HOME   ARTICLES   ABOUT US   LINKS   SPECIAL DEALS   CONTACT

Bargain Travel Europe guide to Europe on a budget for vacation destinations, travel ideas and secret spots missed by travel tours.

THE RHINE BY TRAIN - THE ROMANTICS TOUR
Switzerland and Germany with a Rail Pass

There are lots of ways to explore Europe. Here is one idea. Follow the Rhine River by train. In 1814, the poet Percy Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft eloped from London - two years before the famous summer of 1816 in Geneva (see Villa Diodati) when Mary Shelley started her novel of Frankenstein - sailed to Paris, then walked and rode donkey carts to Switzerland, finding themselves in Brunnen on Lake Lucerne when Shelley’s money was running out, left with only £28. According to Mary’s journal traveling by rivers was the cheapest form of travel , “that by taking advantage of the rivers of the Reuss and Rhine, we could reach England without traveling a league on land”. Over the next weeks the two romantics made the rather perilous journey by boat over river rapids and waterfalls back home through Switzerland and Germany to sail home. There are still river cruise boats traveling parts of that journey, but if the modern European rail system existed in the early 19th Century that trip would have been made by rail. And for the modern traveler with a little romance in the soul, why not follow in the footsteps of the romantics.

The best way to make this a viable and cost effective trip is with a Eurail Rail Pass (see How Rail Passes Work). The Select Pass or Saver Pass (for two traveling together) allows the choice of countries to travel through and a number of days of travel. One version is for consecutive days, the other for a number of days of travel to be used within a two month period. What you choose will depend on how many stops you want make. After all, you’re planning your own trip with the freedom of the romantics. Travel a bit, then stop and explore, a little farther, stop and explore. You could get point to point tickets, but a rail pass allows the freedom to get off and on and travel when you like. Show up at the station and get on a train, or arrive in a city and take excursion trains for that day. If you want to explore 5 cities or regions get 6 or 8 days of travel on the pass, the select pass goes up to 14 days of travel.

Go to Rail Europe US
Canada Australia

Following the Rhine Route

The Rhine River begins in the Alps of Graubunden in southeast Switzerland, where it is a swift flowing roil of ice green rapids, sometimes called the “baby Rhine”, flows north to past Liechtenstein (see Prince's Wine Cellars) to Lake Constance (the Bodensee), then between the German Black Forest and Switzerland, over the Rhinefalls to Basel, where it turns north, flattening to the wide familiar great river between Germany and France's Alsace, past Mannheim and Mainz to Koblenz (called the “Middle Rhine” with all the castles and the Loreley), to Cologne and Dusseldorf and out to the north sea. For this trip you could make do with a two country pass for Switzerland and Germany only. If you wanted to venture into the French Alsace you could add France, of if you wanted to explore Holland, Belgium or Luxemburg, add Benelux. You don’t have to strictly stay to the Rhine, it’s not a rule, there are lots of possibilities for exciting touring variety.

Trains

Curiously German DB (Deutschbahn) trains operate in Switzerland, but Swiss trains (SBB) don’t generally venture into Germany. One can speculate whether this is due to Swiss neutrality and Germany’s historic tendency for adventure beyond its borders (ahem), but it does make route planning a bit simpler. You can use either the DB website for route selection or the Swiss SBB site for Switzerland, these two sites are the clearest and most detailed in English (best to use the DB site if you want to venture into France or Holland from Germany, the SBB if from Switzerland) and each site will have more detail and more trains listed for their own country. If you have a rail pass, you don’t need to purchase tickets through these sites, just use them to plan routes and times. With a pass you show up and get on the train you want. Once on board, the German DB trains provide a Travel Plan (Reiseplan) which lists the stops and schedule times, with connections, times and tracks (Gleis) to other destinations from each stop.

Trains you’ll encounter have designations like EC (Eurocity), IC (Intercity), ICE (Intercity Express) this is the German high speed train, (the France version is the TGV), in Switzerland there is also an ICN, this is just a newer Intercity train that leans in the turns. These trains will appear on the train schedule boards in red bold type and are the direct faster trains. The IR (Inter Regional) and RE (Regional) trains are the locals with lots of stops, generally a slower trip, though some of the places you’ll want to stop are regional stations and for short distances, speed doesn't matter that much. The trains in the direction you're going will generally run every hour (or half hour) to major cities, smaller towns may be longer in between train. For some of the specific trains listed here, like the ICEs or ECs they run twice or few times a day. You don't have get back on the same daily train, but can just follow the route.

Switzerland

In Switzerland, you can of course take Swiss trains with your multi-country pass, but the German railway operates trains along these routes. To strictly follow the Rhine the DB Eurocity EC6 begins in Chur (see Design Bars and Romantic Stern), Switzerland and follows the young Rhine River the most directly for a major train route all the way to Cologne (Koln). To go to Lake Constance and the Rhinefalls at Schaffhausen (see Rhinefall), you’d need to take a Swiss IR train via Arbon (see Arbon) and Romanshorn. The Shelleys started their journey in Brunnen on Lake Lucerne where the Reuss River empties into the Rhine. Lake Lucerne is one of the most beautiful of Switzerland, and Lucerne one of the most beautiful cities in the world with lots to do and explore (see Swiss Transport Museum). You could start from Lucerne and take a paddle steamer down the lake to Fluelen, then by train to Basel via Zurich. This is part of the Swiss Rail Wilhelm Tell Express route (see Wilhem Tell Express). The boat ride in Switzerland will be included with your rail pass. The German ICE 370 starts in Interlaken, not strictly on the Rhine, but one of Switzerland’s most popular tourist spots, with the Jungfrau, Eiger (see Jungfraujoch) and Schilthorn (Schilthon Piz Gloria) within a day. Cog train trips and cable cars to these will receive a fare discount with a Eurail pass. Starting at Interlaken the ICE 370 or 278 passes through Thun and Bern to Basel and Mannheim, then to Frankfurt and Berlin.

France

If you wanted to explore a bit of France (if you’ve included it in your pass) at the Basel Main station (Basel SBB) you walk to the western end of the station and pass through a door to the French side where SNCF trains depart. From here you could visit Mulhouse (see Trains and Autos of Mulhouse), Colmar, Selestat (see Auberge Inns Alsace) or Strasbourg (Delicious Strasbourg) in the Alsace, then reconnect with the DB trains at Offenburg.

Germany

From Basel, the DB trains follow the German side of the Rhine between the Black Forest and the Alsace region of France. You could stop at the famous Black Forest resort of Baden-Baden (Baths at Baden-Baden), go to Stuttgart for the car museums (see Mercedes Museum and Porsche Museum). The main trains go to Mannheim where you could take a regional to Heidelberg (see Heidelberg Castle), Worms (see Martin Luther at Worms), or Bad Durkheim (see Festival on the German Wine Route). To follow the Middle Rhine, famous for its hillside castles and the legendary Loreley rock, you’ll go to Mainz (see Mainz Museums), with its great Romanesque Cathedral, as the Shelleys did.

Trains run along either side the Rhine River between Mainz and Koblenz. The IC and EC trains make few stops along this scenic section of the river, at Boppard (see Boppard Rhine) and St Goar. If you want to stop and stay in one of the other Rhine river towns (see Rhine Castle Hotel Oberwesel), or just get a little slower view, the new MittelrheinBahn train (MRB) is a new local service train which stops at all the small villages where one can explore the castles (see Castle Rinenstein). For an even slower view, you could take a river cruise boat trip from Mainz or Bingen to Koblenz (see KD Rhine and Mosel Cruises). KD Cruises between Mainz and Cologne on the Rhine and Koblenz and Cochem on the Mosel are free with a Rail Pass.

After Koblenz and Bonn, the Rhine River shore gets a little industrial as it travels through Germany’s very developed and most densely populated areas. Here your journey offers some choices. With Benelux added to the pass you could head over to Luxembourg, up through the Belgian Ardennes into the Netherlands to Amsterdam or Rotterdam. If sticking with Germany, from Cologne with its famous great cathedral and lively bar scene, you have a few choices, head over to Aachen and the Mosel River (see Reichsburg Castle Cochem), continue along the Rhine on the IC 2114 to Dusseldorf (see Dusseldorf on the Rhine) or take the IC 2024 to Bremen and Hamburg.

Getting There and Back

Now, how to get to the beginning of this do-it-yourself tour and back home again. These days you can get a flight into one city and out from another for about the same price as a round trip to and from the same city. Use the multiple destination function on the flight search engine of your choice. You'll most likely fly into Zurich for Switzerland, for the return home, depending where you go, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich, Dusseldorf or Amsterdam (if you take the Benelux option).

Search for flights on Priceline, Expedia, Travelocity and Vayama. Most major airlines have code share partners which operate to these airports. For most direct flights to Zurich or Geneva, Swiss International operated aircraft to Zurich codeshare partner with United and Lufthansa from the German airports. KLM, Delta and Air France operate codeshare flights to Zurich and from German Airports and Amsterdam. From London, British Airways is now offering fares competitive with the discount carriers, with less baggage restrictions and to major airports.

As an alternative to multi-city flights, you could take advantage of a roundtrip air plus hotel deal to one city from the likes of Expedia or Travelocity, and use one of your travel days for a straight return trip or even a Night Train (CNL City Night Line) (see Taking the Night Train).

Fare Comparisons

If you wanted to spend more time in Switzerland, you could get a Swiss Pass for that portion of your tour and a single or Multi- Country Pass for Germany and others. The advantage of a Swiss Pass - it includes free museums, local city tram, subway and bus transportation, and some scenic trains that the Eurail pass does not. The Eurail pass is good on S-Bahns in Germany but not U-Bahns or busses. Just compare the value before you decide which is most cost effective for you. If spending more time in Germany the multi-country Eurail pass is better, but local transportation systems are not included.

Why a rail pass over individual tickets? Let's say you're a couple traveling together - a First Class, 6 day, 3 country Saver Pass is currently about $393 (US). For a route starting in Zurich to Lucerne ending in Hamburg, 8 legs of 2nd Class individual tickets would cost $424 for each person. Any additional excursions would be more. With a pass you can take all the side trips you want and adult rail passes are First Class standard, so finding a seat is almost never an issue. (Second Class is about as as comfortable, but can get quite crowded). The trains are really punctual, so you don't have to stop at the ticket window when your train is leaving in one minute. Some German ICE Trains require a reservation with a supplemental charge, but this is fairly rare. There'll be a notation on the schedule board. If you need to make a reservation you can go to the Travel Center in the station. Youth Passes are 2nd Class, if you're a family traveling together consider getting standard Child rate passes for kids traveling with you, rather than Youth Passes if you don't want to be stuck in 2nd Class.

Swiss Passes and Single Country Passes are available in two classes. If you wanted 4 days of travel in Switzerland with a 2nd Class Swiss Saver Flexipass and 3 days in Germany with a Twin Pass (for 2 people traveling together) the cost would be about $426 per person. There are a number a variations and possibilities. For the itinerary suggested in this article you'll probably want a minimum of 5 days of travel, but 6 to 8 is probably more like it. You'll be stopping for a day or several days along the way, so this trip could be a week or a month. Look through this site or whatever guide you like to pick out the stops you're most interest in and pick your stops, then change your mind at the last minute if you see something that interests you.

Every rail station in Switzerland and Germany has luggage storage, either coin lockers or a baggage window. With a pass, if you want to get off at a stop, stow you stuff, wander around and explore for a few hours, have lunch, then get back on and keep going to the next stop, that's the fun. © Bargain Travel Europe

Special Deals from Rail Europe

These articles are copyrighted and the sole property of Bargain Travel Europe and WLPV, LLC. and may not be copied or reprinted without permission.

See Also:

TRAVELING EUROPE ON A BUDGET

CHEAP AIRFARES

RENTING A CAR IN EUROPE

EUROSTAR FROM LONDON TO PARIS

Privacy
Legal
Contact

Discover Travel in Europe on a Budget with Bargain Travel Europe and also visit Bargain Luxury Travel for luxury value travel ideas   ©2006-2010 Winged Lion Entertainment Ventures, LLC