buying train tickets

Travel on long-distance on main lines trains will often be significantly cheaper if booked sixty-to-ninety days in advance if you don't mind being strictly tied to a specific departure time (as in if you miss your train your ticket may be worthless and you might have to pay full fare to take the next one). Shorter journeys generally don't have significant discounts if bought in advance.

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If you are thinking of buying tickets in advance from RailEurope, don't They are more expensive than buying them on the "day of" over there. German Rail does have discount tickets for advance purchase of 3 to 92 days on the Bahn website, although at least 60 days would be a good recommendation. And these tickets are train specific, so it is a benefit for those who can plan. It's not the distance that counts but the train type. One leg of travel must be on a train run by the Fernverkehr (ICE/IC/EC), although you can use regional trains to get to and from the Fernverkehr train. These fares are valid for connections entirely within Germany (Sparpreis) as well as connections with no more than one end of one leg ouside of Germany (Europa-Spezial). One exception is for some connections between Germany and Switzerland, i.e. you can get an Europa-Spezial ticket from Munich to Interlaken with connections in Zurich, Olten, Bern, et al. Austrian Rail is not as generous. They do not have discounted ticket for travel between towns in Austria, just from a city in Austria to a city in a neighboring country. These tickets are called Sparschiene and are only available with advance purchase online on the Austrian Rail website. For travel on regional trains entirely within one state (Land) there are Länder tickets, which are all day, hop on/off passes for 2nd cl in regional trains. These tickets sell for about €24-33 for up to five people and are always available, even just before travel. There are also one parson Länder tickets for around €20.