Can someone please explain to me the difference between a train ticket and a train pass.
Here's my situation:
2 adults traveling by train from Copenhagen to Amsterdam, stay 5 days in Amsterdam, then train from Amsterdam to Berlin.
I visited several websites and I got more confused. It says I could save more if we pass a pass since three countries are involved, but when I put the information, it is more expensive.
Can someone suggest a simplier way to buy the tickets?
Although the trip is still in November, I cannot finalize my plane tickets from the US to Europe and return as I have to make sure the schedules are okay.
Please help!
Thanks in advance.
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
Booking point-to-point tickets well in advance at www.bahn.de to take advantage of online discount fares will be far cheaper than a pass.
Go to the site and click on the drop-down menu for English. Enter your November travel date for Koebenhavn-Amsterdam and add a second passenger. After you get summary timetables, look at the Savings fare column on the right-hand side and click on "Check availability" for the direct CNL night train that departs at 18:53. You should be able to get bunks in a four-person couchette for €59/person and beds in a two-person sleeper for €99/person.
You can't book an Amsterdam-Berlin day train more than 90 days in advance. Do a dummy booking for a date within 90 days and you should be able to see a discount fare of €39/person for the direct IC train that departs at 06:58.
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
I suggest that you lock in your plane tickets right away. Your train ticket issues will be easily resolved even though it doesn't look like it now.
Essentially, the easiest way to buy train tickets for multiple countries is to buy a multi-country railpass. Done. Couldn't have been easier. However, as you are finding out, it can be quite a bit more expensive than P2P tickets. To prove this, more intensive homework is required on the train railsites. This is where is gets a bit tougher. To make it tougher, neither the best railsite in the business, www.bahn.de, won't give you a P2P fare on many international train runs. Strangely, neither does www.rejseplanen.dk, the Danish train/bus website. That being said, Raileurope shows a restricted train fare of 120Euro for a journey from Copenhagen to Amsterdam. The real fare bought at a Copenhagen train station is more likely closer to 90Euro.
For the journey from Amsterdam to Berlin, I can see a 99.40Euro standard fare on www.bahn.de, the German railsite. I also see special fares as low as 39Euro. Note, however, that you can't yet see most November bookings on the site. I only see bookings until the end of October. Tim is correct about the 90-day out rule. Your pass cannot beat these train fares if this is all of the train travel that you will actually do.
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23626 posts
Go ahead and book your flight. Your train schedule is nearly irrelevant. At that time of year you will have no problem with any ticket up and including the day of travel. Without doing the ptop check, I doubt if a pass would save any money. Too little train travel.
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
Just for clarification, the bahn.de site does allow booking more than 90 days in advance for CNL night trains. You can book the Koebenhavn-Amsterdam night train today for any date in November.
If you want to take day trains from Koebenhavn to Amsterdam, do two bookings 90 days in advance at www.bahn.de. Book Koebenhavn-Osnabrueck departing at 07:42 (change in Hamburg) to get a Savings fare as low as €39. The standard fare is €116.20. Book Osnabrueck-Amsterdam departing at 15:50 to get a Savings fare of €19. The standard fare is €41.90.