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One month in Germany... Railpass?

Hi! I'm currently planning a trip to Germany for November; and I'm having problems with my railpass options. I will be almost following Rick's itinerary as shown in the Germany & Austria 2008 guide; and I thought I'd get an Austrian 4-day pass for the long train rides there, but I'm not sure about Germany.

I have a lot of short trips, and some days, two in one day. Also, I found the fares for point to point tickets in the web (European Rail Guide http://www.railkey.com/) and those are EXPENSIVE... but then again I might not be finding the regional trains, or the discount tickets. Does anyone know where I can access those?

The cities I will be visiting are:
-Arriving in Frankfurt, from there to Cologne. A couple of days later: Bonn, Koblenz. Next St. Goar. Next Bacharach, next Cochem, next Moselkern and Trier. Next Baden-Baden, 2 days later Freiburg, next Reutte (and here I use the Austrian pass, Hallstatt, Vienna, Melk) p2p tk to Salzburg, and last Austrian pass day from Salzburg to Munich. 3 days later Rothenburg, 2 days later Nürnberg, next Dresden, next Berlin. And fly to Moscow.

Maybe I should buy a German pass for the more expensive trips? Or regional passes, Bavaria, and such? PLEASE, ADVISE!!!

Thanks a bunch!

Posted by
9221 posts

Did you notice that on the Transportation link of the RS website right above where all the questions are posted is a link that says" Questions about trains in Europe contact our rail department." I'm sure others posters will help as well but the RS train folks would be good to contact as well.

Posted by
1358 posts

I agree with Claudia; ask the RR people. Always talk with a real live person any time you can. Assuming the information on any webpage to be complete or even up to date is a mistake.

I always compare the cost of a RR pass with buying individual point-to-point tickets before buying a pass. Often the pass is more costly.

Posted by
1358 posts

I agree with Claudia; ask the RR people. Always talk with a real live person any time you can. Assuming the information on any webpage to be complete or even up to date is a mistake.

I always compare the cost of a RR pass with buying individual point-to-point tickets before buying a pass. Often the pass is more costly.

Posted by
19274 posts

Yes, the p2p rail prices shown on the European Rail Guide are EXPENSIVE, but not very accurate (after all, they want to sell railpasses). The only place to get accurate schedules and prices is from the seller themselves, German Rail.

Looking at your itinerary, I can see few places where you could not do better with a p2p or Länder ticket than you could with a railpass. The only really long trip is from Dresden to Berlin, and if you are willing to make a non-refundable, non-exchangeable advance purchase online (kind of like you do with airplane tickets) you could do that leg for as low as €29.