Night-trains on a one-country pass to Germany - looking for recommendations

The one country Pass is not valid on the night trains (except for the normal ICE/IC that run overnight). But for just germany thats not really necessary anyway. (if you want to take a night train out of germany with your pass you need a global Pass)

The advantage of a pass in Germany is that you are pretty flexible as there are no mandatory reservations on highspeed trains in Germany.

Miniaturwunderland in Hamburg is awesome. I recommend purchasing the tickets in advance. (On short notice you often only get the early or late times.

Also i believe there are plenty of hiking options that can be done without a car, might be worth considering if renting a car is even necessary. 

Hi Marvin,

Thanks for your response and clarification on the night train rules, I think I might need to look at booking a night train seperately in that case.

In regards to the reservations, I would normally never think of booking them when not mandatory but with 4 of us travelling it would be easier to be able to guarantee seats together if the train is more than 3-4 hours long. I might look to see if there is anyway to tell which services might be particularly busy which could prove harder to find seats together. In Scotland when travelling alone, myself and other passengers will often move if a family boards to allow them to seat together however I'm not sure if this is common in Germany especially if they have reserved specific seats. 

I would personally prefer to skip the car as have had some difficult experiences with car seats in other european countries (and also because kids are easier to entertain on a train where they have more movement and can walk up and down carriages to get rid of extra energy) but unfortunately a lot of the super kid friendly hikes don't seem to be based close together - for instance if we stay a few days in Fussen there is a kid friendly forest park to do but the nearest next hike with a Kugelbahn is 4hrs each way by train or 1hr each way by car. For day trips, keeping commute times under a 1-2 hour would be ideal for keeping the kids energy up. I'm also finding it harder to find family friendly hostels in the south of Germany - a lot of 6 or 12 bed dorms which would mean us having to pay for the extra beds for privacy. Most of the family friendly budget options seem to be campsite type lodging (tent included eurocamps) reachable largely by car.

If I do airbnb with public transport links the extra cost of the accomodation and the public transport links outweigh the cost of getting a hire car for a week including a rough budget for fuel based on the locations I think we're likely to go see. I've also considered bike hire options but think my youngest would really struggle. Any accomodation recommendations or central locations to stay but daytrip out from easily would be welcome and I can try run the numbers again.

Arround what time of the year do you plan to travel? If you want 4 seats with a table it might be worth reserving, especially if your starting stations is not the first stop of the train. (Atleast reservations are easy to buy directly from DB and you only pay the price once even if your journey involves changing between trains) People that are not checked in and dont have a reservation might be willing to switch seats (if there are still unreserved seats available and you ask nicely) → This is something you have to decide if the 22€ are worth it for 4 reservations together.

Regarding accomodation i am not sure on recommendations. What are  your plans for  southern Germany?

Hmm, I think you may be over-thinking the whole kids and hiking thing.  Several million kids go on hikes every summer with nothing more than a “there’s a cafe with hot chocolate at the end of this path” to go on.  Many of them even voluntarily go on hikes without the promise of treats at the end.

Your planning scope is admirable, but is pretty broad so I can only make a few suggestions and hope some of them stick.

Night trains - I love them, they are great fun and I would recommend them.  Night trains with dining cars . . . few and far between.  Nightjet just don’t do them, so on the main Germany/Austria/Italy routes you mentioned the most you can aim for is a tray breakfast in your cabin.  We went on the Corona from Budapest to Brasov earlier this summer and it has a full on dining car.  Dinner leaving Budapest, breakfast trundling through the mountains in the middle of Romania.  I can recommend this one for sure.

“easier to be able to guarantee seats together” - I would always go for reservations for the price of a coffee, especially when traveling with kids for anything more than a 30-40 minute interurban connection.  Swapping seats with others should work most of the time, but when you are in a carriage with standing room only and you can barely find somewhere to put your luggage and your youngest is tired and your other half is hungry and the air conditioning isn’t working it is pure bliss to know that your gang can push through to your reserved seats, catch your breath and enjoy the trip.

“For day trips, keeping commute times under a 1-2 hour would be ideal for keeping the kids energy up” - keeping day trips under 2 hours is essential.  Your kids won’t thank you if you arrive somewhere in the evening, find your hotel, get them fed, get them to bed and then get them up the next morning for 3 hours of another train to somewhere they can’t even visualise.  And then if it’s raining or the event isn’t as good as expected and they face another long trip back . . . you get the picture.

We have traveled with our kids by train at different times since they were the ages yours are.  We’ve had good bits, less good bits, etc . . . but effectively as long as they are with you, having fun and have an idea of what comes next (fairy castle in the alps in 2 days time) then they are normally happy enough to potter along and play on swings in the playground which didn’t feature in your plans.

Also, never forget the value of “special arrangements” like having your holiday in Germany, but deciding on the day to take a train from Munich to Innsbruck because you know someone really wants to go to Innsbruck.  With a global pass you can do this without thinking.  Rocking up on the day to buy tickets could easily cost you more than the difference between the 1 country and global pass, so I would suggest going for the global pass as it gives you great flexibility.

DB ICE trains normally have good catering onboard (except for when they forget to restock, train was delayed, fridge is broken, staff are in Berlin but the train is in Munich, etc . . .) so you can pick a nice scenic route and make a big deal of going to the dining car and having your main meal while passing through lovely scenery.