How exciting. Our trip date is finally getting close! I went to the bahn.de site & did a 'pretend run' & here is what I found for our dates & cities:

1. May 1, 2010 - Muchen Hbf to Wien Westbahnhof depart 9:27, arrive 13:40; 0 changes, RJ, 2nd class E49, 1st class E59, seat reservation E3.50.

2. May 12, 2010 - Berlin Hbf to Hamburg Hbf depart 10:17, arrive 11:57, 0 changes, ICE, 2nd class E39, 1st class E49, seat reservation E2.50.

Here are my questions:
1. We are staying at the Munich Courtyard City Center Hotel (Schwanthalerstrasse 37, 80336, close to the main train station), & the Hotel Austria in Vienna (Fleischmarkt 20, A-1011; in the old town section). Are those the correct & closest train stations for us to use? The website offered several selections for each city. ??

2. We are staying at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Berlin (Karl-liebknecht-strasse 3, 10178 in former East Berlin) & the Madison Hotel in Hamburg (Schaarsteinweg 4, 20459; believe it is the old town section not far from the harbor). Are those the correct & closest train stations for us to use? Again, the website offered several selections for each city?

3. What is the difference between 1st & 2nd class for the traveler, besides price of course?

4. Seat selection -
A. Obviously, hubby & I want to sit together. How do I get that done, or is it just done automatically when both tickets are ordered on the same online order?

B. One selection is "compartment". Would that be a private compartment for the two of us, or shared? There's no extra charge.

5. Is it better to register online & login, or just reserve without registering, or does it matter?

6. Is it better to print the tickets or have them mailed?

7. Not regarding online reservations, but very important to us. Do you know if there are any or many stairs for these cities' train stations - Munich, Vienna, Berlin, Hamburg? It is difficult for us to haul luggage up & down stairs.

Thank you so much in advance, Julie

Sorry, I forgot to ask about luggage storage on the trains. Is there room above the seats - does it differ based on 1st & 2nd class. We prefer our luggage above our seats rather than at the end of train cars - don't have to worry about the luggage walking off the train without us! Will have a backpack & 24" or 26" wheelie, per person.

Thanks again, Julie

>>>1. We are staying at the Munich Courtyard City Center Hotel (Schwanthalerstrasse 37, 80336, close to the main train station), & the Hotel Austria in Vienna (Fleischmarkt 20, A-1011; in the old town section). Are those the correct & closest train stations for us to use? The website offered several selections for each city. ??

München Hauptbahnhof will be best for you and you have no other chance than Wien-Westbahnhof. From there, you have to take the U-Bahn to Schwedenplatz.

>>>2. We are staying at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Berlin (Karl-liebknecht-strasse 3, 10178 in former East Berlin) & the Madison Hotel in Hamburg (Schaarsteinweg 4, 20459; believe it is the old town section not far from the harbor). Are those the correct & closest train stations for us to use? Again, the website offered several selections for each city?

In Hamburg, Hauptbahnhof will be closest, in Berlin Alexanderplatz (take the S-Bahn from Hauptbahnhof).

>>>3. What is the difference between 1st & 2nd class for the traveler, besides price of course?

First class has about 25% more space, is much quieter and a little more elegant. You have outlets at each seat and service at the seat.

>>4. Seat selection -
A. Obviously, hubby & I want to sit together. How do I get that done, or is it just done automatically when both tickets are ordered on the same online order?

It is done automatically.

B. One selection is "compartment". Would that be a private compartment for the two of us, or shared? There's no extra charge.

Compartments have six seats. I would always take "Großraumwagen".

5. Is it better to register online & login, or just reserve without registering, or does it matter?

When you register, you do not need to enter all your personal data again each time when you buy a ticket.

6. Is it better to print the tickets or have them mailed?

Better print.

7. Not regarding online reservations, but very important to us. Do you know if there are any or many stairs for these cities' train stations - Munich, Vienna, Berlin, Hamburg? It is difficult for us to haul luggage up & down stairs.

The train stations have escalators and elevators.

Sorry, I forgot to ask about luggage storage on the trains. Is there room above the seats - does it differ based on 1st & 2nd class. We prefer our luggage above our seats rather than at the end of train cars - don't have to worry about the luggage walking off the train without us! Will have a backpack & 24" or 26" wheelie, per person.

In first class, you have more space. Sorry, I do not know what 24" and 26" are. Better give information in cm.

The stations you listed may not be the closest to where you are staying, but they are the ones you need to use. They are the main stations in each city.

The seating in 2nd class is 2+2. The seating in 1st class is 2+1. The seats are slightly bigger. IMO, 2nd class is very comfortable and there is plenty of leg room.

I don't know about the seating in a compartment.

Booking without registering is fine.

Printing your own tickets works very well.

If it is difficult for you to haul luggage up and down stairs, then it also will be difficult to haul it on and off trains. Don't go any bigger than 24" (61 cm) wheelies. 22" (56.9 cm) would be better! Even if a 24" bag will fit overhead--and I don't know for sure if it will--you still have to be able to put it up there. A 26" bag will certainly need to go in a rack at the end of the car.

Those fares you see are discount prices. Discount tickets are extremely limited in number and if you want them you have to book well in advance. If you see them in the train information this does not necessarily mean they are still available, you won't know before actually checking. They go on sale 89 days in advance and on the main routes they can be gone within hours. Disadvantage: With these tickets you have to take that one particular train connection or the ticket is invalid. No changes, no refund.

hi julieagain,

sorry I can't help with the train details, but i noticed that you are staying at the hotel austria - lucky you! we liked it a lot and were very comfortable there.

we did however find it difficult to find when we arrived. the best way is as follows: on exiting the schwedenplatz u-bahn, walk straight ahead to the first corner and turn right [away from the river] into Laurenzenberg. walk up there [literally, it's a bit of a climb, but not much] to the junction with Fleischmarkt and turn right. cross the road, and the little street where the hotel is situated is on your left. it should take about 5 mins, max.

they have a small kettle in the room with cups and saucers so you can make tea or coffee so be sure to take your favourite brand, and there is a supermarket just across the road a bit further up Fleischmarkt, where we could buy milk that we put in the minibar. they also have a clothes line in the bathroom if you want to dry any washing.

as for transport, we found the no 2 tram from schwedenplatz very useful. the hotel will sell you the vienna card, but really, a transport pass would have been better - you can buy one from the schwedenplatz ticket office I think.

have a great trip,

regards, ann

I would take a taxi in Berlin, for 6-8 euros you'll avoid transfer to S-Bahn and pulling the luggage from Alexanderplaz to your hotel

I don't know where you live, but if you live in the US and Canada and plan to print your ticket on line, I suggest you either check if you can get a few sheets of printer paper in the A4 format, or cut legal size paper as close to A4 dimensions as possible (Check on line under A4). The printed tickets should be on that size paper. While most travellers report no problem with other formats, a few have commented on another forum that they ran into a breaucratiuc train conductor who would not accept their ticket because, he claimed, the wrong size paper changed the size of the bar code so that his machine couldn't read it.


On www.bahn.de you can buy the "Sparkarte" (that's the heavily discounted ticket) 92 days in advancae. Again, from the States you can do it 93 days in advance. I live on Mountain Time. Time difference Colorado - Germany is 8 hours. I bought my ticket on day 93, at 4:30 PM, which was 12:30 AM on day 92 in Germany. Even then, the cheapest tickets for the train I wanted were gone. I did get a slightly more expensive ticket for anothet train for Berlin to Wuerzburg.

Munich..unless you are getting to the station on the U/S Bahn the station at least from where the trains arrive/depart is on one level.

I definitely agree with using a taxi in Berlin even though there are escalators and elevators.

Thank you so much everyone. With help from all of you, I DID IT! Now let's just hope that I did it correctly! We are satisfied with the prices. Good enough that I went for 1st class. E56 for Munich to Vienna & E38 for Berlin to Hamburg. Much cheaper than airfare & so much nicer to travel by train.

Since treplow brought up the issue of the bar code & specific size paper, I just went ahead & had the tickets mailed. Thanks, treplow. Always good to use caution.

And thanks, Echnaton for thoroughly answering all of my questions, & advising of 6 seats in a compartment. So I just went for the regular seating. Hopefully all of the stations & track locations will have escalators or elevators as you indicated.

Thanks Dukey for the Munich station specific info; very good to know.

Thanks danon & many of you for confirming that we should use taxis for out transport to & from the airports/trains. Nice that the prices are so reasonable.

Tim S. thanks for your concern about us lifting our luggage into the overhead train bins. We have ridden trains in Italy & so understand the "hefting" of bags up the steep step onto the train & into the overhead bins. In those instances, we use a 2 person team! One of us stands on the platform & pushes up the luggage & the other stands on the train & pulls up the luggage. For the bins, hubby grabs one side of the bag & I grab the other. But hauling up & down numerous stairs in heavy foot traffic is not a good thing for us. And, we are working at decreasing our packing items for each trip we take. This one is for 6 weeks & includes two transatlantic cruises. Right now we 'think' it will be one 24" (carryon size) & one 26". But as we pack, maybe they will get smaller!

quokka, you were definitely right about grab the deals fast. The Munich cost went up.

Ann, thank you so much for the Hotel Austria info. That is very helpful. So glad to hear that you were very satisfied with the hotel.

Now on to other planning. I still have other trip issues to finish. I better get going. This trip is creeping up on me - yeah!

Thanks again everyone, Julie

Julie, it was a pleasure.

the best bargain we found in vienna was the Sissi card, on sale at the Hofburg. it gives you entrance to the Hofburg palace, now made over to an exhibition about Empress Sissi, the treasury, AND the whole of the Schoenbrunn Palace, so you don't have to queue there at all, which is great. [they have timed entrance tickets, and silver and gold tours - with this ticket you get the gold which covers the whole of the interior].

our other great hit in Vienna was a bus trip up the Kahlenberg, followed by a walk down through the woods to Heiligenstadt where we visited Beethoven's summer house and some of the Heurige wine houses.

have a great trip

regards, ann