I've been looking at some of the nice Harz region towns like Bad Harzburg, Quedlinburg etc and did some research on rome to rio about pubic transportation connections. It seemed that things were not as efficient as in the more populated parts of Germany understandably but all in all pretty slow. Has anyone travelled much in this region by public transportation?
Posted by
Washington DC
27646 posts
I'm not clear on the precise extent of the Harz region, but in 2015 I used Erfurt (pretty and lively university town) as a base for train/bus visits to Eisenach, Lauscha (an obscure destination not of general interest), and Weimar/Buchenwald. I then moved on to Quedlinburg (loved it). From there I moved farther north to Schwerin.
Lauscha was somewhat challenging to reach, but I didn't think the other trips were bad. However, I was not pressed for time.
I use Rome2Rio a lot to see where train vs. bus service is available and to get at least a vague idea of which mode of transportation might work best, but I find the trip-duration and fare information often wildly inaccurate. Use the Deutsche Bahn website for train info. For buses, drill down through Rome2Rio to find a link to the appropriate bus-company website, or Google "Bus Quedlingburg to XXX", etc. The DB has some great deals on regional trips, which can be explored here.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19238 posts
I spent a week in Braunlage, in the Harz, in 2008. I had no trouble getting around by public transportation. That includes not only trains, but buses. The trains are on the flat lands north and south of the mountains; travel in the interior of the park is by bus. One day I just took buses and explored other parts of the mountains (St. Andreasberg, Clausthal-Zellerfeld). Another day I took the bus to Bad Harzburg, then took the train to Wernigerode. I could have gone on to Quedlinburg, but I spent all day in Wernigerode. And another day I used the bus to get to Schierke, from which I took the narrow gauge train to the top of the Brocken.
I think that the Bahn Schedule website has better information about transport in this area than does Rome to Rio.
Posted by
London, United Kingdom
4684 posts
There are buses in the area, they aren't as frequent as in big cities but they're pretty reliable. The site for local buses is http://hvb-harz.de/, but while it has detailed info it is only available in German.
If you are staying in the area, you may well get a free bus pass from your hotel when you pay the tourist tax at check-in, so don't buy any passes before that.