confused regarding railpasses & unsure of all itinerary stops

At 27 and 28 years you are adults as far as rail passes are concerned. You need Saver passes, but probably don't need passes at all. If you didn't do Vienna, you could do Salzburg as a day trip for €29 (for 2) with a Bayern-Ticket. You could go Munich to Prague using a €34 Bayern-Böhmen ticket plus 2 Czech Rail Pilsen-to-Prague tickets for about €6 each. With advance purchase online from the German Rail website you could go on a direct train from Prague to Berlin for €29 each. For Berlin to Copenhagen I see advance purchase online tickets for €39 per person on a direct ICE. If you are going to include Vienna, you'd best book it as an advance purchase Europa-Spezial ticket from Munich. It would probably cost less than a full fare ticket in Austria.

Andrea Previous poster has some good ideas on train travel and getting the best price. Do you have RS Europe 2011 guidebook. This will give you great ideas for what to do in larger and smaller towns towns. I expect you want to do more than check off a list of places you have been. For your trip Munich Prague, the train time is about 6 + hours. When I googled Berlin to Copenhagen, I found a chart with flight/train times/prices: Here's the comparison of the differences: Train Plane Travel Time 7.5 hours 1 hour Journey Time 8 hours 5 hours
Cost $170 $40 It would be good to go to Salzburg and other smaller towns as well as the ones you have mentioned. IMHO, it is important to see the totally different experience in these smaller areas. These would also break up your long train times. Maybe Vienna. Would you give us an idea of what you are interested in? Art, architecture, culture, churches, scenic towns, etc? Then you can think through where best to go. Bobbie

Thank you for the quick responses! We have been to Europe a few times before but have never used the trains. I need to learn a lot more about the rail systems. I do have the RS book for 2011. We are interested in scenic towns, cultural experiences and great food. We are not the "partying" type but we really appreciate good wine and beer. We also would like to get on some bicycles and tour the scenery. I was looking at Rick's guide and thinking Hallstatt sounded interesting but I'm wondering if it's out of the way. My husband put me in charge of deciding what we are going to do before we settle in to see our good friend in Copenhagen and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. I planned a 3 week trip to Ireland using Rick's guide and few other resources and had wonderful experiences. With so many countries involved, I would love to hear any of your recommendations that would really make our trip. Since I am in charge of planning, we can really do anything with our itinerary as long as we wind up in Copenhagen for a couple of days.

Andrea, Which "RS book for 2011" do you have? I'd suggest checking the "Rail Skills" chapter in Europe Through The Back Door. You may also want to have a look at the "Railpasses" section of this website, as there's lot of information there that may answer your questions. You could also download the free PDF copy of the Rail Guide. With only a very short 15-days, I'd suggest limiting your trip to Munich, Salzburg, Prague, Berlin and Copenhagen. IMO, you don't have time for either Vienna or Hallstatt. Even with five locations in 15-days, the trip will be "rushed" as you'll need to allow for travel times. In most cases, you'll need to allow at least half a day each time you change locations. I'm not sure whether a Railpass will be the best idea. You'll have to do some "number crunching" to determine whether a Pass or P-P tickets are more cost effective. Keep in mind that Railpasses do NOT include the reservation fees that are compulsory on some trains. I'm assuming that you're using the bahn.de website to plan your rail journeys? Lee or one of the others can provide information on the discount tickets that are available in Germany. Good luck with your planning!