I am planning to take a train trip from Frankfurt to Munich and fly back from Munich to frankfurt. I am actually doing a stopover fro 2 days on my way to India. Can any one suggest me what would be the best stopping points for my train trip? Also, any approximate cost for the train tickets? I searched on the train passes and it does not show me the pricing info.
Any information will be helpful
--Uma
You won't be taking enough rides to benefit from a raillpass.
A regular 2nd class Frankfurt-Munich ticket on an ICE train costs €81, but discount fares booked online at www.bahn.de are as low as €29. Those trains stop in Aschaffenburg, Würzburg, and Nürnberg.
Go to www.bahn.de and click on "Internat. Guests" to view the site in English.
You might want to carefully consider whether to fly from Munich to Frankfurt.
That €81 ICE fare applies to 2 trains per hour between Munich and Frankfurt and the trip takes as little as 3-1/2 hours.
If you fly, it takes 40 minutes to get to the airport for a 1:05 flight, and you should get to the airport at least an hour, maybe two, before flight time.
Thanks Tim, I just researched the web page and it is very useful.
If I take a stop at Aschaffenburg, Würzburg, and Nürnberg will I be still able to travel with the same tickets?
I just checked the pricing, for 2 adults it has a dicount ticket for 116 Euros. I think this will work out for me. Also, I am travelling during christmas, will there be any train timing restrictions?
--Uma
Uma, full fare tickets (€81) on German Rail are open tickets, that is, they can be used on any train, and the period of validity ends at the end of the day following your start of travel. So, with a full fare ticket, you could stop at all those places, as you desired, as long as you completed the trip by the end of the next day.
HOWEVER, it looks like you are planning to use one way of a round trip SparPreis fare (€116). Those tickets, like most discounted fares, are only valid for the trains you book. You could make those stops, but you would have to build them (2 max, I think) into your booking. You could not schedule a two hour stopover, and stay longer.
Also, what are you going to do about start time? If you buy the ticket for just after your flight's scheduled arrival time, and the flight is late, you would miss your train, and the tickets are non-refundable. You will have to build in a time buffer to account for any flight delays.
OK, €116 is a little less than the SparPreis 50 fare (€121,50). Looks like you are using the €29 Dauer-Spezial fare, either 2 people round trip, or 4 people one way (which?). Either way, it is still the same conditions, you can make a couple of stops, but they must be specified on the ticket; you must use the exact trains specified on the ticket. And, the Dauer-Spezial tickets are also non-refundable.
Dauer-Spezial tickets, as well as SparPreis tickets, are limited in quantity. When the SparPreis tickets sell out, they are gone. When the €29 Dauer-Spezial tickets sell out, the price for the next tier is €39, then €59, etc.
It's not very clear why you think you should go all the way to Munich - a city worth several days' time - when you have so little time.
Nuremberg is a worthwhile destination. Suggest you visit there with a stop in Wuerzburg or Rothenburg.
Actually, Russ is right. I don't ususally question peoples destinations too much, but there is an awful lot to see within an hour or so of FRA. Take the train down to the Middle Rhein (Bacharach, St. Goar), or to the Schwarzwald. My favorite places are a collection of villages in the northern Schwarzwald: Bad Herrenalb, Bad Wildbad, Freudenstadt, Alpirsbach. These are backwater Germany at its best (might be advisable to speak some German). All are accessible from the surrounding cities of Pforzheim, Karlsruhe, and Baden Baden.
Back on the subject of FRA to Munich: Instead of pre-purchasing the Dauer-Spezial ticket, you can take slower regional connections and pay only about €40 for two people (2 local RMV tickets to Kahl at €6,60 pP and a €27 Bayern-Ticket). The RMV tickets get you to Kahl, the first stop in Bavaria, where the Bayern-Ticket is good for unlimited travel on regional trains. What's more, with that kind of ticketing, you can leave almost as soon as you arrive at the airport. Although the regional connections takes longer (6 to 6-1/2 hours), you won't have to sit around for hours waiting for a fast train scheduled in advance with a time buffer. You could arrive in Munich about the same time as you would with an express train.
Lee,
I did not get what a RMV is? does this service has a webpage for me to look into more details?
RMV is Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund, the local transit district for most of southern Hessen. Look up www.rmv.de. It has an English side. They sell local tickets for regional trains, S- & U-bahns, etc within the district. You will find prices there that you won't find on bahn.de.
There will be RMV ticket machines in the regional Bahnhof at FRA, or you can probably buy tickets at the counter for no extra. A single trip ticket from FRA to Kahl am Main (the first stop in Bavaria) costs €6,60 pP and will cover the S-bahn from the regional Bahnhof to the main station (Hauptbahnhof) and transport from there to Kahl via regional train.
