My instinctive reply is to type in Deutsche Bahn.de, but you may have to book tickets on arrival at the first station - and if you ask for a Sonderangebot wenn moglich für zwei Reisender reisenden zusammen (ai-n son-der an-geh-boat ven meu-glich foor zvei rye-sender ryesenden su-sammen) I'm sure the ticket clerk will do their best to help, but you may need to break your ticket down into separate journeys and dates for them. They usually have incredibly kind and efficient English speaking staff. The man in seat 61 is also a good English website for European train travel on the web.

It's worth paying seat supplements on busy lines and using the ICE (super fast) services if possible. You can also often get refunds on unused tickets if you pay by credit card and go any see them before date of travel so they can recredit your card. I've already had this from Freiburg to Frankfurt Airport thanks to b****y flybe when they took over BA Connect's route!!! (There was a statutory fee of 29€ but that was peanuts compared to the total I'd already paid out!) All the very best.

Dear Alsacienne, thanks for your reply I knew you would somehow, I initially checked out the Deutsche Bahn website to see if there was any info on there but all the tickets they advertise are not what we were looking for, I think that I may just e-mail them to see what they can come up with.

Best Wishes
Sliema2

The website is http://www.bahn.de

Deutsche Bahn won't have any specials on most of those trips because (with the exception of Koblenz) they are all local within the Nord Rhein Westfalen State area and it's the NRW Transport Minister who controls the fares on regional trains. DB will sell you tickets for use on IC/ICE trains but it will cost much more than the regionals. They will also charge you extra for regional tickets if you go to the ticket desk - always buy them from a machine.

If you can delay your start until 09:00 the dearest it will get within NRW is €33 per day for both of you because you can use a SchönerTagTicket NRW which is actually valid for a group of up to 5 - do not press the button for the single option because that will cost €23.50 each. There is no 09:00 restriction on weekends or holidays. If the ticket prints out with a row of blank boxes at the bottom you are required to enter your names as shown on your passport - a 5 person ticket will have 5 boxes, just cross through the spares. Most NRW tariff tickets are valid on all forms of public transport including privatised train companies as well as DB Regio - they are NOT valid on IC/ICE/EC long distance trains. You can also buy most NRW tickets from machines at bus and tram stops or even from bus drivers on routes where tickets are sold on board, although they will show the name/logo of the concern who sold it they will still be valid on DB etc. If you look at the DB SchönerTagTicket page there are two links at the bottom. One gives a map of the NRW rail network, the dotted grey line near the outside marks the boundary. NRW tickets are normally only valid to the last stop the train makes within the area (in the case of RE trains this may not be the last actual station). However, the second link gives a list of exceptions where you can cross the boundary. Koblenz is not one of them but Remagen is.

Got all that? Well, you may not need it! Within NRW there are smaller local transport authorities who set the fares within their areas following the same practises. In the Köln/Bonn area this is VRS who have their own site at http://www.vrsinfo.de.

To plan your trips use the NRW website which will include buses and trams and shows single journey prices. Once it shows the single price click on it and it will give other options which usually include a TagesTicket 5 personnen valid after 09:00. If you are making a return day trip and 4 singles cost more than the 5 person day ticket you know which to buy! The journey planner option is slightly messier than DBs because it contains all the bus stops etc. and it does require proper german spellings so if you can't type umlauts you should add the extra e. For stops in Köln enter KÖLN as the place and then the stop name in the next box, eg "Köln/Bonn Flughafen" and "Dom/Hbf".

For the simple journey Airport to City Centre the fare is €2.30 each, this is actual valid to any stop in the Köln city zone using connecting trams or buses from Hbf.Since you won't be making a return jounrey on the same day this is the ticket to buy.

For Köln to Düsseldorf the single ticket is €9.30 but if you look at the other options the 5 person day ticket (after 09:00) is there at €26 saving you €11.20 for two people day return.

If you ask for Köln to Koblenz it will give times but not prices because you've gone outside NRW. The DB journey planner shows that as €16.10 single. By playing the system and buying the tickets in portions broken at Remagen you could get this price down but there is another way - do this trip on a Saturday or Sunday! The 5 person day ticket concept goes into overdrive at weekends. The unbelievable Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket costs €35 (for up to 5 people) and covers the whole of Germany by local train (and bus/ trams in some areas).

Just remember - stay away from IC/EC and ICE trains, for the length of journey you're planning you don't need them because they'll never be much faster than an RE and you can't use the cheap tickets. And never get on a train without a ticket because you can't buy them on board but can be fined for not having one.

Wow Steve that really is fantastic information mate, thank you so much for taking the time and trouble to type all that, this is so good that I am going to print it out and not only take it with us but also distribute it amongst other friends of ours who also take these kind of trips to this part of Germany, many thanks once again.

Best Regards
Sliema2

Your welcome, it came courtesy of a tickly cough which meant I couldn't get to sleep!

For future info for others, the same principle applies in all states. Koblenz is in Rheinland Pfalz which has an all state, 5 person, day ticket called Rheinland-Pfalz-Ticket for €26 and local tickets are from VRM. To check any state start at the Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket link, in the left border is a list of states which leads to the individual offers.

Thanks again Steve, that info was spot on mate, we had a great time travelling around the area by train, which of course meant that we could snaffle a few beers wherever we went and very nice it all was too, did notice however that rail fares have risen somewhat, still good value if 5 of you are traveliing but as there was just the 2 of us it wasn't such good value as last year.

Glad it helped.

I think DB long distance are trying to go more towards the cheap Advance Purchase/ Fixed reservation type ticket and the regions are going for the multi-use pass which all means that passengers making the occasional "turn up and go" journey are going to get caught out.

I'm hoping that more of the tourist regions will follow the Black Forest and build regional transport into the Guestcard for tourists. It's certainly encouraged me to spend more money in their region (at the expense of Oberbayern - I hope someone from Oberbayern notices this!!!)