Train travel from Baden Baden to Rothenburg obT

Perhaps I can simplify this for you. If you want to experience the baths, and you're flying in through Frankfurt... go instead to Wiesbaden or Bad Homburg. Both are easy to reach from the airport, and if you ask me, they are far more interesting towns than Baden-Baden. Going to Rothenburg from there would be much easier.

Thanks for the quick reply, Tom. I have heard this suggestion before regarding Weisbaden, and it is indeed one worth considering. However, we have settled on the towns we are visiting and the sequence with which we will visit them (which as in any case is open to debate). Our hotels are booked in each town of our trip. We knew the Baden Baden to Rothenburg obT connection would be the most complicated and time consuming travel that we will face while we are in Germany. At this point, I'm just wanting to make sure we find the best option for this leg of the trip, such that it is.

Considering that a Baden-Württemberg ticket for two is €25, and a Bayern-Ticket for 2 (up to 5, actually) is €29, you're better off if you can snag one of the €49 Savings Fare tickets. And that allows you to use faster express trains as well. There would be no point in taking taxis. There's a cheap bus from Baden-Baden center to the station, and the walk from Rothenburg Bahnhof to town is short (and a vehicle closed pedestrian zone most of the way, anyhow). Just fuel for a compact car for Baden-Baden to Rothenburg is going to be over €30.

One of the fastest connections from Baden-Baden to Rothenburg departs B-B at 8:01 and takes 5hr 7min via Heilbronn, but rather than going to Wuerzburg and coming into Rothenburg from the east through Steinach, the route consist of a couple of buses from the west, from Schrozberg. Schrozberg is still in Baden-Wuerttemberg, so you could use a Ba-Wu-Ticket (€25 for 2 people) by train to Schrotzberg and on by bus to the border with Bavaria at Leuzendorf. Pay for the 18 min bus ride from Leuzendorf to Rothenburg separately; it won't cost much, certainly less than the Bayern-Ticket. This would probably be your cheapest option and almost as fast as the purchase ahead Savings fare. BTW, don't be tempted to take the 5hr 7 min connection that leaves B-B at 9:33. That one uses an "RFB" (Rufbus). A Rufbus is an on-call transport on a lightly used route that only runs when someone calls to order it. If you don't speak German, that could be an awkward call. Of course, you could work your way to Lauda, then find rail transportation via Wuerzburg, but it wouldn't be as fast or as cheap.

Thank you, James and Lee, for your replies. I have planned for us to use the bus from the Oos station to the center of Baden Baden (is this bus fare included with that day's Baden-Württemberg ticket?), and it was also my expectation that we could easily walk from the Rothenburg obT station to our hotel. I agree that 49 euros is a very good deal for this travel. And revisiting the DB website this evening, it looks like that fare is available for the day we will need to travel from Baden Baden to Rothenburg obT. Just to clarify, in purchasing this Savings Fare online now, am I reserving these specific trains and times? Each of the other legs of our trip (other than our initial Frankfurt airport to Heidelberg at the beginning) will fit nicely into either a land ticket (one in Baden-Württemberg, and one in Bavaria) or the Shones Wochenende ticket (Bamberg to Frankfurt). My understanding is that if I purchase these S-bahn/regional train combination tickets online, I am only locked into the specific day that we intend to travel, but not necessarily the specific times that may be selected with the tickets. I do understand that with land and weekend tickets, no reservation is required or in most cases even possible.
I just want to be sure I am clear with regard to the requirements of the different types of tickets that I might choose to purchase in advance. Thanks again.

You seem to have a pretty good handle on the tickets. The €49 Saving Fare tickets are train specific with respect to the designated express trains (ICE/IC/EC). However, according to a feature called "Vor- und Nachlauf", you are allowed to use any trains of the Nahverkehr (regional trains) to get to and from the specified express trains as long as you start on the first day and finish before 10:00 AM the second day. And, Länder tickets purchased online are valid for any regional trains that day, not just the train used to purchase the ticket, but the ticket will be dated and only valid that day. There is really no need to purchase the ticket online, because they don't sell out or go up in price. They are always available from a ticket automat at the station the day of travel, and then you are not even committed to that day until you buy it. BTW, the Länder ticket will have a line on the ticket where one person in the party must print (Blockschrift) their name, and they must be with the ticket for it to be valid.

Lee, thank you very much for your clear and quite helpful advice. I will proceed to grab the 49 euro Savings Fare ticket while it is available. Our planned travel from Baden Baden to Rothenburg obT is in the middle of our eight day trip, so there is very little chance that this travel day or its timing will change. The only other travel where I anticipate using an ICE or IC train is our initial ride to Heidelberg from the Frankfurt airport. I am hesitant to reserve in advance for a specific train departure time, in case one of our planes has a delayed arrival (my wife is coming from the US, and I will be arriving from the Middle East a few hours apart). I would expect we can purchase those tickets to Heidelberg without issue upon our arrival in Frankfurt. For the S-bahn/regional train travel on the other legs of our trip, the only reason I would consider purchasing in advance is to avoid possible issues with the automats, since we don't expect to be traveling with a chip and pin credit card. However, if we have appropriate cash (small bills and coins), I understand that this ought not be a problem. Or we can just purchase tickets from a live person and pay a couple extra euros if necessary. We'll plan to purchase those tickets on the days we travel, as you and others suggest. Thanks again to your superb and timely advice.

i wouldn't buy a ticket in advance to Heidelburg. 5 of my last 7 flights to Europe were hours late - the last one was a whole day late. Frankfurt to Heidelburg is not far - IC or ICE trains aren't necessry.

The standard fare for an ICE from the Fernbahnhof to Mannheim with the S-Bahn to Heidelberg is €25. The lowest Savings Fare is €19. Hardly worth the risk for the difference in price. Or, you can also do it by regional trains for €18, but again, considering jet lag, hardly worth the hour's difference.