Travel by Train in Germany

buy your tickets in germany.

It depends. Standard fare for two from Berlin to Bamberg on the fastest ICE connections is €154. That's what you would pay if you just walked up to the ticket counter when you got to Berlin.

If you know you can commit to a specific date and time, you can purchase a non-refundable, non-exchangeable Dauer-Spezial fare online for as low as €58 for two. Otherwise there is little advantage to getting tickets before you get there.

For Bamberg-Munich a Bayern-Ticket is your cheapest option. For €27 up to five people can travel on one ticket anywhere in Bavaria after 09:00 on weekdays (anytime on weekends) so long as you use regional trains. The ticket will also be good for local tranportation on the day you arrive in Munich. Buy the Bayern-Ticket at the station in Bamberg. See here.

Thank you

You helped eliminate my confusion

If you really, really, really want to have your tickets before going over there, get them online from German Rail. You will have a full selection of connections at the lowest possible price.

I looked up the connections and fares on RailEurope. They don't sell a ticket all the way from Berlin to Bamberg. They do, however, sell a ticket on ICE 1001 from Berlin (9:53) to nearby Lichtenfels for $266 for 2P. That train goes on to Bamberg, but you have to buy a second ticket (for $54, $320 total) to stay on that same train. They also sell a ticket on an 11 min later train for only $30 ($296 total), but it gets into Bamberg 25 minutes later than ICE 1001.

On the other hand, DB sells a ticket on ICE 1001 straight through to Bamberg for €154 ($247 for 2P), and on that same train, for €78 ($125), you can get the Dauer-Spezial fare. There is another 2 change connection leaving Berlin an hour earlier at 8:58, but still getting into Bamberg before ICE 1001. You can get a Dauer fare on that train for €58 ($93). The earlier train isn't ever shown by RE.

I don't understand, Barry. I just showed her that she can buy ticket online through Bahn.de, for only $93. Tickets for the same train would be $247 over the counter in Germany, more than $150 more. Why do you advise her to get the tickets over there?

Just a quick note that if you order them in advance from DB and for some reason cannot print them out yourself off the website and have to have them mailed, allow at least 10-15 Business Days for them to reach you. Mine took about 12 Business Days to N.C.

There are some quirks with the DB website that I don't fully understand, for one set of tickets I had the option to print them, another set of tickets that I bought where that option at checkout wasn't available to me. Could have been user error.

Bill, it wasn't a user error.

Self-print tickets tend to be those tickets that are train specific, e.g. Dauer-Spezial or SparPreis, so they can only be used once (you have to be on that train with your credit card as ID - hard to use the ticket twice). Open tickets, which could be self-printed in multiples and used on several days, seem to be mailed, so there is only one copy. Regional tickets seem to be mailed as do some tickets starting or ending outside of Germany.

My suggestion would be to buy them in Germany. I never purchase rail tickets here (except for a Rail pass, of course).

Cheers!

I think Lee's point was that one has to be wise to the advance purchase savings, wherever you are when you purchase, know your options.

Yes, you can easily purchase on the spot, but it is more difficult to be selective and "shop" for the lowest fare for a given connection or trip segment - and like airline load optimization, sometimes the lowest rail fares won't be available later on the spot.

Alternatively, one could be both in Germany and purchase online, I suppose.