cheap transportation throughout europe

Kirstin, thanks for sharing this great idea. As my children get older for oversea European study, I will certainly share this info w/them and w/others who I know are on limited budget and want to visit Europe. It seems to me a great way to meet some very interesting people.

oh great!

i also found another alternative and may even be cheaper in someways.

http://www.touring.de/index.php?id=2&L=1

it's in english too. it's going by a chartered bus. and don't worry, it's not like the greyhound.

plus, it's about the same hourly duration as a train ride.

There are a lot of less expensive train options from Hamburg to Frankfurt.

If you go by highspeed ICE, the trip takes an hour less than by car and would be far more comfortable. Although the full fare is almost €100, if you had a car full (four people), you could split a RT SparPreis ticket one way for €58 pP. Further, if you have some flexibility and plan ahead, a Dauer-Spezial fare is as low as €29 pP.

Again, for four people, you could split a Niedersachsen- and a Hessen-Ticket for €55 total (€13,75 pP). Or, on a weekend, use a Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket for €8,25 pP for four people. The regional trains required with the Länder tickets would take longer than a car, but, in addition to the low cost, would be far more comfortable than being crammed into a car.

the regional tickets are great and so are the wochende tickets. but that's if you stay within one state. usually i don't have a group of 5, but people wait by the ticket machines asking if you want to split the group ticket. and for me to go into hamburg is only 6 euros! whereas normally it would be about 16 euros.

but those dauer spezial tickets for $29 are almost IMPOSSIBLE to get. there are a limited amount and are always sold out. i have know idea how people get those so quickly.

I would just like to add that car (or bus) and train are not equally fast. Where there are high-speed tracks (e.g. between Cologne and Frankfurt, Kassel and Frankfurt, Nuremberg and Munich etc etc) train wins several hours over car. But apart from that fact bus is a good low budget alternative. Also keep in mind that there are plenty of very cheap domestic flights operated by TUIfly.com, Germanwings.com, AirBerlin.com and even Lufthansa. Plus on many of them you can but a €19 one way rail and public transport ticket to take you to the departure airport of your choice from anywhere within Germany. And you can rail travel even the day prior to your flight in case you want to do sightseeing in that area. Of course you can buy another of those rail&fly tickets for the part of your journey after the flight.

The Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket is valid all over German, regardless of state boundaries, but, of course, only on weekends. From Hamburg to Frankfurt, you pass only through the validity areas of Niedersachsen and Hessen, so you only need those Länder tickets (€55 total). It should be no more difficult to arrange a Länder-Ticket "pool" for, say, four people, than a car pool for four people. In fact, you could do it for five people (€11 each) on the train. Most European cars I have been in don't really have space for five people and their luggage.

As for the Dauer-Spezial, it came out about the first of July, and many of the cheapest tickets were quickly snapped up. However, I was able to find some €29 tickets from Hamburg to Frankfurt for a day in August and for a day in September, picked at random, but I had to look for a time of that day when they were available. In all cases, there were also €49, and even €39, tickets available for several times that day.