Traveling to Frankfurt, Berlin, Prague, Munich and Frankfurt

First price the trips you want to take as point to point. Rail passes are only cheaper than long legs (or lots of short ones). Adding a country bumps the price of a pass up quite a bit. Railpasses do offer some other benefits (but only on the days your pass is active) such as local transport or boat cruises.

I try to travel in short legs, so I don't need the high speed trains. You will want to use high speed trains, which will be the most expensive point to point tickets, for at least part of your itinerary .

I haven't purchased a pass in years because I decided it rarely saved money or hassle. Especially when you consider other options. There are others on the site that have more recent experience. Hopefully they will chime in.

Hey Craig,

I only bought a rail pass the first time I came to Europe, because I didn't really know where I wanted to go and the flexibility was attractive.

It has been my experience since then, however, that it is simpler to buy tickets individually. But rail passes are sometimes nice.

I did find a railpass on the Rick Steves site for 5 days in Germany and the Czech Republic (http://www.ricksteves.com/rail/germany.htm#germben)for $270 per person with the saver fare (2 or more people traveling together at all times). This seems somewhat reasonable.

But remember that often you must pay reservation fees even when you have a railpass, especially on faster inter-city trains. If you are willing to take snail trains that stop every 10 minutes, you can avoid paying this fee, which is usually something like 4-5 Euros per person per train trip. This can easily add $30-40 onto the sticker price of the pass.

I did a little checking on the Deutsche Bahn website (www.bahn.de) and the cheapest tickets were as follows (all prices for you and your daughter together):

Frankfurt flughafen - Berlin on 5/25 for 172 Eur

Berlin - Prague 5/28 for 78 Eur

Prague - Regensburg 5/30 for 88 Eur

Regensberg - Munich 5/31 for 37 Eur

Munich - Heidelberg 6/2 for 78 Eur

Heidelberg - Frankfurt 6/3 for 38 Eur

This is actually six days, so if you only consider the 5 most expensive legs, this makes 454 Euros total, which is right around $600 at current exchange rates. This is almost exactly what you might expect to pay with your railpass. I'm actually quite shocked that the individual tickets were as expensive. This is probably due to the shockingly high cost of taking the train from Frankfurt to Berlin. I have only used a rail pass in Germany, and I had no idea that buying tickets individually could be so expensive!!!

If I were you, I would just buy the tickets as you go through Germany and CZ.

Good luck and have fun!

Geoff

A Eurail pass does not cover local transport such as the U-Bahn or buses. It does cover the S-Bahn, which does run in the cities, but on far fewer lines than the U-Bahn. Prices vary since each U-Bahn system is operated by the city, but you're looking at approximately 5 euros for a whole day on the U-Bahn. Watch out for the student tickets on the U-Bahn, because in Berlin it's only good for students 14 and under (I got busted on that, and had to pay 40 euros... not fun) and I bet you could run into the same problem in other cities. And yes, this is true for ALL cities in Germany. ICE, IC, RE, RB, and S-Bahn are covered, U-Bahn and buses are not!

The RB and RE (regional train/regional express train) ARE covered by the Eurail. These are what you'll probably be taking if you want to do a "day trip" say, to Wurzburg or Mainz from Frankfurt.

If you haven't already, go to the Deutsche Bahn website (www.bahn.de, link for english at the top of the page) and check every leg of your itinerary. It will tell you how much a first or second class ticket will cost, and lay out variable itineraries. That way you can see what will be more economical, a pass or just buying tickets.

Eurail passes will not get you a discount on local transportation like the U-Bahn, however, they will sometimes get you discounts. Here is a list of Eurail benefits in Germany: http://www.eurail.com/eurail-pass-benefits-germany
The Czech Republic does not appear to offer any "bonuses" for the Eurail pass holder, but I just did a brief search so you might want to do a more extensive one to verify this.

If you book NOW at www.bahn.de, you can get discount fares for some of your routes.

1. Frankfurt airport-Berlin. The cheapest Dauer-Spezial fare (€29) is gone, but you may still be able to get the €49 fare. Since these tickets are non-refundable and non-exchangeable, be sure to allow a generous connection time (no less than two hours--three would be safer in case of a flight delay) between your scheduled arrival at the airport and the departure time of your train.

2. Berlin-Prague. The cheapest Europa-Spezial Tschechien fare (€29) is probably gone, but you should be able to get a €39 fare.

3. Prague-Regensburg. Standard fare of €43.90.

4. Buy a Bayern-Ticket (€28) when you arrive in Regensburg and use it to get to Munich. Up to five people can travel all day after 09:00 (anytime on weekends) anywhere in Bavaria on one ticket. Regional trains only. The ticket is also good for all forms of public transportation in Munich, including buses.

5. Munich to either Heidelberg or Frankfurt. The cheapest Dauer-Spezial tickets are probably gone, but you should be able to pay less than full fare.

Thanks for all the help. BTW, I have added a day to Prague and cut the night in Regenburg.

If you want to purchase a non-refundable ticket from Frankfurt - Berlin and be sure you'll make it, you can put your day in Frankfurt at the beginning of your trip and then leave early on 26May. You could also spend a few hours in Frankfurt and leave the afternoon/evening of 25May. There is also an overnight train from Frankfurt to Berlin, but I can't in good conscience recommend doing that the first day of your trip.