Travelling between Bavaria and Baden-Wurttemberg by Train
 

Hi, if this question has been posted before, I apologize, but I certainly couldn't find any reference to it:

On other posts I have read about the Bayernkarte as an expensive way to travel by train around Bavaria. On my trip I will largely be in Bavaria, but I will be travelling by train from Nuremberg to Heidelberg (which is in Baden-Württemberg). My question is, since I will be going outside of Bavaria, do I need to purchase a regional ticket for Baden-Wurttemberg as well? Would I need to purchase the Bayernkarte AND Baden-Wurttemberg card for that day of travel? (One to get me to the border of Bavaria and the other to get me PAST the border and on to my destination). Or is does it make more sense to just buy a point to point ticket from Nuremberg to Heidleberg?

Can anyone please make any recommendations as to the best way to travel between these two cities? Thanks, I much appreciate

well since you posted it just 1 minute before - it might not have showed up immediately - but both are right there . . . .

Ooops, thought I had to post them seperately in the Europe and Germany forums. Apparently not!

Lots of folks get that confused (fodors doesn't explain it very well). There isn't a "Germany" forum. Just "Europe"

Just be sure to check both threads since you will likely get replies on both of them . . . .

First, you might have a better chance of getting the day ticket for Bavaria or Baden-Württemberg if you call them by their proper names - Bayern-Ticket and Baden-Württemberg Ticket (sometimes called 3-Loewen Ticket). Sure, the German word for ticket is Karte, but here they use Ticket.

If you want to travel from Nuernberg to Heidelberg, you could use both a Bayern and a Ba-Wü Ticket. If you are alone, the Ba-Wü Single is €18; the Bayern Single is €19. That is €37 for the entire trip.

On the other hand, point-point tickets on regional trains from Nuernberg to Heidelberg cost as low as €35,70. That is going to Wuerzburg and Osterburken by regional trains and from Osterburken to Heidelberg by S-bahn.

However, the same trip from Nuernberg to Wuerzburg could be made with a point-point ticket for €16,60, then in Wuerzburg you can buy a point-point ticket to Heidelberg for €7,80. That totals only €24,40. The reason you need to buy the €7,80 ticket in Wuerzburg is that it is a local Verkehrsverbund ticket (Vehrkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar, www.vrn.de) and not available outside the VV. (Well, technically, Wuerzburg is not in the VRN, but it is in a transition region, where the VRN ticket is valid on the rail lines directly to Wuerzburg.)

If you are with someone, the point-point tickets would be much more, €71,40 for two. Bayern and Ba-Wü Tickets would be €54 (€27 each). Best fare would be a Bayern Ticket to Wuerzburg and two VRN tickets from there to Heidelberg for €15,60; €42,60 for two.

Other folks can better answer the question than I but they will need to know if you are traveling along or in a group. The big savings with the Länder tickets often come with group travel.

Using the Länder tickets requires using local trains and seems to take 1 to 2 hours longer in this case.

http://bahn.hafas.de/bin/query.exe/en

Regards, Gary

There will be three of us travelling together, so I'm thinking that your suggestion of using the Bayern Ticket to Wuerzburg and then buying point to point would probably be our best bet.

In your planning, be sure to account for the fact that a Land-Ticket isn't valid before 9AM on M-F (from midnight on SaSu), and does not include IC or ICE trains at any time.

Erin,
if there are three of you, you should purchase instead the VRN "Ticket 24 Plus", which costs €18,50 for the entire VRN district (Verbundgebiet) for up to 5 people.

As Robespierre rightfully points out, the Bayern Ticket is only valid for travel after 9 AM (in 10 weeks in Germany, I have never traveled before 9 AM; it's uncivilized!), and not valid on express trains (ICE, IC, EC). However, the direct route from Wuerzburg to Osterbruken to Heidelberg is not for express trains; they take a more round-about route and only save less than an hour, at a much greater cost.