Cheap fairs on trains - Germany/Czech Republic/Benelux

I can't tell you about Amsterdam to Brussels, however, Dachau is a suburb of Munich, and a local MVV dayticket (Munich XXL Partner Tageskarte at €12,30, about €6 pP) will be less expensive than a day of your rail pass.

Berlin to Prague can be done for as little as €29 with advance purchase. You can find these fares under "Savings fares" or "Sparpreis" on the German Rail website. I found them still available for June.

Prague to Munich can also be as little as €29 pP for an advance purchase ticket, by express, non-stop bus from Prague to Nürenberg and ICE to Munich in 5 hours. You can also do that trip in 6 hours for about €23 pP by regional train by buying a Bayern-Böhmen ticket online from the German Rail Ticket Shop (or from an automat while you are in Berlin) for €33 (for 2 people) and using a P-P Czech Rail ticket for less than €6 to Plzen.

You can also get Sparpreis tickets for the night train to Amsterdam, often for no more than the cost of a rail pass day and the night train supplement ("Reservation" fee).

Update: You can get an Economy Double Europa-Spezial (still available for June) for €198 vs the "reservation" fee of €120. So, the P-P charge is €78 more than the reservation; the rail pass is worth €78.

If you are having problems finding these fares, PM me.

I recall the cost of a one way ticket from Brussels to Amsterdam being 35 euro on a standard ICE (much more on Thalys). And by the way, with these two cities, I wouldn't particularly recommend using one as a base to visit the other by daytrip.

We're not sure about dates of train travel yet, because we might be meeting some people in Amsterdam, in which case we'd spend more time there and have to cut back in other places. All we know for sure is that we're there between October 6th & 23rd.

What confuses me is that when I search for these routes on the DB website, the cheapest fare I get is 59EUR (sale price, regular price being 89EUR). I'm not sure where people are getting the 29EUR fares, because if I can find those, things definitely get cheaper than buying the pass.

Oh, and yes, I realize there is probably plenty to see in Brussels, but this time around, we just want to drop in for some great beer and chocolate :)

And what confuses me is that you can't find €29 fares, and that the fares you say you are finding don't make sense. Are you really using the German Rail website (note: some people try to use www.bahn.de, but the little box on the home page doesn't give you as many options as this page, and you get to this page eventually, so why not start here?)

First, what date are you using? You won't find any fares for October at this time because tickets don't go on sale until 92 days (3 months) before the travel date. If you put in a date in the near future, even if the discounted fares are sold out, you should see "from 29 Eur" before you click "check availability". (Unless you are specifying 1st class, in which case the lowest discount fare might be 59 Eur, but you can't ride 1st class with a youth pass anyway, so why compare it.)

And, I didn't see any 89 Eur fares for any of those legs.

"but this time around, we just want to drop in for some great beer and chocolate :) "

Save yourself some time, then, and go to Antwerp instead. I personally think the Grote Markt (Grand Place in French) here is even more scenic than Brussel's. Antwerpen Centraal also might be the most impressive rail station in Europe.

So, I found fares from Berlin to Prague at €29 pP, €58 total.Prague to Munich is €5,70 (147 Kc) each plus a €33 Bayern-Böhmen ticket, €44,40 total.Dachau is a local MVV ticket (Munich XXL Partner Tageskarte) for €12,30.A Europa-Spezial ticket from Munich to Amsterdam in an economy double is €198, €78 more than the reservation cost of €120 on top of a rail pass.

That's €192,70, $263 at today's exch rate, less than half of the cost of 2 youth passes. Certainly you can get from Amsterdam to Brussels for $335.

Oh, BTW, a rail pass would cover your S-Bahn from downtown Munich to the Dachau station, but not the bus to the memorial. You would have to pay for that separately. The bus in included in the Tageskarte.

Lee -- all I have to say for myself is d'oh!

You are completely right, the fares I was getting were for TWO people, so the 59EUR were for both of us, not per person. I just tried searching for 1 person fare, and indeed, the website came up with a 29EUR fare.

Definitely taking your advice re these journeys. Thanks so much!