Frankfurt to Stuttgart

[40fan]

Does anyone have experience with DB?

Two friends of mine hope to travel by rail from Frankfurt to Stuttgart next Saturday, returning the same day, and the fares seem to be very expensive.

Neither is very experienced in rail travel, one has never been on a train before and the other has only travelled between Greenbank and Manchester.

Any information will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Looks like it will cost you €70 return if you book an advance Savings fare on the DB site (standard/walk-on fare €122).
Buying further in advance it might be as low as €38 (€19 each way is usually the lowest fare available).
This is for a very fast route on high-speed trains taking 80-90 minutes.

Frankfurt-Stuttgart is about 200km or 125 miles, eg like St Pancras-Derby.
The EMT walk-up fares for this range from £87 (Off-Peak) to £173 (SOR full fare), though you might get a cheaper advance.

DB don't do discounted walk-up fares (no such thing as our off-peak "Saver" or Cheap Day Return).
Their discounts other than advance are based on various Bahncards for regular travellers (25/50%) for which you pay an annual fee.
There are cheap local and regional fares at weekends, but you can't use IC/ICE trains. For €42 you can travel throughout Germany on a Sat or Sun, but only on slower trains - Frankfurt-Stuttgart would take you over 3 hours.

 

[gordonthemoron]

To confirm, you can do Frankfurt-Stuttgart return next saturday for €42 for two people if you only use Regio trains (red ones) and S-Bahn, you will have to change 1 or 2 times, probably Mannheim or Heidelberg. It takes over 3 hours. The last train back is at 20:59

 

[40fan]

Thanks for the replies, my friends got thmselves sorted out by using the DB office in London. They enjoyed their journey.