Bavaria Rail experts - Please Help with Ininerary!
 

This the Bavaria portion of a longer trip:

Day 1 - Rothenburg
Day 2 - Rothenburg to Hohenschwangau by Romantic Road bus
Day 3 - see Castles and train to Munich
Day 4 - Munich
Day 5 - Munich and 1/2 day trip to Dachau

BUT I just found out that to get the discount on the Romantic Road bus, you now have to use a day on your rail pass. I wasn't thrilled with the bus idea to begin with, and this is really making me reconsider the bus idea (we are not going to drive on this trip).

Sounds easy enough to replace the bus with the train, but it seems to create so many complications and alternatives. Any help with any of the following questions is greatly appreciated!

- Is there somewhere on the rail lines between Rothenburg and Fussen that would make a nice stop for a few hours?

- I can get a train leaving Rothenburg at 9:05 (so I can use the Bayern ticket) which will get me to Fussen at 2:00. Will this give me enough time to see the Castles on this day? There is a train that leaves and arrives an hour earlier, which I would take and use a rail pass day if it makes the difference.

- If I did this, we could leave the following morning straight for Dachau (using another Bayern ticket), stash our things in a Locker in Munich on the way, and return to Munich that night.

- OR - I looked into the train from Reutte to Garmish, which sounds very scenic. Would it be worth traveling this route to Munich from Fussen (I understand a bus trip is required from Fussen to Reutte), maybe stoping in Garmish on the way?

- Should we reconsider where we are staying near Ludwig's castles? We are currently staying at the Rom.Pension Albrecht right near the castles, would Fussen be better, considering we will be coming and going by train?

- any magic you can work on this itinerary is greatly appreciated!!

who told you you needed to use a day on your pass to get the discount? My understanding that if 100% covered need to use day but not with discounts. Are you sure you got the info from an authoritative source? We're talking of both Eurailpasses and German passes. (For a definitive answer to your question call the European Rail Hotline (800-441-2387), a free service that expertly answers all such railpass or any European rail question.

I read about this at the Euraid web site. They stated that this is a new change for this year.

I will call the hotline, just to make sure though.

Sorry, that is the Euraide (eith an E) website, see:

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homep...e/roman008.htm

I tried the hotline, but I couldn't get through - I am in Canada.

The 2005 Eurail Travelers Guide that you get with the pass says that if it's a discount you don't use a day of travel and then it lists the Romantic Road bus as one of the discounts just below it. But i read recently that Europabus, who ran the bus, is selling it, or really that DB - the German Railways who owned part of the bus is divesting of it - thus if new operators took over the change may have been made after the 2005 Eurail Travelers Guide came out - so i'm not disputing euraide because they should know - yet i'm not sure that's the case. The bus web site www.romantic-road-coach.de will let you make a reservation for the bus (min 3 days in advance) and gives the 60% off price so the discount is still granted but the German conditions i can't see whether it says anything about using a day of travel. It seems if this changed it would be Eurail not the bus company who made the change as the company is still getting 60% - Eurail has more to gain by making you use a day of travel. So i don't know! Bus phone: 69 79 030 or 69 79 03 050 - maybe they will give definitive answer. If you find out that euraide was not correct, remote possibility it seems, please post here. Thanks.

Hmm. I can't call the Bus right now - not at my home phone - but I did a bit more searching.

Rick Steves reports this change on his website:
www.ricksteves.com/rail/railnews.htm - 15k

But I don't see mention of it anywhere on the Eurail site, or at the website for the bus itself. I am going to post on this topic separately to see if anyone else knows something about this!

sorry, delete the -15k if you want to view Rick Steves note.

From Rick Steves:
Romantic Road Bus Discount

Published Eurail policy is that you do not have to use a travel day on a flexipass railpass to get discounts such as 60% off the Romantic Road Bus in Germany. In recent weeks, some of our readers have complained that they have been charged a travel day to get the discount. Our suppliers assure us that the policy has not changed and that, "This is definitely a training issue and has already been addresssed." Therefore, if you have any flexipass railpass that includes Germany, you should still be able to get the 60 percent discount on the Romantic Road Bus without using up a travel day. For more on the bus route and cost, see www.euraide.de/ricksteves, www.deutsche-touring.com, or www.romantischestrasse.de.

Thanks Steve,

Yes I did notice that Rick Steves has updated the info on his website. Good news for bus riders. In the end though, I have decided to take the train.

We will go from Rothenburg to Dachau, spend the afternoon, then the night in Munich. We'll then see Ludwig's castles as a day trip from Munich.