Train travel in Germany

The pass is officially a "Eurail" pass. . . . . ¶ If you are only traveling in Germany, it would be better to get a German Rail Pass (it's available for less, and is available for 2nd class; Eurail is only first class). . . . . ¶ Whether you should get a rail pass requires a lot of careful analysis, including your routes, but in general, there is no cost benefit to a rail pass. There are a lot of promotional (savings) fares and regional passes available in Germany. Since 2000 (7 trips) I have carefully compared rail passes to these reduced price tickets and have never found a rail pass to pay, for me. . . . . ¶ Rail passes do not work for buses. Regional passes (Länder tickets) are valid for all transport in the metro districts and for regional buses. . . . . ¶ Savings fares are promotional fares starting at €29 per person. They must include at least one leg of an express train (ICE/IC/EC) but can also include regional trains (but not buses) to get you to/from a station served by express trains (Vor u. Nachlauf). They must be purchased at least three days in advance and usually sell out long before that.

Listen to Lee......Do you know your exact train trips (legs) yet?

jerry, to add to Eileen's comment, Lee is the expert on travel in Germany, so I can't add much to his advice. However, a few comments. ¶ Before deciding on whether to buy a Railpass for both of you, it would be a good idea to add up the approximate cost of P-P tickets for EACH of your trips. Compare that to the cost of a Railpass, keeping in mind that Railpasses do NOT include the cost of reservations which are compulsory on some trains (usually the fast trains). You'll have to pay those "out of pocket". ¶ I don't believe Bahn card for seniors are available for tourists (Lee, any comments?). NO, you can't buy the Railpasses at Frankfurt Airport AFAIK, they can only be purchased here. You might try entering your trip details into * www.railsaver.com * to see what combination of Passes and tickets the site recommends (cut & paste the weblink inside the asterisks). Good luck

Very few trains in Germany (with the exception of the ICE sprinters to Berlin) require reservation (surcharges). . . . . ¶ Even for seniors, I don't think the Bahn card is such a good deal. You have to pay a lot up front and then it is just a discount off your tickets. Further, it is an abonnement (subscription). Unless you know how to cancel it, it keeps rebilling every year. . . . . ¶ I think you can puchase rail passes in Europe at certain stations (eg, Frankfurt Flughafen Fernbahnhof) at European prices. . . . . ¶ As for RailSaver, they're like RailEurope, they only compare your railpass to the highest price point to point fares, and often they don't include small stations.

Things might have changed. As recently as this year, I saw the statement on the Bahn website that German Rail passes, as well as possibly Eurail passes, could be purchased with proper ID at major train stations in Germany, albeit at somewhat higher prices, I no longer see that offer, but they do offer to sell the German Rail passes online.

Note, from the Eurail website, "Not all Eurail Passes are for sale in Europe. Many larger train stations throughout Europe sell Eurail Passes, like the stations with a Eurail Aid Office." . . . . ¶ The Eurail website has a list of passes available in Europe on the FAQ page.

Jerry, you probably don't want any type of railpass, but if you give us the trips you're planning, we can give you much better advice...

I haven't bought a Eurail (or other) pass in years. I travel short legs which are always cheaper than using up a day of your pass. I usually travel in Germany with either Laender or Schoenes Wochende passes which are roughly 35 Euros for a full day of hop on/hop off travel in the area and good for up to five people traveling together.

Brad, I also find myself traveling in shorter "jumps" these days, using mostly point-point and Länder tickets. Howerver, most people don't know enough about German geography to do this. They only know about a few well known cities, like Munich or Berlin, or a few venues from guidebooks, the Mittelrhein or the castles, so their trips are long multi-Land leaps, covering too many of the Länder to economically use Länder-Tickets. For them there is just weekends. . . . ¶ Most people don't know where the German Länder are. I cre8ed this map to help, www.germantravel-info.com/places.htm. In addition, here, www.germantravel-info.com/regional.htm is a table of the various Länder-Tickets and their prices.