Finally the winter schedule has come online - and within 2 days all the "Dauerspezial" tickets were sold out for the end of December and beginning of the new year. Well, a few for 1st class or so are left but those don't really provide any deals compared to regular 2nd class fare.
We'll be travelling as a family with 2 adults and 2 kids (6-14). Any suggestions for deals on long-distance in Germany? I don't want to take regional trains on a distance that takes 6 hours with IC/ICE. I'm looking at Muenster or Duisburg to Leipzig (weekday) and Berlin to Muenster or Duisburg on a Sunday. The best I could find was around 350 Euro total. Which for us would mean that taking a car (loan is free, we pay only for gas) would probably be cheaper and I promised the kids we take the train ...
I doubt airfares will be a better deal during this time period :-(