Rhine Train Travel?
Jan 19, 2013, 11:42 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: SF Eastbay
Programs: AA Plt-Lite 2MM,HH Gld, MR Plat
Posts: 613
Rhine Train Travel?
My family will be staying in Cologne for 3 days. One of days, we want to do a river cruise and seeing some of the castles and towns. So here the basic plan:
1. Train Cologne to Bingen and hop on a KD ship(10:30 AM) to St Goar
2. Visit and lunch in St Goar
3. Arrive in Braubach to visit Marksburg Castle by 4:00 PM for tour(english)
4. Visit and Dinner in Koblentz
5 Train back to Cologne
Questions:
What's the best method for train travel, i.e. Lander pass?
We have one child under 15 and understand may travel free with parent?
Is this too much for 1 day?
Any suggested changes?
1. Train Cologne to Bingen and hop on a KD ship(10:30 AM) to St Goar
2. Visit and lunch in St Goar
3. Arrive in Braubach to visit Marksburg Castle by 4:00 PM for tour(english)
4. Visit and Dinner in Koblentz
5 Train back to Cologne
Questions:
What's the best method for train travel, i.e. Lander pass?
We have one child under 15 and understand may travel free with parent?
Is this too much for 1 day?
Any suggested changes?
Jan 20, 2013, 2:49 am
#3
Join Date: Oct 2011
Programs: FB Platinum for Life
Posts: 1,019
Note that the Länder-Tickets, Quer-Durchs-Land ticket and Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket are only valid on local/regional trains (ie: S-Bahn, RB, IRE, and RE), and the first two are only valid after 9am weekdays. Some of the trains on your routes are ICE/IC - which these tickets are not valid on. In particular:
- For Koblenz - Köln, it's only ~15 mins slower on the local trains (so the price and flexibility of the aforementioned tickets is probably worth the slightly longer journey time)
- However, for Köln - St Goar, it's ~1.5hrs if you take an ICE/IC as far as Koblenz, versus ~2.5hrs if you take a local train (MRB) all the way.
If I was doing this route, I would probably buy a Sparpreis ticket (discounted, buy in advance, tied to a specific train) for Köln - Koblenz - St Goar to start the day (which would also allow a pre-9am departure on weekdays, which you would need in order to make a 10:30 boat from St Goar), and then use a Quer-Durchs-Land ticket for flexibility when coming back...
If you look at the conditions for the Länder, Quer-Durchs-Land and Schönes-Wochenende tickets, they should say something like: "Maximum 2 paying passengers, one of whom can be accompanied by any number of his/her own children/grandchildren (so-called "family children") under the age of 15 free of charge." Also for SparPreis tickets: "Children under 15 travel for free if they are accompanied by their parents or grandparents."
I can't comment on whether it's realistic to do all this in one day - but I'd suggest you look carefully at the relevant journey times on bahn.de, and see if you feel that gives you enough time in each location.
- For Koblenz - Köln, it's only ~15 mins slower on the local trains (so the price and flexibility of the aforementioned tickets is probably worth the slightly longer journey time)
- However, for Köln - St Goar, it's ~1.5hrs if you take an ICE/IC as far as Koblenz, versus ~2.5hrs if you take a local train (MRB) all the way.
If I was doing this route, I would probably buy a Sparpreis ticket (discounted, buy in advance, tied to a specific train) for Köln - Koblenz - St Goar to start the day (which would also allow a pre-9am departure on weekdays, which you would need in order to make a 10:30 boat from St Goar), and then use a Quer-Durchs-Land ticket for flexibility when coming back...
If you look at the conditions for the Länder, Quer-Durchs-Land and Schönes-Wochenende tickets, they should say something like: "Maximum 2 paying passengers, one of whom can be accompanied by any number of his/her own children/grandchildren (so-called "family children") under the age of 15 free of charge." Also for SparPreis tickets: "Children under 15 travel for free if they are accompanied by their parents or grandparents."
I can't comment on whether it's realistic to do all this in one day - but I'd suggest you look carefully at the relevant journey times on bahn.de, and see if you feel that gives you enough time in each location.
Jan 20, 2013, 11:58 am
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: SF Eastbay
Programs: AA Plt-Lite 2MM,HH Gld, MR Plat
Posts: 613
Note that the Länder-Tickets, Quer-Durchs-Land ticket and Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket are only valid on local/regional trains (ie: S-Bahn, RB, IRE, and RE), and the first two are only valid after 9am weekdays. Some of the trains on your routes are ICE/IC - which these tickets are not valid on. In particular:
- For Koblenz - Köln, it's only ~15 mins slower on the local trains (so the price and flexibility of the aforementioned tickets is probably worth the slightly longer journey time)
- However, for Köln - St Goar, it's ~1.5hrs if you take an ICE/IC as far as Koblenz, versus ~2.5hrs if you take a local train (MRB) all the way.
If I was doing this route, I would probably buy a Sparpreis ticket (discounted, buy in advance, tied to a specific train) for Köln - Koblenz - St Goar to start the day (which would also allow a pre-9am departure on weekdays, which you would need in order to make a 10:30 boat from St Goar), and then use a Quer-Durchs-Land ticket for flexibility when coming back...
If you look at the conditions for the Länder, Quer-Durchs-Land and Schönes-Wochenende tickets, they should say something like: "Maximum 2 paying passengers, one of whom can be accompanied by any number of his/her own children/grandchildren (so-called "family children") under the age of 15 free of charge." Also for SparPreis tickets: "Children under 15 travel for free if they are accompanied by their parents or grandparents."
I can't comment on whether it's realistic to do all this in one day - but I'd suggest you look carefully at the relevant journey times on bahn.de, and see if you feel that gives you enough time in each location.
- For Koblenz - Köln, it's only ~15 mins slower on the local trains (so the price and flexibility of the aforementioned tickets is probably worth the slightly longer journey time)
- However, for Köln - St Goar, it's ~1.5hrs if you take an ICE/IC as far as Koblenz, versus ~2.5hrs if you take a local train (MRB) all the way.
If I was doing this route, I would probably buy a Sparpreis ticket (discounted, buy in advance, tied to a specific train) for Köln - Koblenz - St Goar to start the day (which would also allow a pre-9am departure on weekdays, which you would need in order to make a 10:30 boat from St Goar), and then use a Quer-Durchs-Land ticket for flexibility when coming back...
If you look at the conditions for the Länder, Quer-Durchs-Land and Schönes-Wochenende tickets, they should say something like: "Maximum 2 paying passengers, one of whom can be accompanied by any number of his/her own children/grandchildren (so-called "family children") under the age of 15 free of charge." Also for SparPreis tickets: "Children under 15 travel for free if they are accompanied by their parents or grandparents."
I can't comment on whether it's realistic to do all this in one day - but I'd suggest you look carefully at the relevant journey times on bahn.de, and see if you feel that gives you enough time in each location.
Jan 22, 2013, 3:32 pm
#5
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: EDKA, STR, ZRH
Programs: LH SEN, A3*G, IHG plat, DB Comfort, SPG gold
Posts: 964
Please note that it it is mandatory to have the ticket issued for <number of passengers> + <number of children>. While you don't have to pay for the children, they still need to be present on the ticket (probably in order to prevent a train to become overbooked - I guess that the free children still count towards the Sparpreis contingents).
Jan 23, 2013, 2:20 pm
#6
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Bonn, Germany
Programs: TK Elite, LH FTL
Posts: 647