Going to Germany in March and need to know if anyone has used the ferien train ticket. This ticket allows you unlimited travel in one region of Germany for an extremely low price. Please let me know your experience using it, and is it as good as it sounds? My wife and I don't care if we stay in one region.

Hi! I have no personal experience of the FerienTicket, but I can tell you what the German rail site &lt;www.bahn.de&gt; says about it. <BR>Firtly it is only possible to purchase a FT in conjunction with a long-distance ticket issued by German Rail. This ticket must be valid for the whole period you are travelling on the FT. The FT itself costs very little, as you said, and may be used only for seven consecutive days at a time; you can renew for a further seven days. It can only be used after 9am on workdays, but any time on other days. There is no restriction on the amount of use, provided you stay in your region. The country has been divided into 53 regions and defined by means of a map on this site. Each region is therefore quite small in area. I would say this is something of a disadvantage, because you might be able for example to visit Cologne, but not Bonn, or the Moselle but not the Rhine. If you wanted to tell me the names of some of the towns you will be staying at I could look the corresponding region up for you and say where the boundaries

Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Rheinland-Pfalz, and Niedersachsen, four of the most visited states in Germany, have 1-day regional passes for local trains that cover up to 5 people on weekdays during non-peak periods (9-4 and 6 p.m - 2 a.m.) They cost only about $15 - $20 for the whole group. The Schoenes Wochenende Ticket does the same thing on Sat and Sun without the off-peak restrictions and covers the entire country. What region do you plan to visit? There's no cheaper way to go. Buy these tickets at a window or at a ticket machine within the state of travel.

Thank you very much for the information. I am planning on staying in Bavaria and seeing whatever I can in 8 days. <BR> <BR>Tom Peacock

Tom: In Bavaria, it's called the "Bayern Ticket" and it costs 40 DM. For both this and the Sat/Sun ticket, be sure you use only the local trains designated by RB, RE, SE, or SB on the train schedules. If you get a schedule printed out from one of the information counters in the train stations, make sure you tell them you're using one of these tickets so that they schedule you with the right connections on the right trains. <BR> <BR>Have a fun, cheap trip!