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A few rail travel questions Germany/Switzerland

Posted by (Charlotte, NC, USA) on

1) I know that Salzburg is covered if you have a Germany rail pass. Is it also covered if you get a rail pass with Germany inluded, sayin a 3 country pass? I only see Salzburg mentioned under the 1 country option. We were looking at a day trip from Munich.
2) Reservations - I know we'll need to make reservations from Paris-Switzerland (TGV) and an overnight train from Switzerland (likely Bern) to Munich, but has anyone traveling in Switzerland and Germany in May found the need for reservations if you have a rail pass?

Thanks!

Posted by
32350 posts

Michael, as far as I know, if you're travelling from Munich to Salzburg you will need to have a Rail Pass that includes Austria (otherwise your trip back to Munich wouldn't be covered).

Regarding your last question on the need for reservations with a Rail Pass - some trains require mandatory reservations (IC, ICE, TGV, etc.) and these ARE required (they're not included in the Rail Pass). I've found the easiest solution is to just purchase these at the station when I arrive in a particular city (for my outgoing trip).

Cheers!

Posted by
8700 posts

A Bayern ticket is your cheapest way to do a Munich-Salzburg day trip. Up to five people travel all day on one ticket for €27. See http://tinyurl.com/2dcrb7 for the details.

If you travel overnight from Switzerland to Munich, you'll probably need to change trains a couple of times. See the timetables at www.bahn.de. Click on "Internat. Guests" to view the site in English.

Posted by
19274 posts

Tim has a good point. Don't use a day of your railpass for a trip to Salzburg. It is much cheaper to use a Bayern-Ticket.

In answer to the first question, the Internat. Guest side of the DB website explicitely states that Salzburg is included with the German Rail pass. The Eurail website does not mention it; therefore, I would assume that Salzburg is not included with a Eurail pass that does not include Austria. However, Freilassing is in Germany and therefore included. A one way ticket from Freilassing to Salzburg is €1,90. Don't sweat it.

Posted by
1568 posts

By all means save a Rail Pass day and buy around trip Bayern/Barvarian Ticket in Munich.

Posted by
8700 posts

One more thing: If you book well in advance (up to 90 days) at www.sncf.com, you can probbly get a discount fare for Paris to one or more cities in Switzerland. I doubt if any kind of pass, whether single-country or multi-country will save you money.

Posted by
19274 posts

There aren't any good night train connections from Bern to Munich. The few connections that there are have many train changes so you will only have a few hours in a compartment. The connections from Bern all start with one or more regular train connections before midnight, so you will have to buy supplementary point to point tickets or use another day of your rail pass.

You need to understand that before you leap into a rail pass.

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