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Interlaken to Fussen by rail

Posted by (Santa Rosa, CA, USA) on

Hello!

I have the 3 country eurail pass and am trying to figure out the train schedule to get from Interlaken to Fussen. I looked on the DB website and if I type in that I'm leaving during the day I see Interlaken-bern-zurich-buchloe-fussen. However, if I try to travel at night, say leaving at 2100, the route is different and the duration of travel is much longer (~13 hrs vs. ~8hrs). Is it worthwhile to take the night train, even though it is so much longer? Does each "change" on the schedule indicate that I have to physically switch trains? And if that is the case, how can one sleep on a overnight train when there are so many changes? Is the train ride scenic from Interlaken to Fussen?

I plan on only staying in Fussen for one night and seeing the castles around there, and then head to Munich. Another option is just going straight to Munich instead of actually staying in Fussen, and taking a day trip to see the Castles there. But it seems like I will be backtracking if I choose that option. Would choosing to go straight to Munich simplify my travel?

This seems to be the most complicated part of my trip thus far, so any tips would be very much appreciated!

Posted by
9110 posts

There is no night train service to Fussen. The 21:00 departure your looking at involves bus transfers, and a four hour wait at Radolfzell Station until the trains start running again at 4:30am.

According to the Swiss Rail web site: www.rail.ch

The last "real" departure from Interlaken West station is at 16:06 and it arrives at Fussen at 23:49 with four changes.

Posted by
19275 posts

Michael's correct about true night train service to Füssen. It's a popular misconception that night trains run from everywhere to everywhere in Europe. They are limited to a few runs between major cities, like Paris to Munich. Further, as the fast day trains get faster, more people choose the day trip, and there are fewer night trains.

If you look at connections on the German Rail website and expand a connection, you'll see a different train number between, say, Bern and Zurich and between Zurich and Buchloe, so, yes, that is a switch of trains in Zurich.

Buchloe is about the halfway point between Munich and Füssen, so it will take about as much time to go directly to Füssen as directly to Munich. By going directly to Füssen, you save the trip out from Munich and will be in Füssen first thing in the morning to start your castle tours. The key thing, I think, is that you find accommodations you like in the Füssen area.

Posted by
12 posts

Thank You, that helps! Do either of you think its going to be too hectic to take a late train to Fussen (from interlaken) spend the night there, see the castles in the morning and then catch a late train to Munich the same day? Is there anything else to see in Fussen besides the castles?

Posted by
124 posts

Fussen's train station is fairly small. We arrived from Rothenburg in the afternoon, spent a night at Hotel Muller (http://www.hotel-mueller.de/our_hotel.html) where they got the castle tickets for us and then the next morning saw the castles and caught a late afternoon train to Zurich. Actually Fussen was our only stressful train situation. It was a cold/snowy night (Dec 16 I think) and the train never showed up. Instead everyone was put on buses and we were taken to another station and met a train there. We ended up catching all of our connections but it was a tad stressful, especially since all of the announcements were only in German.

In the area around the castles there are some places to explore but a day or so there is plenty.

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