advice for train travel (Germany & austria)

Vienna is too far to travel there and back for the amount of time you have.
I'd just split it between Munich and Salzburg and just buy point to point train tickets you don't need a pass.

German/Austrian trains are very easy to navigate once you get a bit past the learning curve. I would suggest that you start with The Man in Seat 61, who explains train travel in Europe very well. Here is a link to the Germany page. https://www.seat61.com/train-travel-in-germany.htm

With regards to your train tickets, you do not need a Eurail pass for these destinations - it would be a huge waste of money. You can plan your travel at this site, which is the website for Deutsche Bahn: https://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query2.exe/en

Just plug in your dates and you can check prices and times. I would suggest sticking with 2nd class, which is perfectly comfortable. Keep in mind that the earlier you buy your tickets (at least for the high speed trains) the cheaper the price will be. For the trip from Salzburg to Munich, you might want to purchase a Bayern pass, which is a cheaper price on a regional (albeit slower) train in the Bavaria region (which includes Salzburg, but not Vienna). Those you can purchase at any time with no cost increase, but there are a few restrictions. https://www.bahn.com/en/offers/regional/regional-day-ticket-for-bavaria

You also might want to post this on the Germany forum (or add the words Germany and Austria to the title). That will get more attention from other folks that are familiar with those countries.

You should download the DB app for German trains. You can look up everything there. Last year we traveled southern Germany and used the app and booked as we went.

For planning and booking, download both the DB Navigator and OBB Tickets apps. You will see routes and times and can book your tickets on the apps. Just buy tickets, not a Eurail pass.

I’m in Vienna now for the last couple days of the RS Berlin, Prague &Vienna tour. I’m staying a few extra days in Vienna before heading to Salzburg then back to Munich to fly home.

I agree with others that you don’t have enough time to do all you want. You have to factor in travel time

Vienna is huge and time-consuming.

With a week, Munich + Salzburg + something else nice in the area would be doable (look into Werfen (Austria), Berchtesgaden (Germany), Hallstatt (Austria)... also possible would be these Germany destinations: Chiemsee and Herrenchiemsee, Burghausen, Regensburg, Mittenwald.

For most of these journeys, a simple day pass like the Bayern Ticket, bought at the station like you would for Munich > Salzburg, would suffice. You'd have no advance-purchase transportation to worry about at all.

I appreciate the info shared here. To clarify - Munich & Vienna are non-negotiable. Our flights are in/out of Munich and we are seeing P!nk perform in Vienna. From what I've read, of the 3 locations, Vienna would be where we spend the least amount of time. Basically we plan to get there the day before concert, explore what we can in 24 hours, see the show, sleep and head to salzberg early the next morning. Salzberg/Halstatt are higher on our list than much else in Vienna. I realize we'll be on the go a lot.

Perhaps a night train from Munich to Vienna? Though I was thinking it would be worthwhile to see the countryside. If we do the day train, would definitely try to do it as early in the morning as possible. In hindsight, maybe we should have used a travel agent....

d-k, it's really very doable on your own. Just use the link above I gave you to check trains times from Munich to Vienna.

If you want some help, give us info on your flight (date you arrive in Munich) and the date you leave for Vienna. Are you spending more time in Munich at the beginning of your trip or the end? Many people here are happy to get you started in the right direction.

IMOHO, that's a lot of travel time. Think that you will waste 1/2 day traveling which cuts your sight seeing days to 5 1/2. Trying to do 3 will eat up sightseeing time. Since Munich and Vienna are non-negotiable, I would suggest that after you land in Munich fly the same day to Vienna since you will be at the airport already, spend 3 nights there (which I think covers the concert), fly or train back to Munich for the last days of your trip. Flying back from Vienna is comparable to taking the train. Train will take you 4 hours but the stations are "usually" located in the middle of town. Have fun.

When we did two weeks in this area some years ago, we spent three nights in Salzburg and Munich each, and four nights in Vienna, from which we flew home. You are underestimating the overhead to change hotels and cities, as well as the fact that Vienna is a major city of the world (well, it was, if not quite today. History-wise, it still is.)

It's a little tidier to talk about "nights". Especially since you have to waste one night back in Munich for your flight home, most likely. Have you counted the initial night from the US to Munich? If you have not paid for the air tickets, you should book an open jaw flight into one end city and home (with two segments, if necessary) from the other. This is unlikely to cost any more than a roundtrip to Munich. It's your right to go to three cities in six nights, but it's not really a visit to those cities, just a sample of what they offer.

Is this your first trip to Europe? Our host has a lot of good books, and free tips on the menu top left. The train isn't hard, but you need to do some dummy bookings on the Deutsche Bahn site to get an idea of timings, and also add a city bus to the train station, and time to locate and get on the train. You want the DB app so you don't have to wait in a line for a human ticket seller every time you get on a train. It is correct that a Railpass would be a HUGE waste of money. It sounds like you are budget travelers, but you don't say so explicitly, which would be helpful.

oh boy - my intention was never to lean on you guys so much, but for those who have the time and want to know more details, here's what we had planned:
Thurs June 29 ARRIVE IN MUNICH 8:20 AM - see what we can
Fri June 30 Munich - Dachau. (or take night train to vienna)
Sat July 1 Leave early for Vienna - see what we can
Sun July 2 continue Vienna - concert pm
Mon. July 3 Leave early for Salzberg see what we can
Tues July 4 explore halstatt
Weds July 5 Leave for Munich later pm- intend to just sleep in Munich
Thurs July 6. Munich FLY HOME - 11:30 AM DEP

We explored flights to vienna on the day we arrive in munich, but from what we could tell, we would miss the earlier flights, and the rest were later in the day or evening or were cost prohibitive. For the later in the day flights, we figured since we'd have to wait around and/or leave the airport we might as well do our Munich touring on the front end.

I know we won't be able to maximize everything at each site, but besides our non-negotiables, we really wanted to see halstatt and/or salzburg.

Thanks again for al of your insight!

Do you have your hotels already booked? If not, one change I’d suggest is going to Salzburg immediately after you arrive on the first day. It is a short train ride. This would eliminate one hotel change (e.g., Salzburg - Vienna - Munich rather than Munich - Vienna - Salzburg - Munich).

You indicate that Hallstatt is a must. If it happens to be raining on the day you plan to visit, I’d suggest skipping it, I stayed overnight in Hallstatt once and it poured rain the entire time; I was terribly bored there and the beauty wasn’t evident as you couldn’t see the village through the rain and fog.

To clarify - Munich & Vienna are non-negotiable. Our flights are
in/out of Munich and we are seeing P!nk perform in Vienna.

OKAY. So you see what you can in Munich on the 29th and get a good night's sleep. Hard to say what you'll have time for as there's always the potential for flight delays plus you probably will have one to two hours invested in clearing security + the train ride into Munich.

30th: "Dachau or night train to Munich" ??? If Munich is "non-negotiable" as you say, but Dachau isn't, and your return to Munich after Austria is only to sleep, as you indicated... then I'd surely consider dedicating much of this day to things of interest in MUNICH. Dachau is just debilitatingly depressing. And you pretty much already know what the Holocaust and death camps and work camps were all about. Suggest you arrange for a train out of Munich mid-afternoon... maybe the 15:29 > 19:32 DIRECT RJX train.

Wed July 5th: Suggest you travel to FREISING, a handsome small town near the airport, for your final evening. That way you don't have to make the 45-minute train ride to MUC airport from central Munich on fly-home morning!

You know, Laura makes a good point about going to Salzburg as soon as you get there. It will involve fewer hotel changes and less time on the train. For example, to get to Vienna from Munich, your train will make a stop in Salzburg (it's about the halfway point). So it would be more cost and time efficient to head straight to Salzburg. Here are a couple of potential itineraries:

• Thurs June 29 ARRIVE IN MUNICH 8:20 AM - take train to Salzburg, sleep in Salzburg
• Fri June 30 Spend time in Salzburg, sleep in Salzburg
• Sat July 1 Day trip to Hallstatt, sleep in Salzburg
• Sun July 2 Train to Vienna - concert pm, sleep in Vienna
• Mon. July 3 Spend time in Vienna, sleep in Vienna
• Tues July 4 Train to Munich, sleep in Munich
• Weds July 5 Spend time in Munich, sleep in Munich
• Thurs July 6. Munich FLY HOME - 11:30 AM DEP

Or if you would rather have more time in Vienna, just switch a couple of things:

• Thurs June 29 ARRIVE IN MUNICH 8:20 AM - take train to Salzburg, sleep in Salzburg
• Fri June 30 Spend time in Salzburg, sleep in Salzburg
• Sat July 1 Day trip to Hallstatt, train to Vienna, sleep in Vienna
• Sun July 2 Spend time in Vienna - concert pm, sleep in Vienna
• Mon. July 3 Spend time in Vienna, sleep in Vienna
• Tues July 4 Train to Munich, sleep in Munich
• Weds July 5 Spend time in Munich, sleep in Munich
  
• Thurs July 6. Munich FLY HOME - 11:30 AM DEP

Or if you really want to sleep in Hallstatt, here is another option:

• Thurs June 29 ARRIVE IN MUNICH 8:20 AM - take train to Salzburg, sleep in Salzburg
• Fri June 30 Spend time in Salzburg, sleep in Salzburg
• Sat July 1 Train to Hallstatt, sleep in Hallstatt
• Sun July 2 Train to Vienna, spend time in Vienna - concert pm, sleep in Vienna
• Mon. July 3 Spend time in Vienna, sleep in Vienna
• Tues July 4 Train to Munich, sleep in Munich
• Weds July 5 Spend time in Munich, sleep in Munich
  
• Thurs July 6. Munich FLY HOME - 11:30 AM DEP

Note that you are traveling at a peak vacation time, so you can expect airports and trains to be jammed. This is not going to be leisurely travel. For example, planning to walk-up and buy tickets at the ticket booths in the station is going to take at least 30 minutes every time you do it. There may be ticket machines, but have you researched whether your credit card will be any help to you at the machines? You're entitled to set your itinerary, but it sounds like this is your first trip to Europe. If so, there are a lot of things you don't know. Europe has excellent public transportation, much better than the US. But nice cities in Europe are not suburbs of each other.

I have not been to Hallstatt, but I would observe that there are many pretty lakeside villages in Europe. This is not your only time in your life that you will get to see such a pretty place. So you might want to think about the best use of extremely limited time. Likewise, (sadly) Dachau is not the only KL available to tour. You might wait for a later trip, when there is one closer by, or you have more time in the locality. As suggested earlier, I think you are underestimating the total time involved, and how shocking the experience can be.

Most people on this newsboard don't use travel agents. But it sounds like you don't want every moment of your trip to be regimented by a schedule laid out with fixed train tickets, for example. And many trains don't have seat reservations, so you could be standing anyway.

One last remark: A lot of people have talked about using DB and OBB to plan and book trips on that route. But there is also the private company "Westbahn". Especially at last minute they are cheaper than DB and OBB.

https://westbahn.at/en/

And regardless of who you travel with: Install their apps. Or install the Trainline App, which allows you to book from all three companies.

Forget night trains. I have never understood the ‘problem’ with changing locations. It doesn’t take long to check out of/ check into hotels. I don’t consider train travel wasted. I like seeing the countyside.

stephen, I look at it this way:
5 minute walk to transit
5 minute average wait
15 minute public transit from bargain hotel to station,
10 minute allowance for on-time arrival
0 minutes allowance for online ticket purchase
xx minutes train ride
10 minutes find transit from station,
figure out coins or card that city
5 min average waiting for tram departure
15 minutes transit to hotel
5 minute walk from transit
10 minutes in line/clerk doing other jobs
10 minutes check-in, passport, credit card

And that's without any strikes, broken escalators, tourist scams, departure platforms out of numerical order, pay toilets?

I'm not saying European travel is a horror; I've happily been to Europe dozens of times. But changing hotels every day for a death march of "If This Is Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium" is not a pleasure. And I don't think anyone is disputing that Vienna is good for seven days, and Munich for 3-5 days. As I said, we slept 3 night in Salzburg, and did not go to Hallstatt, although we did take the Sound Of Music bus trip, to avoid renting a car.