Train travel in Germany

"most inexpensive way to travel on the train system in Germany for six months"

Just checking... are you going to be there on an educational or employment visa? Otherwise, by law, you can only stay in the Schengen Zone for up to 90 days.

See my post lower on this page for "DB pass for regular commuters" for information on the Bahn Card.

We are going on an employment visa.

Lisa,

The question that Tom mentioned on the issue of the Schengen Visa was the first thought that came to mind when reading your Post.

Hopefully Lee will spot this post, as I'm sure he'll have some great suggestions on the rail system in Germany.

Cheers!

The dbahn page will give you the schedule...but Lee, or even Tim, will have the answer as to the least expensive way for you to travel.

It really depends on what kind of travel you will be doing. For relatively short distances, each of the German states, Länder (pl of Land), has an all day pass for regional trains. The Bayern-Ticket (Bavaria), for example, costs €28 and covers travel on regional trains throughout the state for an entire day (after 9 AM workdays) for up to five people, which would cover your family. German Rail also has two similar passes, the Quer-durchs-Land-Ticket for regional travel clear across Germany, regardless of state borders, for €49 (for you, €34 first person, 5 each additional), and the Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket for weekends, €37 for five people.

For longer trips where you might want to use express trains, there is the Dauer-Spezial tickets, which starts at €29 if you purchase far enough in advance, from any where in Germany to anywhere in Germany, as long as there is at least one express train (ICE/IC/EC) leg on the trip. Children 6-14 will need a ticket for the Dauer-Spezial.

There is also the SparPreis fare, for round trips, which gives the first person a 25% discount (50% if the trip includes a Saturday night stayover) and 50% off of that for additional travelers. Children under 15 are free with the SparPreis if included in the ticket.

If you are traveling with one end in Germany and the other end out of Germany, for, in most cases, a continuous connection, i.e. not on another train in another country, German Rail has specials, called Europe-Spezial Frankreich (France) or Schweiz (Switzerland) for €39 up. You can find these offers, as well as Dauer-Spezials and SparPreis, on the German Rail website.

As Lee said, for trips from Germany into France (and vice versa) you can benefit by booking Europa-Spezial Frankreich fares well in advance (up to 90 days allowed) on the DB site.

For any trips you take wholly within France you may be able to get discount fares on TGVs and certain other trains if you book well in advance (up to three months allowed) at www.tgv-europe.com. To keep the site in English and to avoid being bumped to the Rail Europe site which doesn't offer discount fares, choose Great Britain as your country of residence. There is no discount for advance booking for regional trains.

With the Europa-Spezial ticket, you can take multiple trains within Germany on the E-S ticket (as long as at least one is an express train) but usually the ticket only includes the first train that stops in a station outside Germany. I know of one exception to that rule (there might be more), and that is to Interlaken Ost. You can go by EC from Munich to Zürich and then by multiple SBB ICs to Interlaken, all on a single E-S ticket. Or, you can go to Basel SBB station (a station of Swiss Rail) and from there to Interlaken by Swiss Rail IC, all on an E-S ticket.

OTOH, if you go from Berlin to Prague, to get an E-S fare, you must specify Praha Holesovice station. That's where the train from Berlin terminates. If you put in Berlin to Praha hl.n., the route includes a leg by local transport in Prague, and the E-S fare will not be shown.