Buying tickets at station

We are talking about two different kinds of tickets here. The limited-refundability, advance purchase, date and train specific Sparpreis tickets have to be purchased at least 3 days in advance. It might be possible to purchase them at the counter with a personal service surcharge, but 3 days advance purchase is still required and they do sell out. They are for a specified trip that must include at least one leg on a train (ICE/IC/EC) of the Bahn (Fernverkehr).

Länder- and Schönes-Wochenende-Tickets are always available from automats in the train station. No advance purchase is necessary. I always buy them just before train time. You can also get them at a counter, but with a €2 surcharge. The are for regional trains only.

Ok, good. I purchased train-specific tickets from Frankfurt to Freiburg with seat reservations. Then we will buy Lander tickets at the machine to go to Stuttgart. I think I need to buy advance train-specific tickets to Rothenberg and also back to Frankfurt since they are 3 different states.

Are you traveling alone, or others?

There will be 3 of us, so I know that the Lander and the weekend passes are good for up to 5 people traveling together.

Three adults? If any of the three are your children, they are free with you when you have either a full fare or savings fare ticket.

I did that same trip, Stuttgart Hbf (actually the airport) to Rothenburg odT Bhf in 2002, before there were one way savings fares. We would have used Länder-Tickets, but our flight from Atlanta was an hour late and the next train to Ansbach was an IR (not eligible for Länder-Tickets), so we had to use p-p tickets, which were not much more expensive at the time than Länder-Tickets.

For you, a Baden-Württemburg- and a Bayern-Ticket would be €56 with no train commitment. The savings tickets would be €19/€29/€39 depending on how many were adult (15 and up), assuming the first saving tier are available. The time difference, since Ansbach to Rothenburg is regional anyway is only about 20 min less with an express train.

DB is really scaling down the number of manned counters to cut costs. They've got an iPhone app (DB Navigator) where you can purchase your ticket even while already standing on the platform in addition to their red ticket vending machines. Just keep that in mind. If you're not too comfortable using one of those but don't want or can't pre-book from home prepare for some time in line in front of a counter - especially at the larger stations.

Of course, you can't purchase the savings fare tickets while standing on the platform because they require a 3-day advance purchase, longer usually since the least expensive ones usually sell out well in advance.

If you buy full fare or Länder tickets at the counter you could have a line (and a €2 personal service surcharge for Länder-Tickets). On the other hand, purchasing Länder-Tickets at an automat is a piece of cake, and I rarely see a line for those.

Ok, that's very helpful. I didn't think I could use Lander tickets since Stuttgart is in Baden-Wurttemburg and Ansbach and Steinach are in Bayern. Looking at the DB site, those are the 2 towns we would connect in.
My sons are 20 years old, so 3 adults tickets.

The Ba-Wü ticket would take you to the border with Bavaria and the Bayern-Ticket would work from there. If you want a little excitement, the Ba-Wü ticket is valid to Nördlingen, which is in Bavara, and the Bayern-Ticket is valid from there. Nördlingen (www.noerdlingen.de) is another walled city on the Romantic Road, smaller and less touristy than Rothenburg (it lacks a Christmas shop and a Crime and Punishment Museum, but oh well), but I enjoyed it.

You can also do Rothenburg to Frankfurt Hbf with a Bayern-Ticket plus a local ticket (€7,15 pP) from Kahl am Main, the last stop in Bavaria, to Frankfurt Hbf (about €50 total). For that trip you would change trains in Steinach and Würzburg. You could probably get the Kahl-Frankfurt ticket in Rothenburg if the still have a ticket counter, at the red automat is not, or, depending on how long you have in Würzburg, at the counter there. Using the Bayern-Ticket, the trip from Würzburg by RE would not be much slower than by express. Again, if you book far enough in advance, with 3 adults, the savings fare tickets start at €39.