I am trying to figure out if it will be cheaper to rent a car for our round trip between Munich - Nurnburg (July 10-13) or if it would be better to take a train. It will cost 104 Euros for the rental fee and parking (not including gas), and the cheapest fast train I can find for 2 adults is on the Bahn website for 158 Euros. If I do go with the train option I would prefer not to make any transfers on the way. Help!
I jsut checked the Bahn site and found a Sparpreis roundtrip fare as low as €98.00 for your travel dates for two people traveling on direct ICE trains that make the trip between Muenchen and Nuernberg in just over one hour.
It depends on how fast is fast. According to ViaMichelin, the trip by car from downtown Nürnberg (Hbf) to downtown Munich (Hbf) takes at least 1h48min (and add €20 each way for fuel). The German Rail (Bahn) website shows direct connections by Regional Express trains about every 2 hours that take the same amount of time (1h44min - 1h46min). According to the new pricing schedule from the Bahn, you should be able to use Bayern-Tickets for €26 each way for two people.
Details on the Bayern Ticket here (ignore the old prices - Lee's are correct.) http://www.munich-touristinfo.de/Bavaria-Ticket.htm
The new prices (starting June 10, 2012) are explained here on the Bahn website. It's in German but pretty self-explanatory. The first person pays €22. Each additional person, up to 5 people, total, pays €4 more. For 1, 2, and 3 persons, it's €1 more, €3 less, and €1 more, respectively, than the old price - kind of a wash. For 4 and 5 people, it's €5 and €9 more than before.
Thanks everyone! We are going to take the train to Nurnburg. However, we are still going to drive during our time in Austria. Does anyone know how I can find out about road work/high traffic areas ahead of time?
Congestion is pretty much a given on all the feeder Autobahn routes going in and out of the Munich area. I don't drive this route often, so I have no current information on any construction delays. The only really bad traffic I've ever experienced in Austria was around Innsbruck, but that was immediately after a large winter sports event.