Germany Lander Pass

Thanks so much for the very helpful, invaluable information. What is a good website to check for similar tickets/passes while traveling in France? Once again - thanks for the help.

No, a Laender ticket will not include Strasbourg. Nowever, if you book well in advance (up to 92 days allowed), on the German Rail site, you can get discount fare tickets from anywhere in Germany to the border. And for a few routes Strasbourg will be included.

Sue: Where are you starting from, exactly, when you travel to Strasbourg? If your starting point is within the state of Baden-Württemberg, you can use the B-W Länder ticket on the local and regional trains to travel as far as the border; add-on tickets are possible for the segment from the French border to Strasbourg. Will you be staying in Strasbourg, or just visiting on a day trip? There are deals for that scenario too. How many travelers - just one?

A Land (plural Laender) is a German state, and a Laender pass is good for travel in that state only, on non-express trains only. So, a Bayern pass is good for Bavaria, a Saxon pass is good for Saxony, and so on. There are other tickets that allow travel across different Laender; however, since you are restricted to local trains, this starts to take a long time. You can then be better off with pre-purchased tickets on faster trains; if you are willing to commit to a specific train and can accept limitations on refunds and exchanges, you can save a lot. You save even more with more than one traveler. For instance, going from Berlin to Dresden, full fare was €38 per person, but advance purchase was €19 for one and €29 for two, so on this one round trip, we saved €94 with advance tickets! Even though Salzburg is in Austria, it is a border station and is considered part of Bavaria for pass purposes. Strasbourg is not considered part of Germany for pass purposes, so if you are using a Baden-Wuerttemberg ticket, you will need to buy a separate ticket for the portion from the German border to Strasbourg (which should be cheap); or, you may do better using another kind of ticket altogether. So, yes, post where are you starting from, and others can give you the travel options to Strasbourg.

We were in Germany last year, but didn't get to Salzburg and my husband really wants to go there. We're headed back this year and will include Salzburg in our travels. Even though we stayed in Munich last year for three nights, we mostly just used it as a base to tour Fussen, Dachau, etc. and never really got a chance to see Munich. So, we'll go back to Munich and stay a couple of nights and then go to Salzburg. Then it gets tricky - we then want to tour South France and end up in Paris. So, I was thinking we'd take the train back across Germany and start our France trip in Strasbourg. Haven't figured anything out after that. We're going in May, 2014. Neither of us have been to France. Thanks for your help.

" I was thinking we'd take the train back across Germany and start our France trip in Strasbourg." OK. Let's say prices and policies remain the same or close for next year. Regular fare for two adults for that 4-5 hour trip, on the fast trains, is about 160-180€, depending on the routing; this regular fare ticket gives you scheduling flexibility to leave when you like on the day in question. DB (German Railways) advance-sale, savings fare tickets will get you there on the fastest connections for maybe 58€ (lowest price if you're lucky and snag the fare 92 days in advance when tickets are first available.) You will pay incrementally more as tickets for that day sell. You are locked in to the trains you choose. You may or may not find the departure time you want available at the price you want. If your trip is on Sat or Sun, 2 adults can use a daypass called the WEEKEND TICKET for a grand total of 42€ to the German border near Kehl. The Weekend ticket allows schedule flexibility - use any of the local trains at any time of day. To reach Strasbourg from Kehl, I can't tell you the normal fare, but there's a famliy pass called "EUROPASS-Family 24h Mini" for 10€ that covers the two of you for passage on the local train to Strasbourg. So... 52€ total. The downside is that your trip will take roughly 2-2.5 hours longer and involve more changes of train since the Weekend ticket doesn't allow use of the fastest trains. A similar daypass for reaching the French border, good after 9 am on weekdays, is the QUER DURCHS LAND Ticket.

For train travel in France, use http://en.voyages-sncf.com/en/. Choose France as your ticket collection country, and don't allow yourself to be redirected to Rail Europe (although I don't think it does this anymore, it never hurts to be vigilant). On some routes, there is a SUBSTANTIAL discount if you can book in advance and accept non-refundable and non-exchangeable tickets. On others, there's no difference for advance booking. To see which conditions apply to your route, check prices for tomorrow and for two months out. I'm not aware of France having any equivalent to the Laender tickets, good for the whole day for a whole region.

A 3-Löwen- (Baden-Württemberg) Ticket will get you from anywhere in the state of Baden-Württemberg to Kehl, right across the Rhein from Strasbourg. Similarly, a Quer-durchs-Land- or Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket will get you from anywhere in Germany to Kehl. From Kehl, it is a 10 minute, 4€ trip into Strasbourg's main station.

Thanks Harold and Lee.

Similar to what Harold said. The Lander pass works fine for Salzburg. It's a relatively short trip and you don't lose much time taking only the regional (stops at all towns along route) trains. For a longer trip, the time you lose gets to be too much unless you have hop-off/hop-on ideas that make the longer trip with a pass worthwhile.