Germany - Purchase train tickets in advance - Bacharach -Eisenach

First, the ticket automat in Bacharach, last time I was there (Nov 2008), was only a regional machine, which meant it only sold tickets from that station to other, local stations based on a numbered placard on the machine. You probably cannot buy a ticket to Eisenach from that machine. You could buy a ticket to Mainz Hbf (or Frankfurt Hbf) and buy a ticket to Eisenach there.

The advance tickets (Sparpreis 25/50) are only for round trips. That doesn't sound like what you want.

However, there are also advance purchase regular (one way) Sparpreis tickets available for as low as €29 per person. They are date and train specific and non-refundable on the day of travel, but if you can commit to specific date and train, they are a good deal. They are available online from the German Rail website.

Thank you so much! I was figuring that I couldn't do much from Bacharach as far as train ticket purchases because it is so small. I think I should just buy the tickets ahead of time because I will have set hotel accomodations on set dates. I am also traveling with young children (1 & 6 yr) so I need things to be planned ahead to save confusion and stress.
Thanks so much for your comments and advice.

I know there are a lot of critics of the railpasses but you can get one that covers your trip for $216 for the stops you list or $238 if you add in trips to/from Frankfurt airport (The current 2nd class rates for just Eisenach-Berlin-Weimar-Bacharach is $241). This is a twin pass and is less than an individual pass. You can get it from RS in mulitples of two. If you have an odd number of travelers, buy an individual pass, too. Frankly, I don't think the time spent trying to find super cheap fares is worth it. You're also not tied in to traveling on a specific date or time as you will be with any of the reduced rates that you have to buy ahead of time. I personally don't like to have to cut short something I'm really enjoying or be stuck somewhere when I'm ready to move along. A railpass gives me that flexibility.

With either full fare or a Sparpreis ticket, both of your children will ride for free with you. Using a rail pass, the 6 year old will need a pass, either a Twin pass along with a twin pass for you (2 Twins @ $404), or a half price individual pass for the 6 year old and a full individual for you (1½ individual passes, $403.50).

FULL FARE 2nd class from Bacharach to Eisenach to Berlin to Weimar to Frankfurt Hbf is €238, $287.40 at today's exch rate. Those would be completely flexible ticket, non-train-specific, and you would still save almost $120. If you are willing to take train-specific trickets, I found €29 Sparpreis fares available to each of those leg for a month from now. That would be €116 for the trip, $142.50 today, a savings of over $260.

As for train-specific fares, I usually travel with regional passes (Länder-Tickets) which have all of the flexibility of a rail pass, but I plan my travel in detail. I don't recall missing a planned train in the last 10 years. (I did get bored with Dinkelsbühl and left an hour early on the bus.)

Thank you both for all the information. I am a little bit confused as to what to do for my entire trip. Maybe I better give you my entire itinerary and then you give me what you would do. I would really appreciate your feedback since I have only traveled by train in Italy and never been to Germany.

The traveler's are myself & my husband and the baby 1 1/2 and 6 year old. I really want things planned and want to reduce stress, confusion and just make it as relaxing as possible (I know with young children this is asking alot)

So here is our 16 day adventure
Day 1 - Arrive Frankfurt train to Bacharach
7 NIGHTS IN BACHARACH
Day 2 - Stay in Bacharach explore
Day 3 - Bacharach to St. Goar. Take boat their. Train back
Day 4 - Bacharach - Moselkern/Burg Eltz
Day 5 - Braubach/Marksburg Castle. Maybe Boppard
Day 6 - Heidelberg
Day 7 - Bacharach - Oberwesel. Or maybe other Rhine town
Day 8 - Bacharach - Eisenach. Stay over night
Day 9 - Bacharach - Berlin
Day 10 - Berlin
Day 11 - Berlin
Day 12 - Berlin
Day 13 - Berlin
Day 14 - Berlin
Day 15 - Berlin - Weimar. Stay night
Day 16 - Berlin - Frankfurt. Fly out @ 5:00 p.m.
I have made up this intinerary all on my own just from my reading travel books and other travelers advice.

What do you think would be the cheapest & easiest way to travel with the children. I am really on a budget.

I have checked into the passes already and it seems way more expensive this way. I don't believe my 6 year old is free with the pass. The pass seems so easy though but much more money for my entire trip. The cost of the regional trains on the Rhine is way cheap especially with the lander-tickets.

Before giving up on a railpass, I'd ask about the need for one for a child. On point-to-point tickets, per the German rail site, neither child needs a ticket when accompanied by an adult. Again, the rail pass is more flexible than advance purchased tickets. My point has nothing to do with missing the train but rather with missing something you want to see or moving along without further expense such as a bus ticket if you finish up early.

This is from the section on this website for German Rail passes,

"Kids 6–11 half of full adult (not Twin) fare. Kids 5 and under free."

BTW, for full fare tickets (still less than railpasses), you have until the end of the next day to complete your trip (end of that day for trips of less than 100 km), that is, you can ride any trains.

And, if that snarky comment about "without further expense such as a bus ticket" was aimed at my taking an earlier bus from Dinkelsbühl, note that rail passes do not generally cover buses (certainly didn't in this case). Most of my travel on that trip was using Bayern-Tickets, which work like a rail pass, but cost less per day and include buses. That day my total travel expenses were only €7,10 (€4,50 bus from Nördlingen to Dinkelsbühl, €2,60 for Dinkelsbühl to Feuchtwangen, which I bought on the bus. Leaving Dinkelsbühl early was not a "further" expense.

By the way, on that trip, I had fourteen days of travel in Bavaria and Austria, some by buses and U-Bahn, none using advance purchase tickets, for €210 (~$300 at $1.42/€).

What railpass would you have suggested?

First, the only days where a rail pass might pay off are the four days to Berlin and back via Eisenach and Weimar. The days on the Rhein can be handled far less expensively with €28 Rheinland-Pfalz-Tickets. If you were staying in St Goar instead of Bacharach, I would say to use €20 VRM Minigruppentageskarten, but it doesn't cover Oberwesel to Bacharach, so you would constantly be having to find places to buy the point-point tickets to Bacharach.

You failed to mention your husband earlier (did you just get married?). That does change things a little. Two 4 day Twin passes for $201 each, plus a half price full fare 4 day pass is $537. Two full fare, completely flexible, set of tickets would be $574, so you could save a little with the railpass vs full fare. However, by committing to specific trains, you could do that trip for as little as €196 (about $240, a savings of $300, $75/per day). How much is the flexibility worth to you. Sounds to me like each of these legs is to a destination, not a sightseeing trip. You can, however, build stopovers into your trip using 'via', as long as you finish the trip that night. Of course the length of the stopover is fixed by what you write into the ticket, so you lose flexibility.

You know, you could simplify this a little. Eisenach and Weimar are really close together. Do both of them on one leg of the trip and you make this 3 Sparpreis tickets with about €13,50 per person between Eisenach and Weimar.

Thanks Lee for your quick response. Yes...I am married. This is actually our 10 year anniversary trip!

I like the idea of saving all the money and spending it on other things. We came up with the Eisenach & Weimar destinations for 1 night stays because my husband felt like the 6 hr train ride from Bacharach to Berlin was too long to be on the train for 1 day with the kids and wanted to break it up. They are both about middle of the way which I think makes about a 3 hr train ride each day. Eisenach looks like a nice town and so does Weimar.
What are your thoughts. I think I a set schedule with trains & times is probably fine for us. Especially considering how much money we can save. So I should purchse those tickets in advance it sounds like and just do the others Frankfurt -Bacharach and Rhine day from the ticket machine.