Hannover to Thun by train.
 

Hi,
I am planning a trip with my family (2 adults,2 children) to Thun, Switzerland from Hannover, Germany, by train in September 2012.
I'd be grateful for any advice on the most economical way of doing this journey. Also any info regarding reservations and other important tips would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

Hi ray336,

You can get the schedules and fares from the German rail site,

www.bahn.de

You can get significant savings if you buy in advance; the advance fares go on sale about 90 days early, so do mark your calendar. You can check the fares by looking at a journey 90 days from today.

It looks like this is a fairly straight-forward journey of about seven hours with one change with advanced fares around 69 chf per person.

Have fun!

s

The saving fares for fix trains start at 78 Euro for two adults (e.g. the trains leaving 8.01 and 10.01 am). Fares for the kids depend on their age.

Ingo, I saw one fare (90 days from today) at 69 euro. I didn't note the departure time though.

s

for an adventure for kids you could also hop the overnight train from Frankfurt to Zurich - get a 4-person private compartment and save a night's hotel cost.

Anyway check out these fab IMo sites for oodles of great info on German trains - www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com - and yes even the CNL City Night Liner night trains have some attractive fares like swandav and ingo are on about. If you wait until Germany to buy your ticket you will pay lots lots more than the online advance fares, sold in limited numbers so much be booked far in advance to guarantee - but are not changeable nor refundable I believe so be sure of your date and time.

From Zurich there are lots of trains to Thun, via Bern.

Thanks for your helpful replies guys.
@ PalenQ, I had thought about getting an overnight train. I used to travel to Germany from the UK often when I was a kid. We would get a ferry from Harwich on the east coast of England to Hoek van Holland, then get the overnight train to Hannover. I can still remember the names of many of the stations the train would pass through. I used to love hearing the clanging of the bell disappearing into the distance as we passed level crossings and the screeching of the train brakes as we stopped at a station. The whole journey was always a huge adventure for me. I'd love my kids to experience the same feelings. Travelling by plane misses so much.

One more question, how necessary would it be to make seat reservations and what does it cost? I couldn't find any prices for reservations anywhere.

Seat reservations are recommended if you are a bunch of people and want to sit together. It's not that costly, 2.50 Euro per seat if you book it at the same time like the ticket (online).

Swandav, did you see that fare for one or two adults? Because saver deals for international travel usually start at 39 Euro. Anyway, fares that you get for September might be higher than for winter, you cannot tell that far in advance. Oh, and you typed "CHF", btw ;-)

Sorry, from coming Sunday on when Deutsche Bahn introduces new schedules and fares, it's going to be 4 Euro for a seat reservation. Rip-off!

Booked well in advance (up to 92 days allowed) on the German Rail site, you can get Europa-Spezial Schweiz fares as low as €39/adult for daytime trains. Children 14 and under ride free.

Again if your children are 14 or younger, the Europa-Spezial Schweiz fare for the CNL night train to Basel plus an IC train to Thun is a total of €218 for bunks for all four of you in a four-person couchette and includes tickets for the IC train from Basel to Thun.

For the sake of clarity, the CNL train to which I referred goes from Hannover to Basel. You don't need to go Frankfurt-Zurich.

I thought there could be a CNL right from Hannover to Switzerland but was too lazy to look up so gave Frankfurt as I was sure - but Hannover to Basel is better if going to Thun, obviously. I would buy the Swiss ticket just after getting to Basel if you could not buy it together on bahn.de along with the night train.

One more question, how necessary would it be to make seat reservations and what does it cost? I couldn't find any prices for reservations anywhere.>

Well it depends on what class you are in - in first class I have never in my memory of zillions of German train trips not found empty seats - in 2nd class it can be SRO

This is one reason I highly recommend first class travel not only in Germany but anywhere on trains - a much more relaxed type of travel and in Germany you can almost always be assured of getting an empty seat in first class just by hopping on - priceless for me - and also I usually have an empty seat next to or near me to put my pack on rather than having to fend for room in a 2nd class where the overhead luggage rack may already be rather full.

When you book your tickets on the German Rail site you will be given the option of paying a family seat reservation fee of €5.00 (total for all four of you) which will guarantee that all of you will be able to sit together on daytime trains.

In 2nd class be sure to pay the 5 euro fee Tim talks about if you want even to sit near each other - 2nd class cars seem always to be quite full IME

Thank you all so much for such informative replies. What a great site this is! All my questions have been answered for now but I'm sure I'll think of many more as the time gets nearer.
Have a great Christmas!
Ray.

IMO this is a fairly long journey and I would pay the extra money to go first class - in my decades of riding German trains first class is much much more relaxed and you will not IME have to worry about reservations as in my zillions of trips on German trains with a first class pass I cannot remember not seeing several empty unreserved seats - seats are bigger and you can get an aisle and window seat - one seat with a window and an aisle - not available in second class - couples can sit facing each other in these so-called isolated seats and have a nice table in between them. Bring your own food aboard and with the privacy of the isolated seats not bother strangers sitting next to you.