find the time to do a day trip from Dresden, (there's enough attractions in that city itself) , I would suggest going to Weimar, Germany's "city of poets." Weimar is one of my few favourite small towns in Germany.

Thank you all for the useful advice.
When the Deutschland ticket comes out in the middle of the year will it be available for foreign tourists?

Deutschlandticket will be available for everybody. The ticket will be offered digitally as a subscription that can be cancelled monthly.

Starting April 2023 Germany will offer a €49 ticket for a month's unlimited travel on regional trains all across Germany.

Please note that the starting date is 1th of May.

For comparison, here is what you would pay using current regional offers.

1. Hamburg>Lueneburg Hamburg Verkehrsverbund 25.85 EUR/4 pgr
2. Lueneberg>Bremen Niedersachsen Ticket 41 EUR/4 pgr
3. Bremen>Hanover Niedersachsen Ticket 41 EUR/4 pgr
4. Hanover>Goslar Niedersachsen Ticket 41 EUR/4 pgr
5. Goslar>Quedlinburg Niedersachsen + Ost Harz Ticket 60 EUR/4 pgr
6. Quedlinburg>Dresden Sachsen-Anhalt Ticket 51 EUR/4 pgr
7. Dresden>Leipzig Sachsen Ticket 51 EUR/4 pgr
8. Leipzig>Erfurt Sachsen Ticket 51 EUR/4 pgr
9. Erfurt>Frankfurt Quer durchs Land Ticket 65 EUR/4 pgr

That is a total of 426.85 EUR/4 pgr

The 49 EUR ticket is per calendar month, so even if your trip spans 2 calendar months you would have to leave the subscription open for 2 months. That would come to 98 EUR times 4 equals 392 EUR/4 pgr. So the 49 EUR ticket is an outstanding deal.

Lundberg??

I'm guessing you mean Lüneburg. The new Deutschland-ticket will likely suit you if it's available for sale when you travel. Without it... you can get group day passes right at the station as follows.

Hamburg > Lüneburg takes around 35 minutes by direct regional train; the journey lies within the local HVV zone of authority; figure about €26 either one way or round-trip for 4 adults on the "9-am Group Ticket" (9-Uhr Gruppenkarte.)

Hamburg > Bremen requires just over an hour by direct regional train. Price is €41 either one way or round-trip for 4 on the "Lower Saxony Ticket" (Niedersachsen Ticket.)

Both types of day pass permit travel from 9 onward on weekdays or at any hour on Sat or Sun.

Bremen > Lüneburg (one way or round trip) or vice-versa: use the Lower Saxony Ticket.

It could make good logistical sense to keep a Hamburg travel base throughout your stay in this area with the other destinations as day trips from there instead of moving everyone in and out of 3 different sets of accommodations.

Hannover is reachable by regional train on the Lower Saxony Ticket as well. Rail map of Lower Saxony:

https://www.landkreis-aurich.de/fileadmin/dateiablage/80-wirtschaftsfoerdung/Wirtschaftsfoederung/OEPNV/geltungsbereichndst.jpg

Hannover might serve as a second base town for you; nearby are some excellent small-town destinations you might enjoy using day passes.... Hameln, Hannoversch-Münden, Celle, Einbeck and others are packed with historic, attractive half-timbered buildings, some in Weser-Renaisssance style, towns which withstood the WW II devastation that forever changed the city of Hannover and most of Germany.

Thank you for your help, this is a very useful forum
Dan