Getting to Nuremberg, Germany from Dublin

WildRosie

I need to get to Nuremberg for the weekend of 6-9 June. There are no direct flights so after a lot of searching, the best I've come up with is fly to Frankfurt with Lufthansa and get a train from the airport. I think I've looked at most options, via Paris, Amsterdam, London etc and this seems the most cost effective and quickest. Luthansa do fly there via Frankurt but it's very expensive (€380 now against €160 when I first checked). The budget airlines don't suit as we have to bring checked luggage and with a stopover we'd be looking at €200 in baggage fees.

I'm not asking for anyone to go looking for flights for me, but am hoping someone might be familiar with travelling to that area and be able to tell me if there's a better way that I'm missing. It's a long time since I've booked flights and just want to get it right. Thanks!

Noelsagan

Have you considered flying to Munich instead? You should have cheaper airlines than Lufthansa going to Munich out of Dublin. Munich airport is north of the city and you can get a 635 bus outside the terminal that will take you into nearby Freising. From Freising you can get the train to Nurnberg in under 2 hours .Better still Nurnberg is also in Bavaria (although the Nurnbergers insist they're Franconian) so you can take advantage of the Bayern Lander ticket where up to 5 people can travel for about €30 in total. Check Deutsche Bahn for the timetables from Freising and also details of the Bayern ticket.

I made this journey a couple of years ago when I realised that I'd booked flights to Munich during Oktoberfest and that the hotels were going to cost a fortune. Nurnberg was a cheaper alternative for 3-4 days and it worked out really well as it's a beautiful and fascinating city.

Gute reise!

Galadriel

WildRosie wrote: »

I need to get to Nuremberg for the weekend of 6-9 June. There are no direct flights so after a lot of searching, the best I've come up with is fly to Frankfurt with Lufthansa and get a train from the airport. I think I've looked at most options, via Paris, Amsterdam, London etc and this seems the most cost effective and quickest. Luthansa do fly there via Frankurt but it's very expensive (€380 now against €160 when I first checked). The budget airlines don't suit as we have to bring checked luggage and with a stopover we'd be looking at €200 in baggage fees.

I'm not asking for anyone to go looking for flights for me, but am hoping someone might be familiar with travelling to that area and be able to tell me if there's a better way that I'm missing. It's a long time since I've booked flights and just want to get it right. Thanks!

Off to Rock Am Ring? Went a few years ago, had a ball. We flew into Frankfurt and then hired a car and drove.

zagmund

I think that's about the best you are going to get. Fly to FRA, train (from inside the airport) to Nuremberg. It's as easy as things come. The train fare is pretty good value - you can use the Fly & Rail fare from Lufthansa for (I think) €49 per direction for the train, but at the moment you can book a normal fare for €29 directly with DB so there's no advantage to Fly & Rail unless the online fares go up.

You get the advantage of 23kg luggage allowance with LH, no issues at all with luggage on the train, etc . . . and a single transfer point. Short of flying direct it's going to be impossible to beat.

z

WildRosie

Thank you all.

Noelsagan, Munich doesn't seem to be any cheaper when you factor in baggage charges. Ryanair don't have flights on the Tuesday which doesn't really suit. Thanks for the link to the train website.

Galadriel, Rock Im Park. Can't wait! Looked into hiring a car, but we're staying in a hotel so would have to pay for parking, plus I'd be worried that we'd be a bit worse for wear coming back on the Tuesday morning. I read somewhere that the festival ticket gives you free travel on the trams and buses in the city. Do you know if that's true?

zagmund, I think you're probably right. Our hotel is just across the road from the train station in Nuremberg and I think the fare will be about €60 return. It's really more convenient than flying to Nuremberg, this way it's one flight and one train as against two flights and a train. I didn't know about the Fly & Rail offer, thanks for the tip. I'll definitely keep it in mind if I miss the boat on the low fares (again).

Thanks everyone for your input, I'm pretty happy with flying to Frankfurt and getting the train. Just didn't want to miss a much easier way of getting there.

zagmund

There are a couple of eating areas in Frankfurt airport. You have to pass from the airport, through the u-bahn station and on to the long distance train station. We didn't even look at the ones in the airport itself. There's a good (and good value) food court in the u-bahn station with all the usual sort of fast & somewhat healthy foods. There's also a couple of what appeared to be more posh (and expensive) places in the long distance station as well as a supermarket.

Give yourself a good 90-120 minutes or more between the flight arrival and the train departure and you can get some food into you so you don't arrive in Nuremberg starving after leaving Ireland 6 or 7 hours earlier.

z

[edit] don't count on anything to eat in the DB lounge in Frankfurt if you buy a first class ticket. We ambled down at silly o'clock waiting for a very early train and were greeted by a cold looking room, with coffee, tea or hot chocolate. And that was all. Not even a twin pack of ginger nuts. Or an apple. Or a danish pasty. Nothing. It was awful. On the other hand coming back from Munich we were served beer, soup, sandwiches and gummy bears in the lounge.

munchkin_utd

ryanair fly from stansted to Nürnberg so might be an option if youre happy to risk the connection.

WildRosie

We definitely won't be flying first class. Would be nice though! Yeah we'll definitely get something to eat before we get the train. I think they feed you on Lufthansa but doubt it'll be much.

munchkin_utd I looked at that but the flight is first thing in the morning so we'd have to stay in Stansted the night before. We have to take checked baggage also so it would work out very expensive. Thanks though.

I've booked the Lufthansa flights this morning anyway. €396 for the two of us, about €60 cheaper than Aer Lingus and we can get the train from the station at the airport to within a few minutes walk of our hotel in Nuremberg. Flight times are perfect too, we'll be in Nuremberg by 1pm giving us plenty of time to get the arena for the first acts and our flight back is at 4pm, so will leave Nuremberg at about 11am or a bit before and be in Dublin shortly after 5pm. I was livid that the flights to Nuremberg had gone up so much but I think this way is much better, only two journeys from Dublin airport as against three.

Thanks everyone for your help, was great to know that I wasn't missing anything glaringly obvious.