I would like to take the train from munich to garmisch-partenkirchen in april and back again a week later. The problem is I don't know what type of train ticket to buy. I looked on the german rail website and it looks like you have to have a specific time to board the train. I am worried about buying tickets for a specific time because what happens if you miss the time on the ticket. Is there a ticket you can buy with flexible times without a specific time? I don't want a rail pass because I don't plan on taking the train once I get to garmisch except to come back to munich. I figured a rail pass was not worth it. So I am kinda stuck as to what I should do. any advice is appreciated!!!!!

I'm not the experts several on this board are, but my advice is: Don't buy in advance. There will be plenty of seats. The cost is under 17 Euro one way--though if two to five of you are travelling together, you can ride for a total of 27 Euro in second class on regional trains, after 9am on a "Bayernkarte"--a Bavarian Day pass.

On weekends, a Schoenes Wochenende card for 35 Euro does not have the 9am restriction.

Here is the website on both. You can click the links for more info:
http://www.bahn.de/p/view/internatio..._tourist.shtml

As long as you aren´t buying special fare tickets but just the normal ones, they´re flexible.
But there´s no need to buy them ahead, you can just go the train station a few minutes earlier and buy them there (there´s no limit for passengers).

In fact, based on a search for a random day in March, there only RB (Regional Bahn, the slowest designation) trains so you can't buy the special fares that require advance purchase. There is absolutely no reason to by RB (or RE for that matter) tickets in advance. Simply go to the station and buy the ticket just before you leave. (There are even machines with an English option.) Also, these tickets are completely flexible as you can simply take any RB or RE (if there were any) train and even allow you to stop along the way for up to a couple of hours.

Enjoy your trip,
Paul

Hi O,

There is a train every hour on the :32.

Your ticket, whenever and wherever you buy it, will be good for all of the Regional trains that day, unless you buy a reduced fare ticket.

You aren't locked in to a particular train.