Train vs. Car (Western Germany)

1. Depends. Check out the cost of train travel. You can get to Trier or Mainz and back with a 26€ Rheinland-Pfalz-Ticket. It's an all day, on/off pass for 2 people on regional trains in the state of Rheinland-Pfalz. 26€ is probably less than the cost of gas and parking. Travel to Mainz is pretty much a straight shot by train - 1½-2 hrs with one change. Trier might take a little longer than by car since you have to go down to Saarbrücken and take another train to Trier. However, sitting in a train, watching the scenery is less stressful than watching the road. 2. Driving in Germany is not difficult. Most roads use the international road signs, with which you are already very familiar, right? Other road advisories are in German. Are you good at it?

At viamichelin.com you can use the 'Route' feature between 2 or more locations and the results will show an estimated cost to drive that supposedly factors in gas and tolls. I just did Kaiserslautern to Trier (cost €14.75) and Kaiserslautern to Mainz (cost €9.74). It may not be 100% accurate but should give an idea. However, it does not factor in the cost of parking, or possibly time lost trying to find parking. Not sure that would be an issue; maybe someone else knows. EDIT: See Nigel's comment below re: his recent experience regarding the ViaMichelin driving cost estimates. I was hoping someone would come to this thread and add a reality check based on actual experience.

Lee - I think we can manage road sign shapes, but we are not so "great" at German. Thanks very much for the suggestion of the Rheinland-Pfalz Ticket. I had not heard of that before. Rose - Thanks for doing that search! I had tried to calculate that stuff on my own but I will trust that website over what I did! We are leaving our plans pretty open, which has caused me stress when I realized I didn't want point to point tickets for the long distance trips. I started worrying about the other trips more than I had been. However, from what both of you said, I think less days on the rail pass are necessary and we can find reasonably priced options for the other side/day trips we want to make. Thanks!

I'm fairly neutral in the "car vs train" argument. I would suggest that your long distance trips would be easier by rail, but I doubt rail passes will save you any money. In Germany, although the cheapest tickets are no longer available to you, you can still save some money by buying the tickets up to a few days in advanced. I doubt a rail pass will be cheaper. And adding the Benelux option is useless. Here's why- most of your rail options to Brussels from Kaiserslautern are on either a special intercity German train that originates in Frankfurt, or a Thalys (multinational high speed rail company) that originates in Cologne. Thalys severely limits the number of seats they alot to passholders, requires you to purchase advanced reservations and pay a hefty supplement. Mainz and Trier are very convenient by car. If you can recognize a big blue and white "P" sign and follow arrows, you can find parking, and it generally isn't expensive. Like €2 for a few hours. PS- And if you decide to travel anywhere else within Belgium, train tickets are relatively cheap. Far less than the daily cost of a rail pass.

Tom - Thanks for your reply. This brings up an interesting question in my head. I had a friend here in the States who lived in Germany for several years. His suggestion was to just buy tickets as we needed them without the rail pass also. We did this last year with Amtrak in the US for a trip through the Pacific Northwest and so that is what we were going to do. Then I was researching approximate costs of tickets just to get an idea of how much "transportation" money we would need. The websites then started really pushing the Rail Pass option. So I somehow thought it was better. So, my the question this raises for me is: Are the ticket websites just pushing the passes even if they aren't the best option? Because I actually read all about the pass on advice websites also. So it is very tempting to just think oh, we need a rail pass. And if you come from Nebraska where we are about 100 years behind in public transporation, you don't really know any better. Anyway, rant over. Thanks again to everyone for the advice. Thoughts to think about in the short time before our trip!

"I had a friend... His suggestion was to just buy tickets as we needed them without the rail pass also." Buying long-distance tickets at the counter as you go is very expensive in Germany, maybe more expensive than the railpasses. Not good advice. I just did a search at the DB website to give you an example. September 7, one adult between Brussels and Kaiserslautern, Regular Fare, 125€ if you buy that day at the counter. But the advance-sale savings fare is 39€. Two adults, 78€. Regular fare for two adults, 250€. I can think of a lot of ways to spend 172€, and I'm sure you can too. So maybe you want to reconsider that railpass in the first place. Advance-sale savings fares are available for domestic destinations and many foreign ones too. You commit to travel on a certain day at a certain time, and you get the deal. Tickets are sold no earlier than 92 days in advance, and prices go up as tickets sell. DB page These tickets don't mean you shouldn't use the Rheinland-Pfalz ticket and other "Länder ticket" daypasses for shorter trips and daytrips. The deals are substantial. R-P ticket Bavaria ticket Traditional railpasses are convenient but very pricey compared with the savings fare + regional daypass strategy.

"So, my the question this raises for me is: Are the ticket websites just pushing the passes even if they aren't the best option?" If a middleman can take a cut, of course they're going to recommend a pass. That's why you need to get your information directly from the source, the Deutsche Bahn website. It's user-friendly enough that there's no reason to use any other website. Deutsche Bahn's main incentive is to maximize rider numbers- they get more subsidies from the German government the more the system is used, so they'll will offer all sorts of deals to intice as many bodies into the seats as possible. Any other ticket seller just wants as much of your money as they can get.

For Benelux to Kaiserslautern, you can get advance purchase Europa-Spezial tickets online from the Bahn website for as low as 39€/pers. For Kaiserslautern to Munich, you can get Savings Fare tickets online from the Bahn for as low as 29€ for one person, 49€ for two. These tickets must be on a route that includes at least on train of the Bahn (ICE, IC, or EC) and the ticket is only valid on that train for that date. Tickets go on sale at the lowest price 92 days prior to the travel date, and prices go up as the lowest priced tickets sell out.

If you still want to drive you would be ahead of the game to study the German road signs, and the unwritten speed limits. For example, when you enter a town in Nebraska you will have a speed limit sign like 30 or 35 when you get to the neighborhood, right? And one back up to the highway speed when you leave? Not in Germany. You have to know that the town name sign means 50 kph - right then, no taking your foot off the gas as you get there - there are often unattended photo radar units just after the town limits which issue you big tickets in the main. When you pass the town name sign with a red line diagonally across it the speed limit is the National speed limit for they type of road. You do need to know those. Also, take the Eurail pass price and divide by the number of days you will actually be using a pass day. That's your price per day. Compare that with car rental, including all the running costs, and with cheap advance tickets available to understand your choices. Price regardless, it is still your choice. Regarding the Via Michelin estimates, they are very good at time but woefully out on costs. I have been using them all over Italy and France and Germany and Austria the last little while and I find them low on toll costs and very high on running costs. Fuel does cost between $9.50 and $10.00 a US gallon but the little diesel cars go for 600 miles (mine does) on a small tank.