We will be in Germany for two weeks in May 2011. Most of our trip will be in Bavaria and for day trips, at least, we plan to us the Bayern tickets. Other train trips, such as Frankfurt airport to Nurnburg, will be on regular tickets. Here are my questions:

1. Can we purchase Bayern tickets in advance?

2. Can we use our credit cards issued by an American bank or do we need cash or debit card? We were recently in Spain and bought our senior discount tickets and
all train tickets at once and it was very convenient-cash or debit card only, though.

Thank you in advance.

Pat

If you are a US citizen and live in the US, you can get your ticket or pass through Rick Steves. ricksteves.com/rail/
His website is very good at explaining all of the options.

I buy my Bayern tickets from the machine with cash. For long distance I stand in line for an agent and pay with credit card.

Thank you both. Scatcat, do you buy your Bayern ticket each time or can you buy several and use them throught the trip?
Given the possibility of bad weather, maybe I would be better off buying each time.

Pat

I have bought two tickets at on time. You must be sure of the date of travel. I bought the second one because I was going to Mittenwald for a couple of days, and I don't think there is a machine there- and no attendants at the train station. If you are not comfortable using the machine, you can buy the Bayern ticket at the window also. It cost 1or2€ extra.

You can buy the Bayern Tickets online if you know the actual dates when you want to use them, print them yourself and pay with you US credit card. No need for machines or standing in line.

http://www.bahn.de/regional/view/reg...rnticket.shtml

You have to specify some form of ID there, that you have to present with the ticket. Either a card or your passport.

I did not know that Rick Steves' requires one to be a US citizen. In fact I've never heard of a business in the US verifying US citizenship.

If we believe what tomfuller writes that means my neighbor of 30 years, a legal US resident but UK citizen, can't buy from that site. Nor can my cousin, a US citizen, who lives in Mexico!

Quite odd.

Rick probably does not require a customer to be a U.s. citizen at least for German tickets - maybe for railpasses as these are often off-limits to residents of that country - but I think he only fills orders to U.S. addresses rather than sending valuable documents abroad - that is what I suspect. And most of Steves tickets - which are really sold thru RailEurope, which Steves site actually I believe is routed thru - anyway these are for the most part paper tickets that need to be mailed, etc.

As for the German questions - yes credit cards are accepted IME at German trains stations though there may be a certain limit of a minimum amount. No reason to buy Bavaria tickerts in advance - same price as station though you may be able to buy thru www.bahn.de - the German Railways web portal.

Full fare tickets can be very very expensive so if say going full fare Frankfurt to Nuremburg round trip at full fare the German Railpass could even be cheaper - if you figure in using it in Bavaria as well - try to get the so-called SPAR fare deep discount tickets at www.bahn.de like logos999 explains - but as these are non-changeable non-rfundable I believe then leave a lot of fudge time if planning on taking a train ribght from the airport since they cannot be changed if you plane is late, etc. The German Railpass however can be used on virtually any train anytime. anyway for lots of great info on German trains and passes, etc I always spotlight not only www.ricksteves.com but www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.seat61.com. Best deal for you would seem to try for a SPAR fare each way to and from Bavaria and the Bavarian Pass - but with the German Railpass the more days you buy the cheaper they are with above the minimum number of days extra days are about $20/day or about 16 euros p.p. a day - so if wanting total flexibility (Bavarian pass on day trips like say to Salzburg dictates you take the slower regional trains as it cannot be used on the faster express trains like ICE or IC trains, etc.

There is no need to buy any German pass or ticket before you get there except the SPAR ticket. This ticket can be purchased and printed out online. Make sure that you have the credit card that you used with you. They will swipe it to verify identity. Rail passes are sold at the airport train station. If you want one of those deep discounted fares make sure you have control over your departures as they are only good for the train you booked them for. I would not risk buying one to be used upon arrival in case your plane is late. A Bavaria ticket can be purchased from machines or at the counter for Euro 2 more. You can buy any lander ticket at the airport or at any ticket machine in Germany.

Last but not least, It will cost you less if you buy when you get there because of the present exchange rate. Also this eliminates the middle man.

There is no need to buy any German pass or ticket before you get there except the SPAR ticket.>

Well often in the past few years a German railpass has indeed been cheaper if bought in dollars before going to Germany -not always and maybe not now but often in the past so such a statement is simply not true.

here is no need to buy any German pass or ticket before you get there except the SPAR ticket.>

well maybe i read the 'need' wrong - yes you can buy them in Germany so no absolute need to buy them before - yet again check price differences and keep in mind that many credit cards charge a 3% fee for foreign purchases when figuring overall costs. And unless changed the versions of the German Railpass sold in Germany were more limited - I think to only 5- and 10-day versions and not the 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10-day versions marketed abroad. This may have changed but was true last I check about a year ago.

PalinQ: You are correct as to the relative costs. You must check the prices on www.bahn.de in Euros and figure the exchange rate and the credit card fees. I have done this several times. You can buy passes other than the 5 or 10 day ones in Germany. I have. Two years ago I bought a 6 day twin pass and last fall a 4 day pass at the airport in Frankfurt. The bottom line is "Do the Math".

haxter1 - thanks for the update and yes do the math - sometimes cheaper here and sometimes there. And if using a credit card to purchase tickets in German stations be sure to call your credit card company and inform them that one will be going to Germany so that unexpected foreign transactions are not automatically blocked by your card issuer as could well happen if you do not inform them - to prevent fraud, etc.

haxter- whilst I agree ir usually costs less for individual tickets once you get there in the past when I checked www.bahn.de (German Railways site) with www.raileurope.com there indeed have been cases where a ticket for the same train actually was cheaper from RailEurope - this was (have not checked recently) because RE tends to have a flat fare and issues a ticket that can be used on any train but in Germany ICEs have different fares - so thru RE your ticket would be overpaying on many trains but actually, in many past checks at least, cheaper on some ICE trains - and again it varies as to the exchange rates so yes do the math and have no worries about buying tickets once in Germany - but do so in machines as lines at German ticket windows in recent years have grown obscenely long IME as I think Die Bahn wants to force folks to book online or in the machines.