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Public Transportation Munich
96 Reviews Munich has one of the best and easiest-to-use public transport systems in Europe. While you can buy single tickets and "stripe tickets" (see the MVV website), the best deal for most tourists is to...
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Public Transport Hamburg
38 Reviews Hamburg is a pretty big city, Germany's second largest, and so getting around between neighbourhoods can require use of the excellent public transport system. There is a combination of U-bahn, S-bahn...
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Public Transport Düsseldorf
25 Reviews All you loyal readers of my Cologne page (thanks again to both of you) may recall that in March 2009 the Cologne city archive building collapsed, killing two people and damaging or destroying...
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Public Transport Stuttgart
25 Reviews At your first opportunity buy yourself a Stuttcard, your 3-day passport to a discounted break in the city, available from the tourist office in town or at the airport. You will benefit from free or...
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Karlsruher Verkehrsverbund - KVV Karlsruhe
2 Reviews Karlsruhe's townscape would not be complete without the yellow trams. They take you (almost) everywhere in town and its surroundings. There is no better way of getting around. Trams travel every 10...
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Getting There... Koblenz
13 Reviews We arrived by boat from Rudesheim which was a fantastic experience. On the boat we had commentary about all the castle's and little villages on the banks of the river Rhine and cost us 13 euro each to...
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Getting There By Train Leipzig
17 Reviews The main station at Leipzig is one of the worlds largest railway stations with a length of 298m, 24 platforms and 45m wide arches. Until 1934 the station had a Saxon and Prussian administration....
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trains Mainz
9 Reviews The red train crossing the bridge in this photo is the S8, which has come from Hanau by way of Frankfurt and the Frankfurt airport. From here it will go on to Mainz Süd (south station), Mainz...
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Airport - Connections and Airlines Munich
70 Reviews Munich's Franz Josef Strauss Airport (Airport Code: MUC) is located about 35 km (20 miles) to the north of Munich. In addition to being a hub airport for Lufthansa, the airport is used by many...
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Trains Hamburg
27 Reviews The InterCityExpress (ICE) trains coming in from the south stop at three different stations in Hamburg. The first is the Central Station. I don’t usually get off here, but I have changed trains here...
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Trains Düsseldorf
17 Reviews Photos: 1. A third-generation ICE train in Düsseldorf main station 2. An ICE train going through Montabaur station on the new high-speed line 3. The Loreley and the Rhine River from the train on...
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Trains Stuttgart
9 Reviews Stuttgart has a busy station, and with its location at the heart of central Europe, close to the borders of three nations, it has plenty of direct national and international trains. Some direct...
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Hauptbahnhof - the main train station Karlsruhe
1 Review Karlsruhe is easly reached by train. Normally you arrive at main train station and from there you can reach almost every point of the city and a lot of destinations in the surrounding suburbs by trams...
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Riding the Trains Koblenz
6 Reviews There is an InterCity train once an hour from Mainz to Koblenz. Half of these are direct trains from Frankfurt am Main. These trains take the scenic route through the Rhine Valley, passing by...
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Getting Around By Public Transport Leipzig
8 Reviews You can easily walk around the Old Town upon your arrival in Leipzig from the main train station. Most of the main sights/museums are there so you don’t have to worry for public transportation....
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cruise lines&ferries Mainz
2 Reviews Do note that Cruise line do not run in Winter or are limited to boring tea time cruise. Do check if the cruise are running if you are planning for a Rhine Cruise to visit the Rhine River castle and...
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By train Munich
62 Reviews Munich's Hauptbahnhof, or main train station, is quite an amazing transportation hub. You can think of it as 4 stations in one: The main tracks for the longer trains (tracks 11-26); two...
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Airport Hamburg
18 Reviews Hamburg has the oldest operational airport in the world, one that continues today to be a major transport hub. Germany's main airports are in Frankfurt and Berlin, but Hamburg handles plenty of...
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Airport Düsseldorf
21 Reviews With its own railway station, Duesseldorf Airport offers a comfortable alternative to get to the Airport by car. Over 350 trains, from street cars to the high-speed ICE, stop daily at the Duesseldorf...
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Airport Stuttgart
11 Reviews Stuttgart has its own airport, and it is well served for a city that is outside the main air traffic hubs. For budget flights one of Germany's main carriers, German Wings, now runs one of its central...
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Baden-Airport Karlsruhe
2 Reviews Unfortunately, there are no direct flights from the North of England to Karlsruhe, so I had to catch a train from Sheffield to London Paddington (which was on time, but 20 minutes into the journey,...
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Frankfurt-Hahn to Koblenz Koblenz
2 Reviews Despite the fact that there is a perfectly good airport located between Koblenz and Cologne, which has a direct rail link to the city most visitors will come to Koblenz via the airport at Frankfurt...
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Facts / General Information Leipzig
9 Reviews the leipzig airport is one of the most modern in Germany but it is also one of the emptiest. I guess they overestimated the flights that would come here... it's huge, dwarfing any of Berlin's 3...
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freeways Mainz
1 Review Mainz is about 30 minutes by car from the Main-Rhein airport in Frankfurt. Hire a car at the airport or use the train in order to get to Mainz. Most sights are in walking distance and you don't even...
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Take the bike Munich
16 Reviews Rent a bicycle at the main train station (Hauptbahnhof), Radius Bike Rental (near track 32), ride to Nymphenburg palace, Olympic park, BMW museum, English Garten and back to the train station. Perfect...
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Since the beginning of train rides the station not only had the purpose of organizing the train trips and giving shelter to the travellers, but also had the represent the cty. Stations were the gate to the city and the first building people used to see, when they arrived. Specially around 1900 the train stations of big cities were build like palaces. Examples: Hannnover, Wiesbaden, Stuttgart. Even today stations are build as representative buildings like in Berlin.
Is the German word for a major high-speed highway, motorway, or freeway. It is restricted to motor vehicles capable of driving at least 60 km/h (37 mph) with full control of access. The recommended speed is 130 km/h (81 mph) but has no set general speed limit. In Austria and Switzerland it is limited to 130 km/h and 120 km/h respectively. The true official German word of the autobahn is Bundesautobahn (BAB or Federal Motorway). They are built and maintained by the federal government. First appearing in the 1920's as "Reichsautobahn" (Freeways of the Reich). The Autobahn contains multiple lanes of traffic in each direction, separated by a center barrier with grade-separated junctions and access restricted to certain types of motor vehicles. The first road that turned into an "Autobahn" was constructed in 1931 between Cologne and Bonn by Konrad Adenauer (Lord May of Cologne) and was called...
For the legal point of view, see the explanations by the German Ministry of Transport and other stuff at http://www.bmvbs.de/en/Transport/Roads-,1900.963881/Validity-of-foreign-driving-li.htm . In short: Any domestic license that follows annex 6 of the 1968 United Nations Convention of Road Traffic (http://www.unece.org/trans/conventn/crt1968e.pdf ) is valid, no international license is needed in that case.Now, while the US signed that treaty, at least Florida doesn't care; my license neither follows the standard A to E categories for vehicles nor does it have numbered entries and the small „permis de conduire“ printed somewhere.Your results may vary.
Going by car on German autobahns is different then in other countries. When I was in the States some years ago I was little afraid of the traffic in L.A. but I got into it very good. Because even of the huge load of cars it was pretty easy going. Going on German autobahn makes me tired pretty soon because I think you have to be very concentrated because driving is fast and - because of that - sometimes also pretty aggressive. In some parts there is no speed limit (although these parts get less and less...) and you sometimes have these people with fast cars that think the autobahn belongs to them - especially the left lane, so you get a light blinking if you do not hurry. However pushing is forbidden, so do not get frightened. If someone is too crazy and too impatient this makes me very calm - at least I try to do so... Overtaking on the right lane is forbidden, too. If you are lucky...
A few remarks that are the result of observations during one single ICE ride… Germans ask, “Is this seat free?” not “Is it taken?” If the German does not understand your question he will answer “No” if the seat is taken by someone else. I have observed misunderstandings because of that more than once. Seat reservations are valid for no longer than 15 minutes after departure. Afterwards the seat may taken by someone else if it stayed empty. If you leave your seat e. g. for a visit to the restaurant car, put a newspaper/jacket/scarf/bag on it to mark it as taken. Telling someone in your surroundings that you'll be back is recommended. Smokers: German trains are entirely non-smoking. This includes the toilets! Luggage: Dealing with it is entirely your own problem. Blocking extra seats with your luggage is considered extremely bad manners if the train is full and other people don’t find...
Looking up public transport options, you'll come across the term Verkehrsverbund in many cities and regions. A Verkehrsverbund is a cooperation of (more or less) all public transport carriers in a certain area. You buy one ticket and, for example, hop on the tram to the train station, then on a local train to a neighbouring city and take the bus there to your final destination. In the Verkehrsverbund area you can use all different means of transport with the same ticket: buses, trams, metro/underground, and local trains, in some of them also ferry boats. Participants usually include cities and districts, public and private bus companies, and Deutsche Bahn, but only with their local trains (RE, IRE, RB, S-Bahn). Note that Verkehrsverbund tickets are NEVER!!!! valid on long-distance trains (ICE, IC, EC) even if the entire trip happens inside the Verbund area. The area of a ...
Germans are generally very organized and invent clever plans and systems to make everything work perfectly - as soon as you understand how it works. At first, however, things may be confusing. So here are my instructions of use about seat reservations... 1. Your reservation ticket The reservation ticket will state something like "1 Sitzplatz, Wg. 4, Pl. 27, 1 Gang, Tisch, Nichtraucher" (I'm using my last week's one here). This translates to:1 Sitzplatz - number of seats reserved.Wg. 4 = "Wagen 4" - the car number.Pl. 27 = "Platz 27" - the seat numberGang/Mitte/Fenster - aisle/middle/window (position of seat)Großraum/Abteil/Tisch - type of compartment: "Großraum" is the large plane-like compartment with centre aisle, "Abteil" is a small compartment that seats 5 or 6, "Tisch" (table) are the seats at the tables in a part of the Großraum compartment, each table seats 4 (sometimes 3), in 1st...
Dealing with your luggage is entirely your own problem. There is no official weight or size limit. Friends of mine actually moved from Rome to Frankfurt by train.Your physical forces set the limit. You may pack and take as much as you want but be warned, don’t pack more than you can handle on your own. This includes carrying your stuff up and down stairs since not all stations are equipped with escalators or lifts, lifting it onto the train and onto the luggage racks on board. Some cars have shelf-like luggage racks in the middle of the car, these hold hardly more than half a dozen suitcases and are thus likely to be full. The largest space for luggage is on the racks above the seats, i.e. the luggage has to be lifted up above your head. If you ask nicely, people will help you, but be prepared to deal with your stuff by yourself. There are luggage carts available inside the stations...
The number of the platform resp. track (Gleis) where your train is scheduled to depart is written on your timetable printout from the internet and on your online ticket. This information can also be found on the yellow departure timetables at the station. Always double-check on the big departure board* in the station hall (photo 1 and 2). Platforms are frequently changed due to delays, ongoing repair works or ‘just because’. This board and the smaller ones at each platform (photo 3) have the updated and valid information.*The board states, from left to right: departure time, train type and number, some but not all(!) stops along the way, the final destination in larger letters, the track number, and delays or other problems if there are any (none here).Boarding the train is completely unceremonious. You hop on and look for a seat. There is no check-in and no security check. Your...
Some travellers rent a car to travel around Germany, but she found the cheapest and most interesting way to travel around Germany. It's the website, but language is in German only (but you can find some online translation tool to help you understand the message).
Circus - The Hostel Berlin
7 Reviews and 710 Opinions Having previously stayed in the Central and Western Ku'Dam area I decided on my 3rd visit to stay in...
Kempinski Hotel Airport Munchen Munich
7 Reviews and 482 Opinions I stayed here one night when my flight was cancelled due to technical reasons. This hotel is a high...
Hotel Domstern Cologne
4 Reviews and 245 Opinions We stayed at the Hotel Domstern for two nights, based on online reviews. Always a bit hesitant when...
Reviews and photos of Germany attractions posted by real travelers and locals. The best tips for Germany sightseeing.
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Q: Is May a good time to travel down the rhine river? What is the best and most scenic stretch to travel along? How would you...
A: I would look at www.d-k.de. website. They have Great Boat Trips starting at Dusseldorf or Cologne all the Way to Mainz, passing Koblenz And Lorelei .... The strech...
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