TravelGuides

(TGA) - Travel - My husband and I will be visiting our daughter this summer in Germany. She will be staying at either Vilseck or Grafenwoehr military installation. We would like to visit many sites in southern Germany, as well as Prague, Vienna, and possibly northern Italy. We plan to stay in Europe for approximately three weeks. I am not sure how to plan the train travel. We will be flying into Munich and would like to stay as close to the base as we can for a couple of nights. I noticed from an earlier post that there are local and regional trains in the area. Is it easy to figure out how to book these trains once we are there? How will we know which trains are local and which are regional? I had thought we would buy a Eurail pass to visit Prague and Vienna.
---- Reply -----
Train schedules are readily available in all stations and they will include both local and most long distance trains. It is quite easy to buy tickets at the station and/or out of a dispensing machine for most runs. (Train times are always listed using the logical 24 hour system so I suggest you start getting used to it). If you are going to travel by train for about 21 days it will likely pay you to get a Eurail pass for the entire period and those countries you intend to go to, and of course that can only be purchased at this end, not over there.
The German rail system has a website which is also in English (gee, does AMTRAK have theirs in German? ;-)
All of that said if your desire is to really see the beautiful southern German countryside with perhaps Prague, Austria, Italy thrown in (which I'd suggest paring down to maybe Prague and Austria) then I personally would far rather rent a small car (preferably a diesel because of fuel prices) so that I can go where I want and when I want plus stopping along the way. Roads over there are very well marked, even small highways and secondary roads. As a start for price comparisons take a look at AutoEurope.com website (I have no connection to them) and do not forget to factor rail tickets into that. (It can really pay to shop car rental prices there and I never hesitate to use a wholesaler).
Hope this helps as a starting point.
---- Reply -----
>We would like to visit many sites in southern Germany, as well as Prague, Vienna, and possibly northern Italy. We plan to stay in Europe for approximately three weeks. I am not sure how to plan the train travel.
Trains in Germany: www.bahn.de
Book long distance trips in advance to get low fares, and get local train tickets on the day of travel.
>We will be flying into Munich and would like to stay as close to the base as we can for a couple of nights.
Well, Neither Vilseck nor Grafenwöhr are good bases for further touring - they are quite in the middle of nowhere.
>I noticed from an earlier post that there are local and regional trains in the area. Is it easy to figure out how to book these trains once we are there?
You don't "book" anything for local trains. The tickets are not bound to a certain train. You go an ask for a ticket from A to B, pay and get it.
> How will we know which trains are local and which are regional?
These are two words for the same thing.
>I had thought we would buy a Eurail pass to visit Prague and Vienna.
What, just for two trips? doesn't make sense. Eurail passes very rarely make sense these days.
---- Reply -----