Germany rail - railpass or not
 

I've been reading a lot about the rail system in Germany in hopes that I wouldn't need to post and ask, however I thought I better check before we purchase. My travel partner and I are going with a fairly "seat of our pants" approach to our 11 day Germany trip, but the one definite is that we will be traveling by train from Hamburg to Munich. We likely will daytrip to at least 2 of these 4: Salzburg, Dachau, Rothenburg and Fussen (the castles). With this quasi-itinerary, it looks like the 4 day twin railpass would be our best option - is that right? If it matters, one of us is under 26 and one is over.

Thanks!

Try putting your itinerary here:
www.railsaver.com

ditto

Check on the http://www.bahn.de, the German railways website. Click on the "International Guests" somewhere on the top bar and then do your search there. You will find info about the Lander tickets, which allow you to travel on the local trains at a fare between 23-25 euros, depending on the land you are in. This ticket is for between 2 and 5 persons travelling together, i.e. you pay 25 euros for up to 5 persons in total, not for each person. Dachau, Rothenburg, Fussen and Salzburg are covered by the Bayern (Bavaria) Ticket. Salzburg is considered as a border city and is included in the 25 euros fare. The trains not covered by this ticket are the fast ones, IC, EC and ICE.
The Lander tickets are valid for unlimited travel from 9am until 3am the following day, and full day during weekends.

Unless you're really in a hurry to get from one point to another...

since you're going Hamburg to Munich and don't want to take days on segmenting on local or regional trains the 2nd class fare is 115 euros per person (from www.bahn.de site mentioned above - that's almost up to the $150 per person you'd pay for a 4-day out of one-month pass - plus day trips to Salzburg and one other place would be bonuses - and no having to get on regional trains, etc. - any train anytime without reservation you can use the pass. Check www.bahn.de for exact fares in Germany in euros - www.railsaver.com is good but i believe gives fares from RailEurope in $ that often don't match what you'd pay in Germany. RailEurope in US does charge $15 fee but some of their agents don't - i always recommend BETS (800-441-2387) for their expertise and that they don't charge the $15 fee. Go to their web site: www.budgeteuropetravel.com for current German rail prices and info on using German trains - the home page has a link to the www.bahn.de site's English language schedule and fare page and tips on using this fine site - you should get a saverpass - there is a youth pass but it's about or is the same as a Saverpass p.p. comes out. If you weren't going Hamburg-Munich then i'd say do the Bavarian Lander pass route, but that one long journey that you probably want to do on Germany's crack ICE high-speed trains warrants the pass as far as i can see.

For example Hamburg-Munich is six hours on the ICE high-speed trains - i don't know how much longer it would take on regional trains but no doubt much much longer - and the fare on www.bahn.de is 115 euro in 2nd class or about $141 - almost paying for the $150 four-day in one month German Rail Twin Pass.