Strasbourg to Mainz

If you don't mind the extra time, you can use regional trains and a Baden-Württemberg-Ticket (€28 for all five of you) to Karlsruhe and a Rheinland-Pfalz-Ticket (another €28) from Karlsruhe to Mainz. (You'll also need local tickets from Strasbourg to Offenburg, Appenweier, first station in Germany). Strasbourg to Appenweier is €27 for all five of you, €5,40 pP.

As for the Europe-Spezial Frankreich ticket, if you decide on it, you should purchase it as soon as you can commit to a train. There are limited numbers of those tickets available on a "tiered" price schedule. When the €145 deal sells out, the price is higher.

Finally, it gives you the option to print out the ticket at home. That would be your best option. You can print it right there on you home printer using a pdf file they send you by email. You purchase the tickets with your credit card, which you MUST have with you on the train for identification. The name on the ticket MUST match the name on the credit card.

They charge a little more (~$5) for mailing the ticket, and it's slower.

Thank you, Lee. That is a little more than half the other fare. Do these need to be purchased in advance?

These tickets, called Länder-Tickets, do not require advance purchase. They do not sell out. They are always available for sale from an automat in the station (€2 more from the counter). You can also purchase them online from the Bahn Store and have them mailed, but that website is only in German. Are you going to be in Germany at all before the trip to Mainz? (Like do you fly into Frankfurt?) I don't know if there are German Rail automats in the station in Strasbourg (It's unlikely).

Worst case, if you can't find a way to purchase them earlier, use local tickets to go from Strasbourg to Appenweier (looks like most connections from Strasbourg to Mainz have a change of trains in Appenweier). The connection I saw showed 22 minutes in Appenweier; that's plenty of time to find an automat and get your Baden-Württemberg-Ticket.

Any Nahverkehr (regional) automat in Appenweier should sell them. The regional automat (blue/white) will only sell Baden-Württemberg tickets. A red/white/blue touch-screen, Bahn automat will sell both Baden-Württemberg and Rheinland-Pfalz tickets.

Also worst case, it looks like you have a 20 min change in Karlsruhe. That should be enough time to get your RL-P-Ticket.

If you can get your Baden-Württemberg-Ticket in advance, you only need local tickets from Strasbourg to Kehl (@ €3,60 pP), the first station in Germany, from which you can use your Ba-Wü-Ticket.

Länder-Tickets are hop on/off tickets for regional trains in that state, valid all day long, after 9 AM workdays. You could, for instance, take a break in Karlsruhe and ride the streetcar (also included with the ticket) out to the Schloss. Or you could go to Mannheim and then to Heidelberg and back before going to Mainz.

Warning? I just looked at the Bahn station map for Appenweier. It doesn't show a ticket automat. I can't believe it. I've never seen a German Rail station, even ones that look more like a bus stop, that didn't have a way to buy tickets. Appenweier appears to be unmanned, so there has to be an automat, but it doesn't show where. It's probably on the platform or at the station entrance.

BTW, some connections on the Bahn show train changes in Wissembourg or Saarbrücken. Those trains go through a lot of France, where the Länder-Tickets are not valid. Avoid those connections.

If you have any concerns about where/how to get your Länder-Tickets. Take the train from Strasbourg to Offenburg. It's a much larger station than Appenweier and will be a full service station, with a ticket counter and Bahn, touch-screen automats.

Most connections from Karlsruhe to Mainz go along the Rhein to Mannheim or Lugwigshafen. These routes are included on the Baden-Württembourg-Ticket, so it you have a change of trains in Mannheim, you can wait until you get there to get your Rheinland-Pfalz-Ticket.

Great info, Lee. We will be in Germany on the first leg of our trip so I can purchase the Lander tickets when we are in Berlin. Thank you again.