So what is the thriftier approach, buying rail tickets to a major German city and combining that with an on-line hotel deal, or buying a package deal inclusive of accommodation from a vendor affiliated with the train network? Like so much in life, it all depends.

AMEROPA is a travel agency associated with Deutsche Bahn that sells hotel and rail combination deals. Presuming that it has an offer on accommodation in a place you actually want to go, and your travel takes place from a major train station, it can sometimes offer you significant savings.

So, let’s experiment and see if we can save some euros here. Our hypothetical couple, Bob and Shirley, wishes to go to Berlin on the third weekend in August 2007. They will depart from Stuttgart on a Friday and return on Sunday.

Because Bob and Shirley are thrifty folk and are booking their train tickets early, they can probably get a reduced fare. Let’s go on-line and look. While it appears the “Sparpreise 50” tickets are no longer available, they still can take advantage of a “Dauer-Spezial” and get tickets for 138 euros each round trip. So the travel portion of their trip will cost them 276 euros.

But what if Bob and Shirley decide to plan their weekend getaway using AMEROPA? For 282 euros total, they could get not only tickets on a ICE train for those dates, but also two nights in the two-star Hotel Ibis Berlin Spandau, breakfast included. If they would prefer to stay in the city center, they could upgrade to the four-star Holiday Inn in Berlin-Mitte for a combined cost of just 342 euros.

When considering an AMEROPA package, be forewarned that while you have the passage on a train booked, you still don’t have any actual seat reservations for the chosen day of travel, but rather a voucher good for a certain class of travel, valid for a 30-day period. So, your next order of business would be to march over to the train station and get seating sorted out.

Granted, it won’t always work, but why not play around with AMEROPA’s Web site, or pay a visit to their office, before traveling by rail? You never know…