Rail Pass

I assume this is for two people.

If you purchase train-specific non-refundable tickets ahead, online, Berlin to Dresden and Dresden to Rothenburg can be €29 each leg per person with Dauer-Spezial tickets. Freilassing to Interlaken and Interlaken to Bacharach can each be €39 pP with Europa-Special Schweiz tickets. Salzburg to Freilassing, point-point, is €2,10 pP.

Rothenburg to Munich and Munich to Salzburg are €28 for both people with Bayern-Tickets, €14 pP, purchasable the day of travel.

That's €166,10 pP (~$236) for the whole trip vs. $481 pP with a 6 day saver pass. You could save almost $500 by skipping the railpass. Of course, the railpass is for 1st class vs. 2nd class for the German Rail promotional and Länder tickets.

Are all these "special" tickets available online od do you have to purchase them in Europe

The Dauer-Spezial and Europa Spezial are available online from the German Rail website. Some might only be available online. They are limited in quantity and should be purchased as soon as you can commit.

The Bayern-Tickets are unlimited in quantity. You can buy them online or from an automat at any German station (or at a ticket counter for €2 extra for personal service).

I have found the deep discount tickets to be very limited and require locking into a schedule very early. Certainly try, if it works, great. If not, consider getting a Germany Pass. You can get a second class 4 day twin pass(two traveling together) for $195 USD (37 euro a day) per person and buy extra days for $21 to $24. The Germany pass is good Munich-Salzburg, so a four day pass with the current itinerary works, plus you have all the flexibility you need. You can get a Germany-Swiss pass, but only First class and expensive, take Lee's suggestion for those legs involving Switzerland. If you add a day to your Germany pass, when in Bacharach it is good for the KD boats down the Rhine, then hopping the train back to Bacharach.

When I look at the DB Bahn website they show the price of the German Rail Pass 2nd class twin, 4 days at 270 EUR ($383 US)

Oh, I see you said per person, that adds up

When you go to the Bahn website to look for connections, there will be a column for "Savings fares" with the lowest price possible, if there is a Savings fare for that connection. It will also show a box to click for "Check availabilily". When you do that, it will bring up a new screen for you to input the age of the passengers, then it will take you back to the same "connections" page with "check availability" still shown.

Not to panic. Click "check availability" again and it will take you to a page with the available fare shown. If it does not offer the lowest (or an acceptable) fare, click on "change connection". That will take you back to the "connections" page, but under "Savings fares" it will show all of the lowest fares still available, and, instead of "check availability" the box will show "Purchase". By doing this, if you are flexible as to time, you can often find a fare available.

I notice also the the German Rail pass is good for Salzburg & Basel. Does that mean I could travel from Salzburg to Basel on one of the days

The problem with the German Rail Twin Pass, at $383, is that 2 of the days in Germany require just a €28 Bayern-Ticket. That's €56 (about $80 at todays exch. rate). So, you have over $300 to spend for fares for those other two days.

BTW, looking at the Bahn schedule, I see that there is little or no time advantage to using express trains from Dresden to Rothenburg. If you might as well us Länder tickets anyhow, it will cost you €56 (~$80) total, for up to five people, from Dresden to Rothenburg.

This leaves you with about $200 to spend on Berlin to Dresden. That's less than 2 oneway ICE fares from Berlin to Dresden.

Ron, Salzburg Hbf is only a couple of km from the German border, such a short distance that Austrian Rail just lets German Rail bring the trains in. Therefore, Salzburg is considered a "border" station, and German Rail passes are valid to Salzburg Hbf. So are Bayern-Tickets. Eurail tickets are not. They would only be valid to Freilassing, which is only a €2,10 fare to Salzburg.

Basel Bad Bahnhof, is located just over the German border within Basel, Switzerland, but historically, German Rail built that line up the Rhein to Basel Bad, and so Basel Bad Bhf has always been considered a border station. German Rail passes are valid into Basel Bad Bhf. I don't think they are valid as far as Basel SBB Bahnhof (the Swiss Rail station). Basel metro area is shared by France, Germany, and Switzerland. It's right on the border, so saying the pass is valid to Basel isn't saying much.

Pondering all this info & checking DB Bahn site for schedules. The fly in the ointment in all this is I had originally planned on the selectsaver railpass so I had already booked seat reservations on the Berlin-Dresdin & Munich-Salzburg routes assuming I was traveling 1st class. I figured 1st class would be better also because of the extra choice in seats. I couldn't reserve seats on the Salzburg-Lauterbrunnen route but I can on the Freilassing route although it says "The prices for reservation for the non German part of the journey vary, depending on the country."

The special fare from Interlaken to Bacharach is no longer available, it's 178 EUR now (for 2)

See what is says for Basel to Bacharach or Interlaken to Frankfurt or Mannheim or Mainz. Sometimes only a portion of the route is sold out.

BTW, for what date are you trying.

On that last leg (which would start at Lauterbrunnen) the date is 8/23 - Sunday
How will this affect me "The prices for reservation for the non German part of the journey vary, depending on the country." If I make a reservation & the train leaves Germany what happens to my seat reservation? I'm thinking of just losing the seat reservations I already made as these prices are much better than the selectsaver pass

For 8/23 I see two connections for €138, lv Interlaken at 8:01 and arriving at 14:26 and lvg Interlaken at 16:01 and arriving at 22:19 - not very favorable connections, but there are some.

As for reservations, I'm not quite sure as to what to do. I've never used these fares outside of Germany. Do they mean that they reserve the German leg for the price specified and don't reserve the Swiss segment, or are they going to make the reservation for Switzerland and charge you an undertermined amount. I really don't know. However, making additional reservations when you are over there can't be very expensive.

I also found connections from Basel to Bacharach for as low as €58 for two people for that date. It looks like the lower fares are used up for Interlaken to Basel on the date. A full fare ticket from Interlaken to Basel is CHF 55 (€36) pP.

From Lauterbrunnen to Mainz there is a 78 euro fare but I don't know what the fqre would be from Mainz to Bacharach but the connection would work

The fare from Mainz to Bacharach is a local (RNN) fare. According to the RNN website the adult fare is €7,60 pP.

You could also get an RNN group day ticket for €17,50. That would allow you unlimited travel between Mainz and Bacharach for the day, but no farther down the river, like to St. Goar. Or, a Rheinland-Pfalz-Ticket (€27) would give you unlimited travel between Mainz and Koblenz (and farther) for the day

The Rhine-Nahe-Nahverkehrsverbund website is at www.rnn.info.