My family and I are taking the Best of Germany, Austria & Switzerland tour this summer. We are flying in and out of Munich with plans to travel by train from Munich to Cologne at the beginning of the trip and from Vienna to Munich at the end of the trip. Does anyone have recent experience with booking train tickets in Germany that they would care to share? Suggestions on where and how to buy the tickets, which stations to leave from and go into, and anything to avoid would be so helpful.
Posted by
Uppsala, Sweden
6970 posts
You buy your tickets from www.bahn.de, the train from Vienna can also be bought at www.oebb.at.
Hauptbahnhof the German word for Main station and probably the best for you unless you know that another station will be better.
Posted by
SE Pennsylvania
2660 posts
Here's a really useful site for all things train:
https://www.seat61.com/index-mobile.htm
Posted by
Bavaria
2480 posts
You buy your tickets from www.bahn.de, the train from Vienna can also be bought at www.oebb.at.
And for the Vienna-Munich trip you should compare both sites, since special offers (Sparpreis) often are sold out at one of them but still available at the other.
Posted by
Seattle, WA
17418 posts
There is a big price advantage to buying tickets in advance. For example, for Vienna to Munich, on a date in mid-June (June22). bahn.de offers a Super Sparpreis of €24,90 or a Sparpreis Europa of £30,90. The regular price is €98-122, depending on the degree of flexibility chosen.
Note that the Super Sparpreis is inflexible—-you are committed to a specific train and you cannot change or cancel. The Sparpreis Europa ticket can be canceled up to one day before the journey for a 10€charge, and you get a voucher toward a different journey for the balance.