Traveling From Luxembourg to Rothenburg then Munich

According to the German Rail website, you can do the trip to Rothenburg odT with a mix of express and regional trains via Trier, Koblenz, Frankfurt, Würzburg, and Steinach in about 6½ hrs. If you book well in advance on the site, you could get Sparpreis tickets for as little as €29 pP (€49 for 2). If you are traveling on a weekend day, you could do the entire trip using regional trains in 8½ hrs with a Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket (€37) plus local tickets from Luxembourg City to the German Border.

Assuming you are staying in Rothenburg overnight, you could go to Munich using a Bayern-Ticket (€20 for one person, €28 for up to 5 people).

I've spent 10 weeks traveling by rail in German since 2004. For each of those trips I got competitive car quotes and estimated fuel costs using via Michelin. When I compared those costs with train tickets, I found I was saving over half by using the trains.

Of course, it might be different for you, but do the calculations. Don't just assume that you have to use a car or that it will cost less. Taking the train is often a little slower, but the low stress of not having to drive or worry about damage to the car and the advantage of being able to read, watch scenery, etc, is worth the time.

Thanks Lee for your advice, especially the Bayern ticket. Looks like I can make a trip from Munich to Salzburg and back using the same ticket, is that right?

"I can make a trip from Munich to Salzburg and back using the same ticket"

That is true if you do the round trip in one day. On a weekend day, you can leave any time. On a work day you have to wait until after rush hour, 9 AM. You can return as late a 3 AM the next day.

Note that regional trains leave Munich for Salzburg at 8:48 and 9:42. The 8:48 train is still in the MVV, at Grafing, at 9:11. If you don't want to wait until 9:42 to leave, you can purchase local MVV ticket to Grafing, at €7,20 pP, and travel with them until after 9, when the Bayern-Ticket becomes valid.

There is also something called a Freizeit-Ticket, for €30 pP. It is valid for a single day, round trip from Munich to Salzburg by express trains (IC or EC). The ticket is not train specific; you can use it on any IC/EC. Purchase the ticket from a ticket automat; it's €5 extra at a ticket counter for "personal service". No advance purchase is required; tickets are always available, and can be purchased just before travel time. Again, return up until 3 AM the following day.

Update: Considering that Salzburg is less than some minimum distance from Munich, the advance-purchase, non-refundable Sparpreis fare starts at €19 for one person, €10 for each co-traveler up to 4 (thus €29 for two P, each way). These tickets must be purchase at least 3 days, as many as 92 days in advance, from the German Rail website. (I think the Freizeit-Ticket is still a better deal.)

Lee,

You're so informative. Leaving Luxembourg, I'd like to take the Rhein river cruise, then continue on to Rothenburg then Munich. Would you recommend doing it that way or too rush to do a short river cruise then taking train to Rothenburg?

thanks,
et