Should I be using a different site to look at train trips starting or ending outside Germany for pricing?
Hi David. Yes, for prices or to actually buy tickets, best is to go to the appropriate web site for the country where the trip is starting. Not sure what countries you are interested in. For Italy, this is trenitalia.com. There are also sites for Austria, Switzerland, France, etc.
there are also broker sites such as raileurope.com and others, but beware they are a broker, only show some trains, and charge extra fees. Enjoy your trip!
If the train starts or ends in Germany, you can get pricing on the bahn site. If completely outside of Germany then use the national rail site for that country.
What Frank said is essentially true, but there are a few exceptions. You can get prices, and even discount online tickets from Munich to some places in Switzerland (z.B., Interlaken Ost) from the German Rail, even though there is at least one change of trains in Zuerich, and the following trains are entirely in Switzerland. But an online Bahn ticket for a single train starting and ending outside Germany - no.
Check out www.seat61.com for great advice on all rail and ferry line across Europe.
I was very disappointed in the information I found on seat61. Under "How to buy tickets if you live in the USA", he makes three references to TGV-Europe and two to RailEurope.com (both, by the way, owned by French Rail) but never mentions (in this part of the site, at least), Bahn.de. The Bahn runs more of the rail system (almost 1/3) in western continental Europe than any other country (42% more than French Rail). You'd think that would warrant at least a mention.
I was looking at tickets from Paris to Frankfurt and Fussen to Verona. Some have prices on bahn.de some don't.
The DB site gives fares for Fuessen-Verona with one connection in Munich because the 2nd leg starts in Germany and the train goes directly to Verona. If you book far enough in advance (up to 92 days) on the DB site, you can get a 2nd class Europa-Spezial Italien fare as low as €59 for the entire route (Fuessen-Munich-Verona).
On its page devoted to Germany the seat61 site makes several references to bahn.de, including describing how to get discount fares.