Booking trains: What does Hbf mean? How choose station?

Hauptbahnhof is the main station in Munich. In German it means, Central Station. Hbf is the abbreviation for Central Station. Don't understand your question?

German-speaking countries make it easy. If you're booking long distance trains, you will almost always choose the Hauptbahnhof. In other countries, it's not so obvious sometimes.

Okie dokie, quick lesson... German for train station is bahnhof (abbreviated bf). Each has a unique name, which may include the city name. In bigger cities there may be a main station which is the Hauptbahnhof (abbreviated Hbf). Many of the European train route planning websites not only list stations but because they also provide bus information also list bus-stops. That's what you are seeing in your example. You won't go far wrong picking Hbf.

His question is which of the many stops listed for Salzburg he should choose, and the answer is Salzburg Hbf, since he is coming by train from Luzern, with limited stops. The others are suburb or other stations , probably linked by tram or S-Bahn to the main station.

As Frank says, Hauptbahnhof (Hbf) means "main station" in German. On the Bahn website, if you type in a town name, you'll probably get a pulldown menu with a list of names. In the case of Salzburg, the first name, "Salzburg Hbf", is the main station. The next three are apparently bus stops in front of the Hbf (I know the first two of the next three are in front of the Hbf). Others on the list are bus stops around Salzburg. For Munich, you'll see "Munich Hauptbahnhof" and "Munich Hbf", which are the same place, "Munich Pasing" and "Munich Ost" are alternate stops on the east and west end of town. Both the S-Bahn and trains stop there. The rest of the names are S-Bahn stations. If it shows just the town name, usually in capital letters, it means the main station in that town. The Swiss website, www.sbb.ch, and the Austrian website, www.oebb.at, work similarly. If you're not sure, click the '>' next to the connection, then "show map" at the bottom of the expanded connection. That will show a map with the stop so you can see where it is.

I Googled it before posting the question and your answers really brought clarity. Thanks!

I've also noticed that Google maps usually show train stations and bus stops by name.