Rail passes

A rail pass will not be your best option. Use a combination of advance purchase tickets from the German Rail (Bahn) website, Bayern-Tickets, and p2p local tickets. For instance, with advance purchase, you can get an Europa-Spezial ticket using a EuroCity train for as low as €39. Use Lindau as a stopover so that you go around the eastern edge of Bodensee. Dachau is a suburb of Munich. You can take the S-Bahn out to Dachau station and a bus to the Memorial, round trip, using a Munich XXL Tageskarte (day pass) for €7,50. For local travel in Bavaria, use a Bayern-Ticket (€22 Single). That will take you to the castles, including the bus to Hohenschwangau. A rail pass is not valid on the bus. Use another Bayern-ticket to go to Nürnberg and either stay the night there or use the same Bayern-Ticket that day to go to Rothenburg, which is nearby, and stay there overnight. Go from Rothenburg to Bacharach (or St. Goar) via Würzburg with an advance purchase Savings Fare ticket (from €29, part way by express train) or Quer-durchs-Land- or Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket (€40 or €42 respectively, by regional trains).

The days that a rail pass was a no brainer are long gone. You have have to do your homework and no one can do it for you. You have to price each leg of your trip using one of the train sites and price out the rail pass included the supplemental fees for reservations when required. You can quickly do it to determine if it is worth doing it in greater detail. Take the daily of price of your rail pass and roughly compare to the daily price for each day of train travel.

It has been about 10 years since I found it economically advisable to use a railpass. With online advance purchase options, there is no way passes can save you money.

Thank you all for your assistance. You have validated my thinking that one doesn't really need a railpass unless seeing 3 or more countries.. I have one (actually many) more question(s). How far in advance do i need to buy these tickets for a discount? We are going to be hiking in Switzerland before I go to Germany,and I am hoping I will be able to do the rest of the trip, instead of just going to Baden-Baden to recover from 11 days of hiking.. Thank you all for your support Diana

The daily passes (Schönes-Wochenende- & Quer-durchs-Land-Ticket, Bayern-Ticket, and MVV Tageskarte) can be bought at a ticket automat just before travel for the same price. They don't sell out. For the Europa-Spezial-Ticket (Zuerich to Munich), they can be purchased 3-92 days before travel, but the ticket prices are tiered. When the cheapest ones sell out, the next ones cost more. Purchase as soon as you can commit to get the best price.

Do I get the Europa-Spiezel ticket from the DB Bahn? Thanks again, Diana

You don't need to go as far as Baden-Baden (nice as it is and we liked it very much) to recover. Just east of Basel 7 minutes is Rheinfelden and its Salt Spa. Half way between Basel and Baden-Baden is Freiburg im Breisgau with a super spa. I'll be at both of those next month.

Diana: the cheap adv.-purchase tickets at DB are train-specific. There are penalties for schedule changes, on top of which you'll have to buy a more expensive ticket. Miss a train, and you are out the price of the ticket. So be very sure about your plans when you buy these tickets. I have used such tickets often for certain routes with good success, in combination with the Länder Ticket daypasses (like the Bayern ticket) and the QDL ticket, and the savings are very good. But you should be aware of... 1.) ...the weekday after-9-am restriction on these; have a careful look at the train schedules at the DB itinerary page to make sure there are schedules that will work well for you. 2.) ...the Bayern ticket (and other Länder Tickets), the QDL ticket, and the Schönes Wochenende restriction to use of the local and regional trains; so how to find these trains? At the DB itinerary page, specify "only local transport" under "means of transport." Do this and you'll see that a trip between Munich and Nuremberg takes 2-3 hours; the high-speed trains you can ride with a German railpass take only about one hour. Only you know your time restrictions, so check schedules for all routes to know if these tickets are doable. For flexibility to travel at any hour AND use the fastest trains - and to have just one ticket in your hand - the German railpass is your best friend - but it will cost you more.

(cont.) Also: once you're in Bacharach, you will want to see the rest of the Middle Rhine area, I imagine. You'll need a local daypass - the Rheinland-Pfalz ticket (21€) for getting to Braubach for Marksburg Castle, St. Goar (Rheinfels Castle,) Boppard, Linz, and other Rhine villages. You can use the same daypass for the Mosel River (Burg Eltz, Cochem, Trier.) Also, add to your list a ticket from Bacharach to FRA: 10.50€ for a regular ticket. If using the R-P ticket on the same day, you only need a 4.10€ ticket from Mainz to FRA on top; the R-P ticket is good to Mainz.

Thanks to all of you for such helpful ideas!! Now all I need to do is make a further commitment to travel...... Anyone flown from Frankfurt to Stockholm? On which airline? After that I have to get on a train or bus to go to Orebro where my friend lives and someone will be collecting me at the station.. .Then I have to reverse that trip from Orebro to Arlanda for my Monday, 10:15 AM flight. I figure I need to go Sunday evening, spend the night close by, then get to the airport EARLY. Any ideas?? Thank you all again!!
diana