Hi,
My husband and I will be in the Rhine area this fall. Looking at the VRM web site it looks like the Mini Group ticket maybe our best choice. It looks like they also have a 3 day saver ticket? Not sure what the difference is between the two.
We will be arriving from Amsterdam stopping in Koln and staying in Koblenz the first night. Then next 2 in Bacharach.
What would be the best choice of train ticket for us for travel within the Rhine region?
Thanks,
Wendy
Considering that just a one way ticket from St. Goar to Koblenz is €6,70 pP, a €20 Minigruppentageskarte for unlimited rides in the VRM for a day for up to 5 people is a pretty good deal. And a three day Minigruppentageskarte is only 2x a single day.
However, there are a couple of caveats. The VRM extends to the Rheinland-Pfalz/Nordrhein-Westfalen border between Remagen/Linz and Bonn. The VRM extends up the Mosel to Bullay, just beyond Cochem, but not to Trier. Most importantly, the VRM extends up the Rhein past Oberwesel but not as far a Bacharach. So, to use it to Bacharch, you will have to have point-point tickets from Oberwesel to Bacharach. Most stations on the Rhein are now unmanned, so you can only buy tickets from automats, and they generally sell ticket only to/from that station. The savings tickets are a good deal, but you have to understand the limitations and plan accordingly.
If I wanted to make extensive use of the VRM tickets, I would stay in St. Goar. Here is the network plan of regional trains and buses in the VRM.
You can also use a Rheinland-Pfalz-Ticket, although it is €28 for 5 people for a day with no 3 day ticket. Both the VRM Minigruppentageskarte and the Rheinland-Pfalz-Ticket are only valid after 9 AM workdays.
The VRM website, if you have not already found it, is at www.vrm.info and will display in English.
I notice you are also including Köln in your itinerary. Köln is in the German state of Nordrhein-Westfalen. It's not in Rheinland-Pfalz or in the VRM. At €33, the Schöner-Tag-Ticket, the Länder ticket for NR-W, is the most expensive of the Länder tickets.
If this travel is on a weekend day, use a Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket for €37 for both of you. It covers travel throughout all of the Länder.
If this is a workday, unless you are doing a lot of travel in Köln before you go to Koblenz, you won't want to get a Schöner-Tag-Ticket. Get the Rheinland-Pfalz ticket from a red DB automat in Köln and point-point tickets to Bonn (Bonn is a border station for the RL-P ticket).
The point-point fare from Köln is €6,60 pP to Bonn and €9,80 pP to Remagen (inside the VRM). It will cost you €39,60 for the Köln-Remagen-Minigruppenkarte combination vs €41,20 for the Köln-Bonn-RL-P ticket combination. It will only cost €1,60 more for the Köln to Bonn and Rheinland-Pfalz-Ticket combination and you won't have to stop in Remagen for the Minigruppentageskarte. If you are only going to go to Koblenz Hbf that day, the point-point fare for 2 from Köln to Koblenz is €34,20.
OTOH, if you find you can purchase a VRM Minigruppentageskarte in Köln (unlikely), or you get off in Remagen, you could get the 3-day Minigruppentageskarte, for €40, and save more money.
Hope I haven't confused you too much.
Your least expensive option is to buy, in Köln, two point-point tickets from Köln to Remagen (should be €9,80 pP), get off in Remagen and buy the 3-day Minigruppentageskarte for €40 from an automat.
Advantage: lowest possible price (<$60 for three days).
Disadvantage: you have to take the time to get the Karten in Remagen. There are two regional trains per hours through Remagen to Koblenz, so you won't lose too much time. Actually, you might want to spend some more time in Remagen. It is the site of the last standing bridge over the Rhein when the Allies came through in WWII. Eisenhower described it as worth it's weight in gold. The piers are still there and there is a museum.
Also, the VRM ticket does not include Bacharach. If you want to go to Bacharach by train, you can buy the ticket (Oberwesel to Bacharach) from a counter in Koblenz. You can also get off in Oberwesel, buy the tickets from an automat (€2,10 pP), and wait an hour for the next direct train (4 min) to Bacharach. Most of the stations on that part of the Rhein are unmanned; you have to buy tickets from an automat, and they only sell tickets from that town to Bacharach. It you are in St. Goar, you can pay €3,20 pP for tickets to Bacharach and avoid having to stop in Oberwesel for an hour.
Hi Lee,
We are traveling from Amsterdam stoping in Koln and then staying overnight in Koblenz. (you've helped me with this part of our journey)
Next day we plan on traveling to Burg Elz see Remagen then on to our next two nights in Bacharach. I'm trying to figure out the most cost effective travel for the next two days. I thought the mini VRN group ticket would be the best but didn't realize that it didn't extend to Bacharach.
We really we looking forward to our stay in Bacharah. What would your suggestion be? I really don't want to change our reservation in Bacharach. As I didn't find any place to stay at appealing in St. Goar.
Thanks for your help,
Wendy
What are you doing for your day in Bacharach? If you are just going to take the boat to St Goar and come back by train, you don't need a Minigruppentageskarte for that day.
You could use a point-point ticket from Köln to Koblenz at €17,10 pP, a €20 Minigruppentageskarte for the second day, and point-point tickets from St Goar to Bacharach for the last day.
As for Bacharach, I've been there twice, but never spent the night there. If I were to, I would want to stay at Im Malerwinkel. Most other places in Bacharach, IMO, are too close to the tracks.
I was in Bacharach last week and enjoyed a lovely couple of hours watching boats go up and down.
It had been a couple of years so I was really surprised by how quiet the trains are now at Bacharach. They have welded all the rail so they just glide through now.
I was still able to hear the trains on the other side of the river.
Be aware that the passageways under the road are being rebuilt so there's a degree of construction around the road.
Its really nice around there, good to see again.
"...I was really surprised by how quiet the trains are now at Bacharach. They have welded all the rail so they just glide through now."
It's not the clickity-clack of the rails, it's the fingernails on the chaulk board screech of the brakes as the train comes into the station or the heavy laboring of the motors as the train leaves. Fortunately, there are few trains stopping at Bacharach after 11 at night or before 6 in the morning. There are some express trains from Koblenz to Mainz, one or two night trains, and some freight trains, but, as you say, they glide through.
