Train Travel VS Driving

Some of this is personal preference. Many western European countries have excellent train systems, much better than I am used to in the US. I love train travel, find it fun and relaxing, and always try to plan some train trips as part of any European trip I plan. So, when I spent two weeks in Germany, I did it all by train - never considered renting a car. But people who don't really enjoy train travel may not see it that way.

I have driven in Europe before, but I must admit, I don't enjoy driving in strange cities, so I wouldn't want to drive in the big Germany cities - maybe in the rural areas between small towns but that's about it. Some people aren't intimidated by this sort of thing so not as much an issue. Again - personal preference.

Assuming the perfectly executed train trip and the perfectly executed car trip, I think there's no doubt driving is likely to be quite a bit faster.

However, you can get lost. You can have a fender bender (or worse). You can get a speeding ticket or a parking ticket. You can get stuck in traffic.

And while you're driving, you're not really looking at scenery. (Even if you are, scenery usually is better along railroad lines than along highways.)

While you're riding on the train, you are relaxed. You are catching up on sleep, or reading the guidebook to plan your next day's activities. You are having a pleasant conversation between you. You are meeting other passengers and having interesting conversations with them, maybe getting some good pointers.

Things might go wrong on the train too. You could have luggage stolen while you're napping. You could miss a connection. You could get on the wrong train, or the right train going the wrong direction. And taking the train requires you to get to the train station from your hotel, or to your hotel from the train station.

Hope this helps you weigh the pros and cons of each.

You might also want to read this: https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/car-or-train

What is a little different, is that, despite a great system of free Autobahns to go between cities, the cities remain built for people. Parking can be expensive, whole sections of inner cities are closed to automobiles. Yes, the suburbs have big-box stores with plenty of free parking, but who goes to Germany to see suburbia. So parking and navigating inner cities is problematic. Fuel is quite expensive. Traffic rules are enforced by cameras that photograph your license plate and send tickets in the mail. The rental car company gets them first and charges your credit card a processing fee to tell the authorities what your real address is. Other drivers will be more skilled and have better understanding of the rules of the road.

But it is fun to drive, at least in out-of-the-way places trains will not get you. Roads are very well maintained and built with materials and construction methods so they don't have to be repaved every 10 years.

I always rent cars with a stick shift because they are cheaper and more fun to drive. Last time, at the first stop light I came to, I depressed the clutch, put it in neutral, and as soon as I let the clutch out, the car stalled. I cursed and depressed the clutch again, but before I could restart it, it started back up again all by itself. By the next light, I figured out it did this by design, saving fuel and reducing emissions. Brilliant!

We generally take trains -- rent cars for countryside such as Normandy, Provence, Tuscany but try to avoid big-city driving (and expensive parking.) On the train, we can both enjoy the scenery or nap or snack. And the fast trains are, well, FAST.

The golden rule is for city to city travel go by train, for rural and countryside travel, go by car. No one is saying that you need to stick to one mode of transport for your entire trip. You can also do you long distance travel by train and then rent a car for a few days to explore one area.

The difference is that trains will usually get you to your destination in half the time that a car will and you will end up in the middle of the city, near the sites you want to see as well as hotels. You don't have to look for expensive parking which can waste a lot of time, and you don't get stuck in jams on the autobahn. You can also relax, see the scenery, have a glass or wine or beer and not worry about a DUI.

Then again, it depends on your plan and where you want to go.

The time of year should factor in. During the summer vacation months driving on the main Autobahns in Bayern is becoming a nightmare, especially on the weekends. Even driving on Sunday without truck traffic there is a lot of traffic. Choke points like into Garmish can be backed up for many kilometers. I routinely use secondary roads to avoid the traffic and Stau around/in Munich and south to Austria on A8. I would rather drive an extra hour on secondary roads than deal with stop and go traffic and Stau on the Autobahn. When driving avoid the school vacation weekend when possible.

https://www.schulferien.org/Schulferien_nach_Jahren/

There are a thousand different factors in this decision. Speed seems to be your first topic. And that depends on the individual trip. Munich to Berlin: 4 - 4.5 hours by direct train. By car, it's 6 hours excluding fuel and potty stops, meal needs, traffic jams, parking searches, wrong turns, etc. But sometimes the car wins that race, depending on your trip.

That said, travel isn't a race for most of us unless a trip is poorly planned. The experience matters. I can drive of course and have done so at times - but I've tired of the pick-up/drop-off routines, the driving duties, the parking expenses and hassles, the concerns about accidents and car damages... I vastly prefer just hopping on and looking out the window at the scenery, having a picnic lunch and a beer, reading a book, and at times an occasional nap as I make progress to my destination... so I don't drive in Germany anymore.

The "rule" about avoiding trains for small-town travel is only a very weak rule of thumb that in many cases is just plain wrong. Munich to Rothenburg by train takes 2.5 - 3 hours using the best train connections, longer at certain hours of the day; driving takes about 2.75 hours (excluding all those other factors again) which makes the competition a bit of a "wash." Sometimes the train wins by a big margin... Cochem (Mosel River wine-town destination, population 5,000) to Bullay (Mosel River town, pop. 1,500) takes 30 minutes by car - but only 9 minutes by train.

The Rick Steves tour routes are largely very doable by train; this one certainly is. I don't know WHICH TOWN the tour sleeps in within the very large state of "Lower Saxony," as the tour itinerary is vague about it. But as you can see on this railway map, Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen) is absolutely criss-crossed in all directions by passenger trains. The rail map of Germany tells the same story - it's a very dense network with (5,000+ German stations) that will get you almost everywhere.

The biggest factor in train travel is accommodations. Your choices will necessarily be chosen in part by ease of access to a train station. Staying in a hilltop castle somewhere might require a taxi ride. Whatever distance you stay from the station will normally need to be walked - so you need to be able to carry or tow your bags. Pack as Rick suggests and you'll do fine by train.

"...a trip to Germany that roughly mirrors the Rick Steves Tour" is not necessarily a good idea for independent travelers. The tour above covers an enormous amount of ground and has ONE full day of sightseeing in Berlin (where 4 days is closer to a minimum according to most who have traveled there.) That trip is a RACE that I wouldn't care to join. Also, Rick's destinations tend to overemphasize the stereotypes we already have about Germany (Hitler, death camps, Fascism, allied firebombing sites) and tend to be far too heavily touristed. There are many excellent alternatives to Rothenburg (partly "well-preserved" but largely re-built after WW II) and Neuschwanstein (not a genuine old-world castle but a residential palace built near the dawn of the 20th century.)

I would encourage you to be more inventive. Do some more reading in other guidebooks and let your interests guide your itinerary.

No, your conclusion is not accurate. You may have in mind the US driving experience where driving is really the only convenient option, and tourist destinations are designed and managed for travelers coming by car. The cores of European cities were mostly designed and built before automobile traffic. Rail travel takes you center to center, and frees up the time you would spend hunting for parking, sitting in traffic, following big slow trucks, and stopping to figure out where you are. It would be different if you were concentrating on a specific region and on small towns. Then there is the stress level of having to drive in unfamiliar places, with unfamiliar signage and not-quite-the-same rules - that's a big "element" for me. The autobahns are not exactly scenic, other than not having billboards. But some people are just uncomfortable at not having complete control, so you have to decide

It would help if you would list your itinerary.
Most everyone will exalt the benefits of train travel and for the most part I agree. One advantage of driving is that you are not at the mercy of the train schedule. You can leave at any time you want. If you are planning on visiting many towns relatively close then driving is a good option. If you are going from big city to big city and staying put for days then I would suggest the train. When I did it 6 years ago I always looked for rooms that offered free or relatively cheap (10 E / night) parking. You might end up staying outside of the city center but most big cities have great public transportation in and out of the center. Have fun!

Direct, high-speed trains are faster between most big cities but between a couple of destinations on the route, it's train connections that slow you down, compared to driving. From Bacharach to Rothenburg ob der Tauber and then from Rothenburg to Fuessen each usually include 3-4 train connections. One of those each way is due to Rothenburg being at the end of its own spur line. Obviously, the tour route is based on driving with our bus.

You need not choose one or the other exclusively. You might use trains on either end and drive in the middle of the route, say from Cologne to Munich, hitting most of your small-town stops along the way. From Munich, you could take a direct train to Erfurt, for instance. Or perhaps drop the car later in Dresden, if you want more side-tripping by car during more of the trip.

Rick's Germany book (p. 21) or online describes a somewhat different 3-week itinerary, driving as far as Dresden, and visiting Rothenburg on the way north instead of the way south.

The Romantic Road Coach is another transport option between Fuessen or Munich and Rothenburg, with brief photo stops along the way. Runs once daily each direction, departing Fuessen at 8:00 a.m. and Munich at 10:40 in the northbound direction.

Yes, the suburbs have big-box stores with plenty of free parking, but who goes to Germany to see suburbia.

We actually prefer suburban hotels- quieter, less fuss, usually green space-adjacent, often more bang for your euro or pound- and prefer the ones that both have free/cheap parking and are an easy walk to the bus/train/tram stop from the hotel.

For city and big city to city travel, we do typically prefer train or air travel, but for getting into the countryside, we like a car so we can just set the GPS/sat nav with the address of that night's hotel and then wander down whatever road looks interesting with the confidence the GPS will get us back to the hotel when needed. As I've said here before, the bus or train isn't going to pull over for you so you can buy strawberries fresh from a German farmer's roadside stand.

Thank you for the responses. Your experience and suggestions will add value and additional fun to our trip. We will now weigh some factors differently and consider some that we had not previously thought of.
Thank you for having the interest and taking the time to respond.
Best wishes,
Jim and Eileen

We recently returned from a 9-night trip to Germany, and we did not rent a car. We arrived by plane to Frankfurt, took the train to Bacharach (Rhine Valley), then Rothenburg, Fussen, and Munich. We probably could have saved time on certain trips by driving, but we enjoyed the train - not worrying about parking and being able to relax, read guidebooks, converse with other passengers, and take in the scenery were nice perks. We bought all of our train tickets on https://www.bahn.com/i/view/index.shtml (on the mobile app) during our trip. That allowed us to go with the flow and decide what time of day would be best to travel based on how our trip unfolded.

Kaeleku, the complexity is only to get the best price for regional trains. For long-distance trains, or if a difference of a few Euros does not matter, it is quite straightforward to buy a ticket. You can also buy railway tickets a few minutes before departure; or in German long-distance trains, you can buy them on the train. Very flexible, though you do pay for that. I usually buy my tickets a few hours before departing, sometimes minutes. Renting a car, you have to go to the rental office, wait for your turn, fill in the forms, check the car very carefully for any dents, ... By that time, the train might be halfway to the destination.
Also, sitting in a train beats sitting in a car, as you can read, watch videos, or sleep; at least one person in the car cannot do that. You can also get up, walk around, and get something from the restaurant car.

For many routes, the train is also faster. I have taken about an hour to get from the highway into Munich city center by car; Berlin to Munich is 6 hours or more by car, 4 to 4 1/2 hours by train.

Not saying the train is always better; I use the car a lot myself. But you are a little one-sided.