germany train travel

Hi Lily,

Personally, it sounds a little too hectic to me... and I like fast-paced trips. I spent three days in Munich, two days in one town in the black forest, and one quiet day just cruising the Rhine, and that still was fairly fast-paced. So that was six days in Germany for me in three places. In my opinion, your itinerary is very ambitious.

Primarily, are you sure you want to lose that much of your ten days there to travel time? Every time you switch cities you will face the time of getting to the train station, finding the train, travelling, getting off, getting oriented with the new place, finding your new hotel, etc. Even though two towns may not be far apart, you still will lose a number of hours with each move between places.

Do you have a true 10 days on the ground or does that include landing and taking off? You didn't indicate which cities you were staying in or just passing through. On the surface it looks like way too much.

Steve's second paragraph is critical. Re-read it!! and he didn't include packing/unpacking, checking in/out. It is a lot of hassle and wasted time changing hotels. We always plan to loss at least half a day and sometimes much more to move from one location to another.

There is nothing that cannot be done but at what cost?

You have 9 places in 10 days and are also talking about going to Berlin??? When you land in Frankfurt and go to Cologne, this is the opposite direction to all the other places you want to go. You could of course take the ICE to Cologne which takes 55 min. and then take the ship back to Mainz before you carry on with your trip through Bavaria.

Berlin is a big, capital city. Would you go to Paris or Rome or London for just one day? Either stick with Bavaria and southern Germany or go north to Cologne and then up to Berlin, hitting possibly Dresden or Hamburg instead of all the Bavarian towns on your list. There are many different options, just the towns you have picked are fairly spread out and by moving every day, you only leave yourself half a day to see each one of them.

Perhaps pick a base to stay for 3-4 days and do day trips, such as Munich and then you can go down to Salzburg for example. Or Cologne and then you can go to Trier or Aachen or Mainz and hit the little towns along the Rhein.

Most of your planned travel (Würzburg, Nürnberg, Rothenburg, Augsburg, Füssen, Munich & Salzburg) is within a small area in Bavaria, and can easily be reached by local trains. For €28 a Bayern-Ticket provides unlimited travel for up to five people on regional trains in Bavaria for an entire day (after 9 AM workdays). I would not get a railpass for any of the travel in Bavaria.

I think for Bavaria I would base in Würzburg for three days: one day in Würzburg and day trips to Nürnberg and Rothenburg. Both Rothenburg and Nürnberg are about an hour from Würzburg.

Then I would go to Munich. Würzburg to Munich will take 3-4 hrs by regional train. Spend the rest of the day, and the next day seeing Munich, and then do day trips to Füssen and Salzburg. I don't think I would bother with Augsburg.

That doesn't leave many days to see the Mittelrhein. Minimize your cruise time. I would suggest going to Bacharach (Im Malerwinkel). Take the K-D boat down to St. Goar, see Rheinfels castle, then take the train back to Bacharach.

The one place I wouldn't use Länder-Tickets (like the Bayern-Ticket) would be from Bacharach to Würzburg. If you purchase far enough ahead from the Bahn website, you can get Dauer-Spezial tickets from Bacharach to Würzburg for €29 per person. That would include an ICE from Mainz to Würzburg and take just 3 hours.

I also agree that you are trying to do an awful lot in 10 days. You will go close to the northern Black Forest on your way from the Rhein to Bavaria, so stopping somewhere around there might make sense, but Berlin would take up too much travel time, IMO.

I like your plan Lee. I guess we want to do too much in too little time. Maybe we can do Berlin at another time. Im just a little confused about the train tickets. We fly into Frankfurt, so do we just get a ticket from there to Bacharach? Then take the rhine river cruise from there to St. Goar, buy another train ticket from St. Goar to Bacharach. Spend 1 night at pension Im Malerwinkel,and buy another ticket from St. Goar to Wurzburg? Then get that Bavaria Ticket for Wurzburg and the other places? And Skip Augsburg. But where do I buy that Bavaria ticket? and what if it's on the weekend is it more than 28 euros? Sorry, so many questions. I just want to be sure about the train tickets. Should I also skip Colonge?

I don't think you schedule is quite as rushed as some that I have seen. At least your travel times are fairly short. It's the schedules that have people traveling for 6-8 hours, getting into town for a few hours of sightseeing, then stay overnight and get up in the morning for another long days of traveling. They spend more time traveling than actually seeing something. However, you were moving almost every day, and that can get old in a hurry.

As for Cologne, you might be able to fit it in, but I wouldn't sweat it if you can't.

As for tickets, it's pretty easy to buy a ticket from Frankfurt to Bacharach from an automat at the airport Regionalbahnhof. You can do it all with the S-Bahn to Mainz and a regional train to Bacharach. A ticket from RMV, the local transit district in Frankfurt, costs €10 pP; if there are just two of you, that's about the best you can do.

You can get a ticket from St. Goar back to Bacharach (10 min) at the ticket automat in St. Goar for €3,10 pP.

As for Bacharach to Würzburg, if you want to make the trip in only a little over 3 hours with a fast ICE, you can get tickets in advance from the German Rail website. Put in "Bacharach" and "Wuerzburg", and the date and time in European format. Select Savings Fare. Until they are sold out, there should be tickets for €29 per person; you can add seat reservations for €2 each. You pay for the ticket with a credit card and print it out on your home inkjet or laser printer. Just make sure your credit card has the same name as on the tickets, because you will have to show the card to the conductor for identification.

The trip from Bacharach to Würzburg by all regional trains is only slightly slower (4 hrs) and cost more, about €35 pP, but you can buy your tickets just before travel time. Actually I'm not sure the automat in Bacharach sells tickets all the way to Würzburg. You probably buy a ticket to Frankfurt Hbf in Bacharach. Then you have a 40 min change of trains in Frankfurt and you can buy your tickets to Würzburg.

Lastly, if money is more important than time, you can buy a €27 Rheinland-Pfalz ticket from the automat in Bacharach and use it to Mannheim. It covers up to five people. In Mannheim, you buy a local transit district, VRN, ticket to Würzburg via Osterburken for €8,50 pP. That's about €44, total, and takes 6 hours.

The advance purchase tickets from Bacharach to Würzburg are called Dauer-Spezial tickets. They are limited in quantity and sell out at the lower prices, so buy them before you go. They are train-specific and non-refundable, so make sure you can get that train before getting the tickets.

You can get the Bayern-Ticket from any automat in Bavaria. If you use the modern style, touch screen machine, you can switch it to display in English. Find the touchpad for Länder-tickets. The older style "Nahverkehr" machines have two columns of buttons on the RH side. You will find one labeled "Bayern-Ticket". You can also use a ticket counter, but they charge €2 more for personal service.

The Bayern-Ticket costs no more on the weekends and is valid from midnight instead of 9 AM as on workdays.

Oh my trip is actually 12 days long including my flights days in and out. So it's from April 1st to the 12th.

Thanks all for the valuable information and help.

Lee I figured out the whole train thing. Thank you so much for all the specific info. Not sure if I should get the train ticket so far in advance. Just wondering if the flight get delayed or something. But went in to the link you posted and found the scheduled line from Bach. to Wurz. no problem. It has a connection in Mainz Hbf. Are the trains difficult to find when you are at the station and have to switch to another train? We did it in Naples and Savona and had just a little trouble figuring out which line and train. Thanks again your info has been super helpful!

I don't think it is hard to find connecting trains in German stations. Since you know that the connection from Bacharach to Würzburg has a change of trains in Mainz, you have obviously "expanded" that connectionon on the Bahn website. When you do that, it also shows the platform number for the train.

In over 20 years of traveling in Germany I have only once seen a train use a different platform than scheduled. There are also schedules, with platform numbers, posted on each platform in a station.

On the schedule I looked at, the train from Bacharach came into Mainz on track 6 and the train to Frankfurt Hbf left on track 4. Tracks 4 and 6 will be on different, but adjacent platforms. You'll need to go down the steps to the connecting tunnel and find the sign for track (Gleis) 4.

One the other hand, if you come in from FRA and switch to a train to Bacharach, you will probably leave on track 11. Track 11 is not exactly where you would expect it. It is not a "through" track; it's a short stub track at the NW end of the station, across the platform from track 1.

Some connections from FRA to Bacharach change in Bingen (Rhein) Hbf. Bingen is a strange station, with six tracks, three on one side of the station bldg and three on the other. Tracks 101 and 201 are on either side of the island containing the station. Tracks 102 and 103 share a platform next to track 101. So, for the connection I saw, you get off in Bingen on track 102. You board another train on track 103, which is right across the platform from 102.

"Not sure if I should get the train ticket so far in advance. Just wondering if the flight get delayed or something."

On the day your flight arrives, you will only need a ticket from FRA to Bacharach. Right? There is no advantage to getting that ticket in advance. You can get it just before train time from an automat or a ticket counter in the Regionalbahnhof (at the airport). To get to the Regionalbahnhof, you go down the stairs or escalators just inside the streetside wall of the arrival hall of Terminal 1. There is an S-Bahn (S-8, I believe) to Mainz every 20 minutes.

The ticket I suggested you get in advance is the one from Bacharach to Würzburg. An advance purchase online ticket from the Bahn website would be a Dauer-Spezial fare, which might be as low as €29 per person. That would use IC or ICE trains from Mainz to Würzburg and would take just over 3 hours. You would have to commit to a specific day and train, and the ticket would be non-refundable, but, since you will already be in Bacharach, that should not be a problem.

For about €35 each, you could use regional trains. The trip would take about 4 hours via Frankfurt Hbf. You probably can't buy a ticket all the way to Würzburg in Bacharach; the counter is not manned, there is only a ticket automat. However, you can buy a ticket in Bacharach to Frankfurt Hbf. At Frankfurt most connections show about 40 min between trains to buy your ticket to Würzburg.

When we went from Frankfurt to Bacharach by train we weren't quite positive the stop was Bacharach because it didn't even look like we were at a station. We were in a compartment farther back on the train. Not far back but not right up in the front. We couldn't see the town sign and were let off on a grassy area. Usually there is either an announcement or a digital ticker tape scroll on the train of the upcoming town. We must have missed that. Bacharach was new to us so we didn't know what to expect. Loved the little town though. Had the Riesling Gelato...kind of different.

Diane where did you stay? any recommendations?

We stayed at Pension Lettie in Bacharach. It was clean and comfortable. We were there last August and for a double room with shower and WC it was 48 Euro/night. The breakfast was made by Lettie and served in kind of a bright courtyard area. She made waffles, eggs, and fresh rolls, and served yogart, coffee, tea, and a piece of fruit in her robe and curlers. It was comfortable to us. Nothing fancy but nice.

We did take the KD boat from Bacharach to St. Goar. We bought ourselves a glass of wine on board and sat back and listened to the descriptions of the sights along the way (which were both in German and in English). You can also follow along with Rick's Germany and Austria guidebook of the mile (Km) markers and the descriptions. But if you're fumbling to find out were you are in the book then you're missing the sights. The next day we woke up very early and walked up to Stahleck Castle which is a youth hostel. Great views from up there. Also, we walked through the vineyards over by the tower which also had some great views of the Rhine. It was a very quiet little town. It seemed like we were the only one's there in August.