Rail pass versus point-point ticket

First, RailEurope's fares are inflated and their timetables are incomplete, particularly for routes requiring connections. Second, if you can commit to specific dates and times well in advance, you often can get discount fares by booking on a country's national rail site that are even cheaper than standard point-to-point tickets. Third, Laender tickets, like the Bayern-Ticket for Bavaria, are very cheap and don't have to be booked in advance. Here are some examples:

Paris-Bacharach Europa-Spezial Frankreich fare of 39€ booked at www.bahn.de.

Bacharach-Rothenburg ob der Tauber Dauer-Spezial fare of 29€ booked at www.bahn.de.

Use a Bayern-Ticket for Munich-Salzburg. 27€ total for up to five people traveling together all day on regional trains after 09:00 on weekdays and anytime on weekends.

Munich-Venice Europa-Spezial Italien fare of 43€ booked at www.bahn.de. Spar-night savings fares are also available on the direct night train.

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Venice-Florence walk up standard fare of 32.30€ (Amica fare of 25.80€). Florence-Rome walk up fare of 36.10€ (Amica fare of 28.90€).

Rothenburg-Munich bus ticket: 43€.

hi Tim - thanks a lot for your reply. i have a couple of questions
1. Is there a difference between the train seats in trains booked through railEurope and those booked through the country's site (e.g. www.bahn.de)? I see that Paris-Bacharach journey takes 9:42 hrs if booked through www.bahn.de. However the one through railEurope takes 5 hrs.
2. On www.bahn.de the fare for Paris-Bacharach shows up as "Unknown tariff abroad". Can I see the fare without actually buying the ticket?

Saby, you must be doing something that I'm not doing. When I go to Rail Europe's site I only find one trip a day shown between Paris and Bacharach. That trip takes 5 hr 12 min (5:09-10:21 PM). On the Bahn site, I find no fewer than 11 trips between 9 AM and 6 PM, including the one shown on RE's site.

The only trip shown on RE's site has a fare of $187 in 2nd cl. The Bahn's price for the same trains is €98, less than $160. Further, with advance booking, the non-refundable fare is as low as €39. For the day I looked at, a week from today, the €39 fare was sold out, but there were still €59 ($94) fares for the same trains for which that RE wants $187.

Thanks Lee - i must have been doing somethin wrong - i now see the fares you mention (though the lowest i see for my dates in May is 69 euros). I have the following questions though

1. Getting the lowest rates for point to point means that I need to book in advance and travel on specific train. This does lower my flexibility somewhat when compared to a pass. if I buy a pass can i only travel on trains that show up raileurope website?

2. in most of my stay I am planning to stay a little bit outside the city (15-20 mins) in order to save on the hotel rates and commute by train to the city. Do you know approximately how much would such journeys cost me each way?

"if I buy a pass can i only travel on trains that show up raileurope website?"

• Normally you can take any train you want (except Eurostar and very special trains like that), but for many trains you have to pay a supplement, a reservation.

"Getting the lowest rates for point to point means that I need to book in advance and travel on specific train. This does lower my flexibility somewhat when compared to a pass.

Yeah, you do lose flexibility. Is that a problem? Do you worry about flexibility when you book a flight? That is always on a spcific plane.

"Flexibility" might be over-rated. I often plan my travel days with a full schedule of things to see and transportation to catch. If I vary from that schedule I might miss out on something I had planned.

"if I buy a pass can i only travel on trains that show up raileurope website?"

RailEurope's website shows only a small fraction of the trains in Europe (note, to Bacharach I found 11 DIRECT connections during part of the day; they only showed one), just the trains for which they sell tickets. With a pass you can travel on a lot more trains than RE shows. Get your schedules from the Bahn, http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en.

"I am planning to stay a little bit outside the city (15-20 mins) in order to save on the hotel rates and commute by train to the city. Do you know approximately how much would such journeys cost me each way?"

That depends on what city and how far out. Example, I always stay in Poing instead of Munich (not touristy, good price and they don't speak English). It takes about 25 min by S-Bahn to Marienplatz. In Munich, if I stayed in town, I would still want an inner zone all day transit pass for €5. By staying in Poing, I need an XXL all day pass for €6,70. So staying farther out costs an additional €1,70, RT. Last October I stayed outside Nürnberg and it cost me €1,70 one way.