Enter the From and To stations. Doing this is something of an art, as the website will not always interpret the names the way you think they should. If your keyboard can't do umlauted characters, such as �, use ue. Otherwise the website will not recognize the right name.
If you want to go via a certain route, use via. Note, if you use a SparPreis fare, you have to stay on the designated trains, but if you are using a full fare ticket, you can interrupt your trip, as long as you compete it in the required time. Trips of 100 km or less must be completed by the end of the day. Trips over 100 km have to be completed by the end of the second day. This allows you to spend a night at an intermediate stop en route to you final destination on the ticket.
Enter the date and time in European format. Don't worry about the day of the week. If you have a date, the site will figure it out. Time can be entered without a colon, that is 1200 for 12:00.
If you are going one way, you don't need to give the date and time of a return journey. However, if you are trying to find the fare for a SparPreis trip, you need the return date. You won't get to see the SparPreis fare without it.
Under Means of Transport, if you want to see the fastest connection, using ICEs, if available, select "standard search". On the other hand, if you are looking for regional train connections, to use with promotional fares (Sch�nes-Wochenende or L�nder Tickets), select "only local transport". If you are looking for connections internationally, Thalys trains are the same as ICEs. If you want to find a connection from Frankfurt to Paris, and you want an EC,which is far less expensive than Thalys, select "without ICE" to suppress the Thalys connnections so you can see the ECs.
If, for instance, you want regional train connections, but don't want a bus, click more and uncheck the bus.
Under Travellers, in most cases you only need the fare for a single adult. No change needed. However, if you are traveling partially outside Germany, you might want to show your minor children. Under 15 are free in Germany, but not in most countries. For a trip across a border, you will pay for them part of the way. Also, if you are going to purchase a ticket online for, say, you and your two under 15 children, you need to include them so they will be shown on the ticket, and therefore be free.
No reduction refers to not having a Bahn card. Unless you have one, don't change this field.
Finally, when more than one preson travels with a SparPreis fare, the 2nd through 5th person gets a 50% Mitfahrer (companion) discount. This will only be shown if you include them under travellers.
Now, click continue to see what we get when we click Search connection with this input.
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