German Rail Twin Passes - how do they work?
 

I'm thinking of a German itinerary this summer (among other possibilities), for my daughter and me. One possibility is the German Rail Twin Pass.

But suppose I want to make a daytrip somewhere, and she prefers to stay put that day. What are the rules about using the twin pass in that case? Would it work if I took both passes with me?

It's been six year since I travelled in Germany on a Twin Pass, but as I remember it, you have to travel together at all times.

A Twin Pass is only legitimate if both people are travellingtogether.Further, the German Rail Twin Pass, like ALL rail passes, is not economical for 'day trips' unless you intend to cover a long distance in that day. For a short day trip, you'd be better off buying point-to-point.

The twin pass will pay for itself just with two travel days I have in mind. So the daytrip would be a bonus. But given the daytrip I am considering is fairly pricey, being able to use it for the third day would be very useful. However, it seems the solution is to make sure we both take the daytrip.

Hi W,

>it seems the solution is to make sure we both take the daytrip.

Yup.

((I))

According to the Rick Steves' website, under Railpasses, How Railpasses Work, "Part of the group can use the pass while others stay in town". However, the same day of the pass cannot be used by the rest of the group at the same time to go somewhere else.

I might be required for someone to sign the pass and be with the group at all times; that prevents selling the remaining days to another group.

>>The twin pass will pay for itself just with two travel days I have in mind.

Don't be so sure. There are a lot of specials on the German Rail that could make those two travel days much less than you imagined.

It is a little hard to advise you since you didn't say for what routes you were going to use those days, but remember that, if two of you are going on a round trip with a Sat. night stay, the SparPreis fare is 3/8 of the full RT fare.

Also, right now DB is running a promotion called Winter-Spezial. You can go from any station in Germany to any other one on this special fare for as low as €29 (max €59). DB runs these specials periodically throughout the year. There was a similar Sommer-Spezial last summer as well as a Herbst-Spezial last fall.

Since you don't need to purchase your rail pass until just a few weeks before leaving, I would wait and see what DB has to offer at the time.

It's true we can wait, but here is the situation right now. This trip is for August. Without getting into the non-German part of the trip, which doesn't involve rail, this is how the part with the German rail pass is supposed to work, and you can see if you think it's a good idea. It's also the fact that we have a little more flexibility with times that appeals to me, but I'd consider giving that up for sufficient incentive.

Day 1 where we start the rail pass:
We're arriving in Cologne airport in the evening, but I can't be sure when. We're going to Hamburg that same night.

Day 2:
We're going to Copenhagen. We'll use the rail pass to the German border, and use tickets for the Copenhagen part. We're then going to spend 4 nights in Copenhagen and we're flying to Berlin on EasyJet.

Days 7-11 in Berlin:
For a daytrip, we'll use the pass to go to Dresden and back to Berlin.
Day 12:
We'll use the pass to go to Cologne.


I definitely don't want to take slower trains to save money. I can get the twin rail pass through the Canadian branch of Rail Europe for $406 CAD total, which is 267 Euros.

The Cologne to Hamburg journey I can't book ahead because I'm not sure of the times. The full fare price for an adult and a 16-year-old for the fast train (just over 4 hours) seems to be 144 Euros for the two of us.

On another thread, we established that the Berlin-Cologne part of the journey would cost 147.50 Euros in 2007 for fast trains, if we use the trick of getting advance discount roundtrip tickets.

Looking at Berlin to Dresden for a daytrip, the cheapest I've found, with a 25% discount, for my daughter and me, for 2007 dates (obviously I can't look ahead to August yet) is 76.50 Euros.

So, I'm thinking that 144 + 147.50 + 76.50 Euros will definitely be more than the price of $406 CAD (268 Euros).

However, I already know you are very good at finding cheaper prices in the German rail system, so I would definitely like to hear more suggestions.