train from hamburg to copenhagen

Certainly not necessary, but if you buy them 90 days before your planned departure, Sparpreis fares are 98 EUR vs 170 EUR walk-up price, total for 2. Sparpreis tickets are refundable for a 17.50 EUR fee up to the day before departure.

Hi Olivia,

As Sam already noted, it's usually not a problem to buy German train tickets at the station a day or two ahead, but you can save money by buying them ahead through the German Rail website, Deutsch Bahn - http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

It's an interesting train trip because the train cars will actually board the ferry in Putgarten. I dropped my rental car at Lübeck airport last May, caught the quick commuter train into the station and then purchased tickets to Copenhagen. Of course this was from Lübeck, but I don't recall it being near 170 Euros. The train continues to the ferry terminal and Putgarten, upon which the cars are towed onto the train. The passengers must disembark and head up into the ferry where there is seating and a restaurant. Then you head back to the train cars and they are attached to a Danish engine for the ride across the Danish countryside to the main station in Copenhagen.

Of course this was from Lübeck, but I don't recall it being near 170 Euros.

The current list price for a single 2nd class passenger from Luebeck is 73.80 EUR. Two passengers usually cost twice one passenger.

Makes sense. I misread and didn't realize that was a price for "two tickets".

The ticket you used was a Quer-durchs-Land-Ticket (QdLT), which is like a Länder-Ticket or Regional Pass but for the entire country, not just one state. It's valid on week days (after 9 am) vs the Schönes-Wochenende Ticket which is valid all day on a weekend day.

Durch mean through, in German. Durch das Land (through the Land) is contracted to durchs Land. When you add quer (crosswise) to durch, the two together mean "all across", so Quer durchs Land means all across the country vs the Länder-Ticket (eg, Bayern-Ticket) which are just for one state (or group of states).

At least that's the way I understand it.

It's probably too slow, and you would still have to do something in Denmark, but the Schleswig-Holstein-Ticket (a Länder-Ticket) is also valid in the inner two rings of Hamburg, so you could use it to go from Hamburg to the Danish border.

thank you for your replies.

yes, I remember using a deutsch bahn (db) ticket from munich to Salzburg (I think Bayern) and a db ticket from Bacharach to wissembourg in france. these 2 tickets were part of the promo for the db because Salzburg and wissembourg are sort of in the border.

would anyone know the train station in the border of Germany and Denmark so I can make use of a db ticket and then research from this station to Copenhagen?

thanks much.

oh yes, I checked the train path. the border train station is Roedby in Denmark.

has anyone done the hamburg - roedby, then switch to the Danish train for the roedby - Copenhagen ride? or is it not even worth doing?

thanks.

The train continues to Copenhagen, so why bother. I don't believe there is any such a special ticket over this route. After all, they load the train on a ferry boat and hall it over the straight to Denmark. The advance purchase ticket is the way to go.

It is one train, you do not change trains, they just make everyone leave the bottom of the ferry for the crossing. And there are great views on deck.

We did this in 2014, or at least attempted to. We had bought tickets several months prior. Get to station, and after sitting on a train with no AC for several minutes past departure time there is an announcement and everyone is ordered off. Train cancelled, and a local to Lubeck is held and lengthened, we are told to get on and go to Lubeck and catch a bus. At Lubeck 4 buses are waiting We go to Putgarden and get on that same ferry (probably the next crossing) and get the experience. We can see the tracks on the bottom deck for where a train would be. Bus continues after crossing, and in 1/2 hour drops us in Nykobing, where we wait and get on a train on the same line we would have had, but local. And on to Copenhagen. Frustrating because we would have come in 2:15PM, this brought us in 4:30 at the height of rush hour, and having to then negotiate a new train station for cash and the Copenhagen card (and before anyone asks, we ahd already done the math, the 5 day cards started the next AM were big money savers for us, especially in terms of transit), and then mill through intense pedestrian traffic to our lodging.

I just winged it and bought the tickets in Lübeck and everything worked fine. As noted by others I probably could have saved money purchasing in advance. The ferry crossing was pretty choppy, but it was fun. I had gone across on the ferry in 1977 as a kid with my parents. That time we drove our Ford Fiesta onto the ferry and then on to Copenhagen. So it was a bit of nostalgia for me.

One plus in Copenhagen is that the main station is right in the heart of everything, literally within sight of Tivoli Gardens and many hotels nearby.

yes, that is an interesting ride. you mean, the train is loaded onto the bottom of the ferry and goes back out of the ferry when the ferry docks in denmark. either the train only has a few cars or the ferry is big to accommodate many train cars.

Apparently the only train that goes across on the ferry from Puttgarden to Roedby is the ICE. You could go from Hamburg to Puttgarden (~3 hrs) by regional train using the Schleswig-Holstein-Ticket, then go across Denmark on the ferry and from Roedbyhavn to Copenhagen by Danish Rail.

The only all-regional route I see goes from Hamburg to Toender, Denmark, which is the border station for the Schleswig-Holstein-Ticket, then across the Island of Funen to Copenhagen. It takes 12 hours, over twice what the ICE takes.

I did a search on bahn.de for a random date in July and found a direct ICE train at 7.24 in the morning for 29 EUR per ticket. If you wan't to save a bit of money at the expense of convenience, I would prefer getting up early rather than having to change trains multiple times.

It is an ICE train, but it is only three cars, so it fits the ferry. Barely.

we are ready to buy our train tkts from hamburg to Copenhagen. is the 17.50 refundable fee for 1 person or 2?

has anyone tried to refund these tkts? just wondering how it is done.

thanks.

I believe it is per ticket. So if you have one ticket for 2 people, it's 17,50€. It is per direction, so if you have a round trip ticket and you want to change or refund both directions, it's 35€.

I haven't confirmed it, but this is what I believe to be true.

17,50€ is what would be what's deducted from what you paid for the ticket if you want a refund before the day of travel.

If you want to exchange the ticket up to the day before travel, you essentially get a refund (less 17,50€), then apply the refund to the current price of the ticket you want (could be another SparPreis ticket at the price that day).

On the day of travel, you can't get a refund in cash. You can apply what you paid minus 17,50€ towards a "voucher" (Zusatzkarte, or additional ticket) at full price for the same trains, route, passengers as the original Sparpreis ticket. You can only use the Zusatzkarte in conjunction with the original ticket.