Austria Travel Forum

Can someone help me,
My family ( 4 persons) plan to spend a day visiting Neuschwanstein during out trip to austria soon ( from Innsbruck) and to save cost we plan to use einfach-raus ticket and bayern ticket to cover both austria part of the rail network and the german rail part respectively up to Vils in Tirol ( via Garmisch - P)and then by Bus( should be covered by Bayern ticket) to Hohenschwangau. My questions are:
1) can both type of tickets cover the trip as planned?
2) How do I buy the Bayern ticket without getting down at Mittenwald? Train will only change at Garmisch-P). Buying online is not an option for us as there seems to be no provision for the ticket to be sent to an address outside europe
3)Is there a DB-ticket automat at Innsbruck Haupbahnhof?

Your input will be greatly appreciated

I read that you can purchase the Werdenfels-Ticket (which is similar to the Bayern/Bavaria Ticket) from all bus drivers of the RVO - which is the regional bus network Upper Bavaria. However, I have never tried it myself. Always travelled in this region by car.

It is surely worth the money to have the Werdenfels or Bayern Ticket, as it is valid on all local buses which could not only take you to the castles but also to beautiful Forggensee, a lake near Füssen. (Although there will not be much time left, given that it takes four hours to get from Innsbruck to Füssen.)

I hope someone on VT has tried this trip and can tell you where to purchase the German ticket.

Addition:

I have just checked Railway Austria www.öbb.at and see that the trip through Austria - exactly from Innsbruck to Vils in Tirol - takes only 2:40 hours and wonder why you want to go on this lenghty trip through Garmisch and Germany.

Vils is just at the German border, and Füssen is only 3 km from the border on the German side, so bus tickets from the border to Füssen and the castles should be really cheap, and you would not necessarily need the Bayern Ticket.

It gets stranger: The 2:40 train goes from Innsbruck to Garmisch to Reutte to Vils. Gary

This is really very strange, I agree. Perhaps it goes Innsbruck - Garmisch - Innsbruck - Vils... LOL

That would be the route if Trenitalia was in charge, lol. Gary

Perhaps they throw their weight in from Südtirol ;-)

But at least we could agree that it clearly looks like the fastest route...

The only one train route from Innsbruck to Füssen is indeed via Garmisch. But there are buses going from Innsbruck via Reutte without the detour via Garmisch and maybe are faster. They start from the Central railway station in Innsbruck as well.

Bus only takes 3:20 hours.

This thread may have just answered a few other questions. We have gotten a lot of questions in the Garmisch forum about travel to Neuschwanstein. If you used the bahn.de site and entered Hohenschwangau or Fuessen as your destination, you were routed to Passing, then to Fuessen, by train,(31.90 Euros vs 9.90 to Vils) or given a very erratic travel itenerary by bus. By just changing the destination to Vils, the simpler, cheaper, faster route shows up. I hope there is some kind of public transport from Vils to at least Fuessen. Gary

As far as I can remember, the hohenschwangau.de site doesn't even list Vils on its "how to get here" link, or even Reutte, by public transport. Gary

I think they dont list Vils and Reutte because they are not in Germany. Vils is right at the frontier. Interesting enough that the railway all the way from Mittenwald via Garmisch together with the Austrian part from Ehrwald (soon after Garmisch) via Reutte to Vils and from there to Germany is operated by DB (German Railway).

Hello again,
I have probably managed to confuse everyone with my route. I understand from previous discussion in this forum that the rail route via Garmisch-P is a scenic one, so we want to go via it enroute to Hohenschwangau. We choose to proceed to Vils in Tirol because Bus from Garmisch -P to Hohenswangau is not frequent plus since Vils in so close to Fussen, even if we miss the bus there, we can hop on a taxi and doesn't cost us a bomb. The reason I want to buy Bayern ticket because the train from innsbruck change train code from R ( by OBB)to RB Code( By DB) at Mittenwald eventhough it is still same train travelling up to Garmisch-P . Here I will then need to change to a new DB train( RB Code) to Vils. I thought the einfach raus would not be applicable on RB train and hence the additional bayern ticket. Have I got in wrong and can travel all the way to Vils without buying the bayern ticket if my final destination is still in austria eventhough some part I travel on DB train.

Your travel plans are fine. The trip will be a quite nice one. My original concerns were that you were getting stuck with the weird bus routes between Garmisch and Hohenschwangau. The web site for that regional bus company probably didn't work half the time. It appears that DB may have taken oversight of these bus routes as well. The listed schedule for the busses is MUCH better organized than it was in the past. As for the Innsbruck station,and ticket availability, you might wish to e-mail the German rail, Austrian rail, or even the Innsbruck Tourist office. You might also re-post the question in the Innsbruck forum. I visited the area several times, but never by train. If you haven't already found them, you might want to look at the web site for the Innsbruck Card, which offers attraction discounts, and free public transport. It also covers the Sightseer busses: www.sightseer.at, which might be the simplest way to view the city. Gary

I just realized my VT picture,at the moment,is of Innsbruck. If your children are smaller, not babies, they might enjoy a trip to the Alpenzoo, which is Europe's highest zoo. There are very nice views. Gary

I had only found the cheap and fast Reutte - Vils route because I had entered Vils as my final destination on the Austrian website ;-) I thought borderline railway websites can get confused easily, so left start and final destinations in the same country... ;-)

And yes, right, a taxi to Vils would not cost a lot.

Sissi, I'm just glad you found the route. Thank You ! Gary

I have taken your advise Gary and post the question( simpler version) in Innsbruck.
I have what you call TWEENS - not a child but not a teenager either but the Alpine Zoo is on my list for "what to do" in Innsbruck.

Even if you decide not to purchase the Innsbruck Card, still take a look at the web site. It does a very good job of listing the attractions, and has a bit of a map. Gary