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Cheapest method of transportation in Germany?

I plan on travelling around Germany for a month, and I prefer to travel by bus because it is much cheaper than a train but I'm struggling to find tickets for specific days. I want to avoid buying a Eurail/DB Bahn pass, so when I looked on the DB Bahn website to book train tickets they were still expensive. Are there any other bus/train companies that are cheaper to go through (I know the Czech Republic has Student Agency...)

Posted by
19052 posts

I'm not sure Eurolines (bus) can carry passenger within Germany. Anyway, their number of cities is limited. The trouble with regional buses in Germany is that they are meant to supplement the trains, not compete with them, so often you won't find the bus as an al·ternative if there is a train line. If you are looking at short trips, point-point tickets are often the best deal. For a lot of traveling in a day, particularly within a single state, use Laender-Tickets, all day passes for on/off travel on regional trains and most public buses. Most states have Laender-Tickets single for around €21 per person per day. By the way, the Laender-Ticket link above is in English and is incomplete and has some errors. Since you will be spending a month in Germany, I assume you understand some German. In that case, look up the German language side of Bahn.de for Laender-Tickets. It's more complete.

Posted by
12040 posts

What Lee said. Buses (and the Straßenbahn) in Germany operate like the spokes of a wheel. The main train station of a city is the hub, and the bus lines take you to the surrounding towns, but not between cities. Going directly through Deutsche Bahn will offer you the cheapest prices if you know what to look for. If you are comfortable setting your itinerary in stone well in advanced, you can get significant discounts on long-distance trains. Because you'll be in Germany for a month, it might (emphasis on "might") be worth purchasing a Bahn Card. These will allow you to buy tickets, including advanced discount tickets, for 25, 50 or 100% discount. Obviously, the higher the discount, the higher the initial cost of the card. Also, be aware that a Bahn Card is a yearly subscription, so unless you cancel it, it will automatically renew. It's impossible to know if a Bahn Card will be worth your money unless you have an idea of your itinerary.

Posted by
693 posts

Alexis, there's something called a "Mitfahrzentrale" in various locations in Germany. This is a registry for sort of sharing the ride. Some advertise that they are "kostenlos" - free of charge. I haven't checked into it at all, just wanted to make you aware of it. I would guess that this is used mostly by student age people and that you can find these mostly in university towns (of which there are many in Germany). Might be worth checking out; I'd suspect that one might have to at least chip in for gas and/or help with the driving. If you google it, you'll find several web sites. It might be worthwhile checking with university web sites, too.