Hi Debbie,
A
German Rail Pass covers ticket costs for trains in
Germany. Therefore, the
German Rail Pass is valid on trains that comprise of a connection from the
Frankfurt Airport to Rothenburg ob der Tauber.
A connection from the
Frankfurt Airport to
Rothenburg ob der Tauber takes about 3 hours in duration and involves 2 train changes along the way; once in
Würzburg and then once in Steinach.
Trains from
Frankfurt Airport to Würzburg are
ICE (
InterCity Express) high-speed trains on which reservations would be recommended during summer months and holidays, but probably not necessary other parts of the year.
Trains from Würzburg to Steinach and Steinach to Rothenburg ob der Tauber are regional trains, which do not even accept reservations. Therefore, the
German Rail Pass is all you would need to board.
For planning, you can view schedules by doing a search under 'Find Train Tickets' on the Rail Europe homepage,
www.raileurope.com. For a trip from the
Frankfurt Airport to
Rothenburg ob der Tauber, however, you would just have to break up your search once in
Würzburg.
For the station at the airport, just be sure to type 'Frankfurt Airport' in the field for the departure city. When you pull up the results of your search from
Frankfurt Airport to Würzburg, the station at the airport would be labeled as ‘F-Flughafen Fernbf’.
For
Rothenburg ob der Tauber to be recognized by
our site, you would type it as 'Rothenburg O D Taube'.
Therefore. to access schedules from the
Frankfurt Airport to
Rothenburg ob der Tauber, you would do one search from
'Frankfurt Airport' to 'Würzburg' and another search 'Würzburg' to 'Rothenburg O D Taube'.
Generally, when just accessing schedules for non-reservable trains in
Germany (i.e. the portion from Würzburg to Rothenburg), you would have to be sure the 'No' option is checked where it asks you 'Are you traveling with a rail pass?'.
If you'd like to book a reservation for an
ICE from
Frankfurt Airport to Würzburg, you would just indicate that you'll be traveling with the
German Rail Pass when you enter the criteria of your search for this segment.
Generally, reservable trains in
Germany can be booked up to 180 days in advance of a departure.