I posed part of my question in another thread, but I don't want to hijack that with my own questions, so I'll start it here. In September 2007 my sister and I will be visiting Zurich and then taking a few days (Mon 9/3 to Wed 9/5) to visit a city in Germany that we lived in while we were growing up in Germany. We need to get from point A (Zurich) to point B (Aschaffenburg) roundtrip. I have looked at the SBB site and the DB site. Now, although both sites will tell me what time the train leaves, how many stops (and what those stops are), etc - what it doesn't tell me is how much total roundtrip it will cost me. The SBB site says that because this is an international journey, that ordering/price information is not possible due to the extensive range on offer. When I check the DB site, it is unable to give me a price as well. Because we are traveling in September, am I checking too soon on how much it will cost? How far in advance can you price out a roundtrip journey on DB? Is there an alternative way for me to get my tickets at such an early date? I have input some dates closer to March to give me an idea of what I'd be looking at in terms of a roundtrip fare (and what stops the train would be making) and I've noticed that the prices do appear a bit high and that one of the routes I saw listed in September wasn't shown. Any help with this is greatly appreciated!

Hi T,

You can't get prices more than 90 days out.

Zurich to Aschaffenburg is 89.8E pp each way.

September is too far out for prices to show. You should be able to get a good idea by putting in the same day of the week during the month of May. The schedule changes very little between May and September.

You should be able to price or buy the actual ticket in June, 3 months in advance. I am doing something similar in June--- a trip into Germany originating from Zürich. The Deutschebahn site gave me prices for the whole trip. Be sure you check the roundtrip option, and it may show you a "SparPreis" (bargain price, usually a 25% discount, but even more for 2 people traveling together). The SparPreis reduced the cot of our two roundtrip tickets from 156 euro to 88 euro.

Thanks ira and enzian! Glad to know when I can actually price it out and buy the tickets.

I just ran it for a date in May---SparPreis for the two of you, round-trip was around 194 euro if you make 2 train changes; 213 if you change only once. Hopefully this will be the price in September too.

Enzian - have you had any luck booking your tickets? I know you said that you were going to do something similar in June (for a later trip?). I know that I am now 90s out from my trip, but so far it won't let me do the return tickets for some odd reason.


What I would like to do is get the 08:02 train from Zurich to Aschaffenburg (1 train change)and for the return journey basically anything between 07:45 and 08:45 will work. Where did you find the SparPreis? All help is very much appreciated!

on some sites you can't get prices for "cross-border" trips, either.

Dukey - it does give me a price going and coming, but it appears that the return portion cannot be purchased unless it's 89 days or less (and I think I do qualify for that right now). I'm using the Die Bahn site as well.

You are using the best site for getting schedules and maybe prices, but please, learn a little about the language. "Die", pronounced "dee", means THE. So you said I am using THE THE Bahn site. Say "the Bahn site" or even "die Bahn site".

Larry - I lived in Germany for 5 years, was taught German there and took it in school and University back here in the U.S., so please don't begin to lecture me on the use of the German language. You're splitting hairs here in regards to my identifying of which site I used. As long as people know what site I was using, then it gives them some idea of what I'm looking at and can probably (and hopefully) advise me as to what I might be missing when I'm doing my search. More importantly, your post didn't provide me with any further information about my dilemma other than stuff I already knew (about Die Bahn being the best at prices, train schedules, etc). Can you explain as to why the return portion of the trip on Die Bahn still says that it can't be purchased unless I'm under 89 days? (which I am)

trafelwyr---I did buy our tickets, about a week ago, for travel later this month, roundtrip Schaffhausen---Stuttgart---Schaffhausen. The Sparpreis appeared as an option when I selected a particular train and hit "Zur Buchung".

But I guess this doesn't help with your 89-day question.

enzian - ah, ok. Thanks for letting me know when exactly you were going, that clears things up a bit for me, especially knowing that you chose a particular train. I guess I'll have to wait a few days to see if the system will relent. If not, then I'll figure out some other way. Thanks!