laperaje

I'm planning to visit Germany for three weeks. Most of the time I will be in Aachen, but I will travel a few times to Duesseldorf, Cologne, Bohn, and Juelich.

Can I save some money in the railway tickets with Bahncard 25? I am not sure if the card can be used for RE trains too.

I appreciate any information you can share with me.

Musicteacher

Since you seem to be traveling entirely in Nordrhein-Westfallen, you could probably save money using one of the regional Day Tickets (or Schönes Wochenende Tickets on weekends). These would require you to use RE trains or slower, but could be used for local transportation at your destination city.

Someone who lives in this region might provide more details.

jayne1973

Don't know about that specific area, but we took a "slow" train from Berchesgaden to Munich, bought tickets at the station, and were offered a great deal of 27 Euro for an all-day ticket for two people. "Slow" meant a difference of 20 minutes.

Larryincolorado

The ticket deal Jayne mentions is the Bayern Ticket, which is valid all day long (after 9 AM weekdays, from midnight weekends) on all the regional trains you wish to ride until 3 AM the following day. It is valid all over Bavaria and into Salzburg, Kufstein, and Ulm, and on the Asserfernbahn from Garmisch-Partenkirchen to Pfronten via Reutte (Tirol). You can get it from any DB ticket machine in Bavaria for €25; from the ticket counter it costs €2 more.

Once you get off the main lines, most trains are regional anyway.

Larryincolorado

I don't think you want to get a BahnCard.

First, the least expensive one, a 2nd classs BahnCard 25, saves 25% on all Bahn tickets, but costs €51,50, so you have to use €206 worth of point-point Bahn tickets to break even. Using Länder tickets like the NWR Schöner-Tag Ticket, you are unlikely to spend that much.

Second, the BahnCard is a subscription; until they receive from you by mail a filled in cancellation form, they send you a new BahnCard every year and bill your credit card.

logos999

>a filled in cancellation form
A simple letter that you wish to cancel your subscription after one year, sent in the same envelope as you application form will be sufficient. . Ask for a confirmation letter of course.

MKE

I just came back last week from a trip to Germany. I had done some research before I left and determined that the German Rail Pass was best for me (5 days of travel for $225)which included a trip to/from Salzburg. The Bahncard would not have been advantageous to me. You can buy the Germany rail pass for 4 days or more in the US. You can also buy it at many of the large train stations in Germany, but only the 5 day or 10 day pass.

I don't know if I saved any money by bying the rail pass instead of point to point tickets -- it was close but the convenience is worth any difference in cost.

Musicteacher

I too have used the German Rail Pass and have saved money when travelling between cities that are some distance apart. For short stretches like Aachen to Cologne, you wouldn't come out ahead with a pass.

Larryincolorado

MKE,

I hope you made your railpass pay on the rest of the trip, because it didn't pay for itself on the trip to Salzburg.

If you did the trip to Salzburg over two days, you used two days of your pass, or $90. If you had been willing to spend an extra 1/2 hour each way, you could have used two Bayern Ticket Singles for €36. That's $46 today, a savings of $44 over using your railpass. Even if you paid full fare for point to point tickets on the fastest trains, you would have only spent €52, or about $67, $23 less than with the pass.

If you made the round trip in one day, or $45 of your rail pass, with a Bayern Ticket you would have spent only €18, $23, a $22 savings. If you want to use express trains, DB has a promotional fare called a Freizeit Ticket, which allows you to travel via express train (EC) in 2nd class RT in a single day for €29 ($37) still $8 less than with a railpass.

Larryincolorado

I agree with MusicTeacher that a Nordrhein-Westfalen day ticket (called a Schöner-Tag Ticket) is probably your best bet for travel to Düsseldorf, Köln, and Bonn. As long as you stay in NRW, a Schönes-Wochenende Ticket provides nothing extra and costs more.

Purchased from a ticket automat, the Schöner-Tag Ticket costs €21 for a single person, €27 for up to five people, €2 more if you buy it at the ticket counter. It is valid all day from 9 AM weekdays (from midnight weekends) until 3 AM the following day for all regional trains (IRE, RE, RB, & S-Bahn) in NRW, plus for all U-Bahns, streetcars and buses in the various transit districts. The website for regional trains in NRW is www.nahverkehr.nrw.de. The map of regional trains is at www.nahverkehr.nrw.de/ocx2.exe (click on the box for "Regionalverkehrsplan NRW" on right side of page).

A map of the various transit disctricts (Verkehrverbünde) in Nordrhein-Westfalen is at www.nahverkehr.nrw.de/ocx2.exe?GP=484. Düsseldorf is in the Rhein-Ruhr district; Köln and Bonn are in the Rhein-Sieg district. Jülich is in the Aachen district.

Sounds like you will be spending most of your time in the Aachen transit district, www.avv.de. For that you should buy single trip tickets or an AVV day ticket. For travel within the city of Aachen, including Valls (Netherlands) and Kelmis (Belgium) a single trip (one way) is €2,00. There are different day tickets for different zones of travel. An all day ticket in Aachen city costs €5,50 for one person, €6,10 for up to five. For travel throughout the entire Aachen transit district, an all day ticket costs €13 for a single person, €18,50 for up to five people.

laperaje

First all of all, great thanks to everybody who responded. Danke!

Last year I got a 5-day Germany+Benelux pass to travel from Aachen-Brussels-Amsterdam-Berlin-Duesseldorf. This time I will be spending most of the time in NRW just for short trips.

I did not notice that Bahncard is a subscription card. It's really good to know that

Yes, my friend actually mentioned about NRW day pass that I can purchase for about 25 EUR for unlimited rides within NRW in a day (here mentioned as Schöner-Tag Ticket).

Larryincolorado, I appreciate the links.

PalenqueBob

As for saving money on food go to the local ALDI for super cheap prices - nearly as low as a U.S. supermarket though you have to bag your own stuff and there is not nearly the selection between brands. Yet for things like cheese, beer, wine, chocolates (for which Aldi was once famous), can goods, etc. you eat cheaply here.

logos999

or the Lidl would be an alternative. Where there's an Aldi a Lidl never will be far away. Same concept, about the same prices and special offers (short term) every week like DVD players, sewing machines computers and TVs or credit cards. Many people come just to see what's new today and buy a lot of other stuff.

PalenqueBob

But nary a WalMart in sight as the company, which had bought a supermarket chain here, could not compete with the likes of Lidl and Aldi. We have Aldis in the U.S. now and they operate pretty much the same.

LN

Bob

I was in Wurzberg last week and I spied a Walmart there!! I was very surprised.

WallyKringen

Before you settle on a pass, be aware that you can save a lot of money on German trains if you simply opt for the slower ones. If you are on vacation and not in a rush, and if you like to see more of the countryside at slower speeds and while slowing down when approaching more stations in more towns than the expensive high-speed trains serve, then that is for you. At www.bahn.de simply select the option "without IC and ICE" and compare.

PalenqueBob

LN - maybe the pull out isn't finished - maybe WalMart has decided to pull out of Germany, a certaintly but hasn't sold off its properties yet - but it's a done decision.

Larryincolorado

While I agree with WallyKringen that, if you are willing to go by regional train, you can save considerable money, it is not the point to point fares, but the promotional fares, like Länder and Schönes-Wochenende Ticket that can save the real money. The Schönes-Wochenende Ticket will be shown on the Bahn website if you meet the necessary criteria, but you have to know about the Länder Tickets on your own. From Bahn.de, click on "Internat. Guests > Offers for Travelers in Germany > Regional Tickets > Länder Tickets" for information about all the Länder offers.

Take for instance Köln to Bielefeld. Both are major cities in Nordrhein-Westfalen. The Intercity Express service between them costs €39 one way per person. By taking a Regional Express train, the fare drops to €28,60, a savings of €10,40. However, you can buy a Schöner-Tag Single Ticket for €21, use the same trains, and save €18. If there are two of you, and you share a €27 Schöner-Tag Ticket, you can save €25,50 each. Even greater savings will be seen for 3 to 5 people on the Schöner-Tag Ticket. And, if you do a round trip in a day, with the Schöner-Tag Ticket, it is like the return trip is free.

However, you need to select "local transport only" under Means of Transport. It hardly makes a difference anymore, because there are very few D or IR trains, but those trains, which are considered express trains and not eligible for the Länder Tickets, would still be shown under "without ICE/IC/EC".