Train Travel through Germany help please

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Clive005

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Hi all myself wife and 12 year old son go on our dream holiday 6 weeks in Germany and a bit of time in Amsterdam, Paris, Switzerland.
I am keen to travel by train, We land in Frankfurt I haven't planed the itinerary completely as yet, but will be something like this with maybe a stop or two elsewhere. Frankfurt - Switzerland-Paris-Amsterdam- Hamburg-Berlin and finish in Munich to fly out at the 10-10-19
Any suggestions please if a Euro pass is the way to go or just book and pay for each journey.
and any other advice/tips on train travel in Germany or recommended destinations or train journeys


Thanks

Clive
 
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Would like to read the current answer to your question; 20 years ago it was worth the Eurail pass if you were travelling for more than the equivalent of about 3 days & going through a single-digit number of countries; because it was 1st class travel for half 2nd class prices.

But my info is 20 years old. All I know, now, is that the retail cost of train travel is similar to air travel. If you don’t get a solid answer here, try Googling and getting prices per leg; given what you’ve said about your intentions the rail-pass might work, but I’d be a bit surprised if it did (I’ve heard value-for-money isn’t what it wqs 20yrs ago).
 
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You'd really need to price it out fully.
I suspect on lots of relatively short journeys purchasing individual tickets may be cheaper.

A couple of the locations - eg Deutsche Bahn with its 3 month probe Bahn card, or the Swiss Travel Card also provide discounts, as can booking in advance on specific services, rather than flex tickets.
 
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Price up as many individual legs as you think you will need and then compare that to a pass. Recently we found a Swiss pass to be so much better value as it also gave free buses and some chairlifts and cable cars aswell as entrance into museums. I did a rough estimate at the time and the pass was going to save us $100’s but that was a bit longer stay. You might find individual legs are cheaper. We didn’t bother with a passin Germany as the small amount of rail travel was cheap enough individually
 
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My impression is the passes are really only value for money if you're going to be training somewhere every day. Once you activate them they run continuously so if you stay in the one town for a few days you've lost a good fraction of the pass.
 
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I am actually just finishing up a three week trip around Europe that I did with my 16 year old daughter and whilst we didn’t get to Germany we did London, Paris and Switzerland (among other places). I spent a bit of time looking at options including trains and planes to find the best value for us. I have to say I was really surprised at how expensive the Eurail pass was so we ended up with a combination of flights and train. The eurail pass can be great value if you fully plan your trip and know exactly where you want to go and when. As you would already know, you can select the number of days you want to travel in a given period (we ended up with 3 days in a 30 day period). Importantly you can catch as many trains as you like within a day and it only counts as one day of travel in your pass. We caught the TGV from Paris to Geneva which was one day of the pass although we had to pay more to reserve a seat. We then used our second day of the pass to catch a series of trains from Geneva to Villars for some skiing and the third day of the pass was returning back to Geneva. We caught a few flights with SwissAir and with some LCC’s (WowAir and RyanAir) and they were great - cheap, super easy, convenient and every flight was on time. For us, a few train trips were great to see some of the scenery but for any decent distance the flights were easier. In hindsight it would have been cheaper to just turn up to each train station and buy tickets for individual trips on the day but it was my first time in Europe catching trains so I preferred the peace of mind that came with having the eurail pass and knowing we could just turn up and get on the train.
 
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As @GlobalT said the convenience is the ability to turn up and go
We have used the eurorail passes quite a bit in the past
The longer trips e.g. Frankfurt to Warsaw we booked but going out on a train day trip that we didn't have to work out was really nice and easy
We could look at the weather...what was on in particular place and go.
It may work out a bit dearer (or not ) but it was peace of mind not having to grapple with languages and tickets
Example
Train from Frankfurt (I think) ended up being delayed by snow so we missed our Budapest connecting train and had to disembark at some small train station to wait 6 hours till the next train
Ticket person (singular) did not speak English but did speak German
A family that got off with us husband spoke Germany but not English wife spoke German and English
So ticket seller told family husband time of next train, husband told his wife his wife told us
Thank goodness we didn't have to try and work out tickets
 
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I am currently booking a series of first class DB ICE fares throughout Germany and have found that, if booking six to eight weeks in advance, individual non flexible tickets are cheaper than a pass if you are happy to travel off peak. Booking on the DB website is easy and in English.

The difference between first class and second class is only EUR10 on a lot of long routes so I am happy to pay extra to get a reserved seat away from the masses...
 
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Our go-to reference is always the Man in Seat 61 (seat61.com), as others have already recommended. It will have easy-to-follow info on virtually everything you will want to know.
My tip is to avoid overnight train trips through Germany if you can. They are tempting because it saves you a night of hotel accommodation but we wouldn't do it again having had a lousy trip from Amsterdam to Switzerland. German efficiency is great in some circumstances, but on trains not so much. Getting comfortable in the bunk beds was impossible because they were skinny and hard and after finally drifting off after a near sleepness night we got our breakfast call at 5.00am even though we weren't due at our destination until 8.30am. It was worse than any jet lag we've ever had!

Also, I check out the seat maps before seat selection to make sure I have a line-of-sight to the bag storage racks at the end of the carriages.

Generally though trains are a great and efficient way to get around Europe.
 
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. We caught the TGV from Paris to Geneva which was one day of the pass although we had to pay more to reserve a seat. We then used our second day of the pass to catch a series of trains from Geneva to Villars for some skiing and the third day of the pass was returning back to Geneva. We caught a few flights with SwissAir and with some LCC’s (WowAir and RyanAir) and they were great - cheap, super easy, convenient and every flight was on time. For us, a few train trips were great to see some of the scenery but for any decent distance the flights were easier. In hindsight it would have been cheaper to just turn up to each train station and buy tickets for individual trips on the day but it was my first time in Europe catching trains so I preferred the peace of mind that came with having the eurail pass and knowing we could just turn up and get on the train.[/QUOTE]

Thanks everyone for the great advice, I will do a check to compare prices but buying point to point is the way to go, The Paris Geneva trip sounds great GlobalT, are the Trains relatively comfortable and smooth, son gets a bit of car sickness. and would you recommend Geneva for a place to stay?? Also great to hear WowAir is a good alternative as saw the prices were great and we are thinking of hopping over to Iceland for a few days
 
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High speed train tracks need to be super smooth to avoid chucking carriages in all directions ... :) ... they’re about the same in terms of smoothness as a totally turbulence-free flight, except tend to be a fair bit quieter (and generally more spacious ... although I thought TGV and ICE services gave you a fair bit more room than Eurostar, I guess all Eurostar trips are relatively short).
I don’t really get the sense of speed in trains though, I guess it’s the same with jet aircraft; don’t know if this affects people prone to travel-sickness, feeling like they’re barely moving but looking out the window & the scenery is going past at 300km/h (there was one spot on an autobahn from Frankfurt to Cologne where the train tracks & road were both on viaducts and the slight curve in both meant you could look head-on at an ICE which only seemed like a few metres away while it hurtled toward you with a ~450km/h closing speed ... it was nearly as awesome as seeing a trio of fighter jets banking hard around a mountain beside the mountain road you’re driving on :)).
 
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I've done quite a bit of travelling in Germany in recent times and find www.bahn.de a wonderful resource.

If you want a quick point to point trip, you can book the fast trains in advance much the same as an air ticket; specific seat and a specific train. Use it or lose it. Book up to 180 days in advance. Price increases closer to the time. First class can be very affordable if purchased well in advance. Good for trips on arrival and departure days when getting to/from the airport is the priority. The trains whisk along at a cracking speed; sometime so fast you don't know where you are. But of a pain if you're a bit of a geography and train buff like me!

One tier down are the regional trains that are slower but still clip along. They usually run at least hourly. There is a national day ticket that covers all regional trains. And a cheaper weekend version. Cheaper per person if two or more travelling together.

Additional to the national ticket are various "lander" tickets that enable travel on regional trains and most public transport within the designated area. Some wonderful trips can be done at quite reasonable cost.

Travelling by regional train is good. However, some of the older stations don't have ramps or lifts. It can be a bit hard for older or less able passengers carrying luggage.

As someone else has also suggested; the "man in seat 61" is also a good resource.
 
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If you know your travel dates and can book when the tickets become available point to point will usually be cheapest as the advanced non refundable tickets can be very good value. We travelled Vienna to Venice recently and was €60 each for first class.
As mentioned above first class is often only a small amount extra than standard and well worth the premium for a little more space and quieter carriage.
 
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hmm... Long distance trains in Germany.
I've done a Berlin-Rotterdam trip, but it was back in 2007. Flew QF5 SIN-FRA, spent a few hours around the airport and Frankfurt central station, then flew over to TXL for a few days in Berlin. Train up to Rotterdam. Few days there, a few more days with a Dutch friend, another few days in AMS before flying on to the US.

I booked the Berlin-Rotterdam trip online before departing from the deutsche bahn website. I had looked at the train and bus euro pass options, but they weren't worth it.
Due to costs and what was available, I had actually booked Berlin-Amsterdam, then had to connect to a local train to get to Rotterdam. However the train was delayed and I would have ended up missing the connection in AMS. Looking at the timetable that was on the train, I noticed I would be able to get a different connection by changing trains at the border station where they change engines between Deutsche Bahn and Nederlandse Spoorwegen. Train crews were happy to let me get a different train to what was on my ticket.
 
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Given the age of your son, you absolutely must visit Homepage | Miniatur Wunderland Hamburg
The worlds biggest model railway with an amazing functioning airport too!
I’ve been 4 times, it’s great for adults too!
Allow a few hours for this!
I will also second that booking 1st class tickets on DBahn on the high speed ICE trains early will cost not much more than 2nd class. These are inflexible tickets though. Their APP is pretty useful too.
 
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bertflyer said:
Given the age of your son, you absolutely must visit Homepage | Miniatur Wunderland Hamburg
The worlds biggest model railway with an amazing functioning airport too!
I’ve been 4 times, it’s great for adults too!
Allow a few hours for this!
I will also second that booking 1st class tickets on DBahn on the high speed ICE trains early will cost not much more than 2nd class. These are inflexible tickets though. Their APP is pretty useful too.
Click to expand...

Miniatur Wunderland is epic - for any age! Book tickets for opening time - it gets packed quickly.
 
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Clive005 said:
recommended destinations
Click to expand...

Germany is a truly wonderful place. Some of my recommendations include Rothenburg (stay overnight), Garmisch-Partenkirchen (some great side trips here, including over the hill to Austria and up the Zugspitze), the Rhine (especially the bit from Bingen [easy train trip from Frankfurt] to St Goar), the Black Forest (stay in Freiburg - a wonderful town), Neuschwanstein, Lake Constance, and, of course, Berlin, Munich, and Hamburg (don't worry with Cologne, Frankfurt. Dusseldorf).
The trains are amazing - I will share in a later post one particular trip that we did that was totes amazes. However, we found that Germany is VERY car friendly and a good experience. Trains are perfect for the major cities, however the true Germany lies outside the cities. While cities across the globe become homogenised, the mountains, passes, rivers, villages, breweries, beerhalls. forests, and lakes are unique to Deutschland. I would prioritise your travel to these areas over the cities. Enjoy!
 
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