My husband & I will traveling to Germany & Switz for 10 days. Our trip includes flying into Munich, then heading to Murren in Switz then onto St Goar & fly out of Frankfurt. Should we buy a 2-country Eurail pass & hope it covers most of our transportation cost? We like to have a very loose itinerary, times & dates usually are determined on the whim. Any help ASAP would be appreciated since we leave in 15 days-GULP!
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
The Munich to Muerren journey will take 7.5hrs-9.0hrs with 3 to 6 transportation changes depending how run out of Munich. Please do not buy a Eurail pass for traveling anywhere past Interlaken Ost into the Lauterbrunnen Valley. You can get free train travel to Interlaken Ost but once you board the Jungfraubahn and Schilthornbahn trains, you only get a 25% reduction in the fares. In other words, you pay 75% of the fares. If you are not going to either of the two mountain tops, you may not need any kind of Swiss pass or card. You don't receive any value on any pass or card until your total Swiss transportation costs exceed 240CHF. Zurich/Muerren round trip is about 160CHF. From Munich to Muerren, I see a special fare of 109Euro on the German www.bahn.de train website. I also see a special fare of 89Euro from Muerren to St. Goar. These are fares that I see for next week and not 90 days out. If you are certain of your travel dates and times, you can buy these tickets right now and print them out at home minutes later. Unless you have a lot more train travel in Germany and/or Switzerland that you have not identified, you don't need a Eurail pass for either country.
Posted by
OP
pittsburgh
4 posts
Thanks for the info, Larry. We are trying to keep our itinerary pretty easy so we can enjoy it, not rushing around. We plan on staying 3 days in MUC, train on a Sun to Murren. Stay in Murren 3 days, maybe take a trip up to the mtn top restaurant & via ferrata (unless I chicken out). Besides that, lots of hiking in Murren/Gimmelwald. Then take train on next day to St. Goar. 2 days in St.Goar area, scenic boat trip, etc. Train to FRA next day. Everything I am reading says transportation is SO expensive ... & we weren't sure which pass (if any) would be best for us.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19109 posts
"We like to have a very loose itinerary, times & dates usually are determined on the whim. ... Everything I am reading says transportation is SO expensive " Failure to plan is expensive. So also is jumping around so much. Do a little planning and find things to do (there's lots) in Bavaria. Most things you can see using a 26€ (for 2) Bayern-Ticket. Save Mürren for another trip. Spend six days in Bavaria, finishing with Rothenburg, then use a Savings Fare ticket (about 100€ for two, get it now) to St Goar and spend the rest of your time there. I'm about to leave on a 21 day, 8 stop trip starting in Frankfurt, going through the Black Forest and southern Bavaria, ending in Munich. I/ve been planning the trip for months. My projected transportation expenses for two people is $450.