I've been trying to work on our itinerary and budget, and have been researching train tables and prices on the DB site. Many trips have prices, but a lot do not. Is there somewhere else I can be checking to find what certain legs of our trip might cost us?
TIA
DB site only shows prices for trains which originates or end or go through Germany. For other trains you could find prices under their nation rail company.
What's your itinerary? When are you going?
The German Bahn.com site is great for initial planning for traveling by train in Europe, but other than buying German train tickets (or perhaps those of a few other countries), it's best to go to the country-specific websites to find prices. Are you going somewhere else besides Germany? Even for German trains, sometimes there are no fares too early before departure.
Yes, German Rail doesn't show prices for routes starting and ending outside Germany, even if they pass through Germany. If they start in Germany and go without a change of train to another country, they will probably have a price. Similarly if they start outside of Germany and travel without a change into Germany, they will probably have a price. But often connections that include a change to a train of another country will not show prices. Some countries allow the Bahn to quote prices of trains with changes outside Germany.
If your trips are entirely within Germany, and a price is not shown, maybe the trip is too short for prices to be shown. German Rail does not include prices for tickets that are sold by smaller tariff districts, like Frankfurt to Bacharach. To get these prices, you need to find out the relevant tariff district and go to their website. Many of us on this forum can help you with that.
Also, DB does not show prices for regional trains that operate within local transit districts.
Example: DB will not show a price for a regional train from Mainz to Frankfurt Hbf because the price is governed by the RMV (Rhein-Main Verkehrsverbund), and DB cannot sell tickets on-line for that. You have to go to the RMV website to get the price. https://www.rmv.de/auskunft/bin/jp/query.exe/en
Try this site:>https://loco2.com
If you will include your itinerary we can tell which are the national railways (and some private ones too) for each of the counties you will be in.
I thought I had posted my itinerary last night.....now I'm wondering if I posted ti elsewhere and have now totally confused someone :P
Anyway, here it is. First city listed on each date is the city we will be staying overnight in.....
June 19 - Fly out
June 20 - Arrive in Basel, Switzerland
June 21 - Kandern, Germany (where my son and his wife are working for 2 years)
June 22 - Kandern - leave for Boppard (the four of us traveling together), stop in Worms on way
June 23 - Boppard
June 24 - Boppard
June 25 - Boppard to Heemstede (possible stops in Cologne and Utrecht)
June 26th - Heemstede - Amsterdam/ I AMsterdam Card
June 27th - Heemstede - Amsterdam
June 28th - Heemstede - Haarlam/I AMsterdam Card
June 29th - Brugge - Haarlem to Delft (day in Delft) to Brugge
June 30 - Brugge - Brugge/Ghent/Antwerp
July 1 - Brugge - Brugge/Ghent/Antwerp
July 2 - Brugge to London
July 3 - London
July 4 - London
July 5 - London to Strasbourg or Kandern
July 6 - Kandern (my son will have a car for the rest of our stay)
July 7 - Kandern
July 8 - Kandern
July 9 - Kandern
July 10 - Kandern
July 11 - Home
Go to www.seat61.com for train enlightenment throughout Europe. Your train to London will probably be the Eurostar, www.eurostar.com. Tickets for the Eurostar go on sale 6 months in advance of your travel dates and get much more expensive the closer it gets to the travel date so you don't have any time to waste to get the best prices.
travelnewbie16:
I thought I had posted my itinerary last night.....now I'm wondering if I posted ti elsewhere and have now totally confused someone :P
Well, unless you are also "halfdozmom" then yes, I am a little confused!
They are one and the same, per previous post.
Perhaps your kids who live in Kandern can suggest best way from Basel Europort to Kandern. There are buses virtually continuous to Basel SBB station. That station is within the RVL transit district, and there are direct buses to Kandern, but I don't know the frequency offhand. Otherwise could be a tram to Basel Badischer Bahnhof and a regional train to another town to get a bus to Kandern.
If you want to travel to Boppard with a stop in Worms, you can do it reasonably with a Quer durchs Land ticket. 4 adults is 68 EUR and travel on regional trains. You still have to take a bus from Kandern to get to the train station, but if you buy a group 3-zone ticket for 12 EUR, you can leave at 8:20 on a bus to Haltingen and get the regional train to Offenburg departing at 8:44. Before 9:00, it will still be traveling within 3 zones of Kandern, so then the QdL ticket takes over.
Boppard to Heemstede can be done with scheduled stopovers at Cologne and Utrecht with advance purchase, train-specific tickets (buy now), either the slow way through Venlo for 80 EUR for the 4 of you, or 160 EUR using IC and ICE trains.
Fly back from London to Basel, 4 flights a day from Heathrow for 79 GBP pp on BA.
One of the reasons you are not finding fares is that most of your travel is outside Germany - in Netherlands, Belgium, etc. I suggest you find the national rail line sites for those countries. I'm sure someone here has them.
Basel-Kandern: One reason for your difficulty finding fares and maybe all connections is that you are traveling through two or three counties. Basel airport (Europort) is actually in Basel in a special corridor connected the city but surrounded by France, and I don't see any transport directly across the river to Germany except in Basel, Switzerland, so you will need to go by bus into Basel, then by train and bus to Kandern (it looks like Kandern doesn't have a rail station). There is a special transit district, Triregio, made up of three transit districts in France, Switzerland, and Germany. They do issue a Tageskerte for unlimited travel in the three districts for a day, but it's 18€/P. I think you can do better. Unfortunately they only seem to sell single trip (Einzeltickets) tickets for downtown Basel to Kandern, but not from the airport.
The Basel transit district, BVB, sells a ticket from the airport (zone 13 to zone 10, 2 zones) for 4,70 CHF per adult. They will probably take Euro but at an unfavorable rate and give change in CHF. That would cover the #50 bus to the SBB Bahnhof (zone 10) and a train or tram (#2) to the Basel Badischer Bahnhof (a German Rail station inside Basel, Switzerland, also zone 10). From there you can take a train to Lörrach and a bus to Kandern with an RVL (Regional Verkehrsverbund Lörrach) ticket for 4,-€/adult.
Use the Bahn website to look up Kandern to Boppard. If you put in a stopover in stopover in Worms, but don't specify "local transport only", it will give you a 5h10 connection going by bus to Basil Badischer Bahnhof (4,-€/adult), then by ICE to Mannheim and the rest of the way (Worms, Mainz, Boppard) by regional trains. I see fares for this connection as low as 59,80€ for two people. Since the trains from Mannheim to Boppard are all regional trains, you won't be held to specific trains from Mannheim on. You can stay in Worms as long as you like before going on to Boppard.
First, I’m sorry I didn’t make it clear, but we are being picked up and delivered to the airport the beginning and end of the trip. So I mostly need help from 6/22 - 7/6.
Secondly, travelnewbie16 is an old account. I have no idea why it shows up every now and then. When I wrote the post is said I was logged in as halfdozmom, my newer and current email.
I’ve tried to delete the old account but haven’t figured out how.....anyone know?? I’m getting tired of hearing who are you?” And “I’m confused” 😜 TIA
You just took all the fun out of my finding your way and fares from the airport to Kandern. Oh, well.
The bus to Kandern (No. 55) runs from the centre of Basel (Claraplatz) and stops at Badischer Bahnhof. Not from Lörrach It runs once per hour Monday to Saturday only. You pay the driver (in €).
Timetable here: http://rvl-online.de/download/4388/
For the bus from Basel airport into the city (No. 50), you have to buy a ticket from the ticket machine before getting on the bus. It takes Franks or Euros (both coins only), or cards.
But I am sure your sun and his wife are familiar with how to get from Basel airport to Kandern
There is a rail line to Kandern, but it is run by a preservation society and only runs on Sundays in the summer ☺.
Netherland Railways website is here: https://www.ns.nl/en
SNCB (Belgian Railways): http://www.belgianrail.be/en/Default.aspx
They will also sell tickets Brugge to London.
London to Strasbourg is via Paris. I recommend: https://loco2.com/ or https://www.trainline.eu/
London to Kandern would require London to Basel, via Paris, then bus to Kandern.
P.S. - DRAT - just read airport to Kandern not needed!
Sorry about not needing the info from Basel 😬 but you all have given me a wealth of info to continue our planning. Thank you!!
So are son and daughter-in-law accompanying you to London, or are they returning to Kandern at some point?
We are traveling together the whole trip 😊
Some more clarification needed. You show this.
June 28th - Heemstede - Haarlam/I AMsterdam Card
June 29th - Brugge - Haarlem to Delft (day in Delft) to Brugge
Haarlem is 3 miles from Heemstede. Are you really changing lodgings for that day, or just doing day trip to and back?
Heemstede to Delft is a 40 minute direct train every 30 minutes. Cost is 9.30 EUR pp if you have an OVchipkaart. Printed tickets cost a little more to cover the cost of the embedded chip in the paper tickets to open the platform gates to get on and off the platforms.
Day trip in to Haarlem. The first city listed is the city we are staying in for lodging.
