Germany 1st time May 2017

Jomond1

Hi All,
I'm visiting Germany in May for a week, Hamburg to Berlin, I was going to hire a car but they all seem to require a credit card (which I do not possess because I don't want one) I have a debit card with more than sufficent funds but was told it has to be a credit card....is this correct?
I was considering purchasing a one country inter rail are they value for money?
Do you have to pay and reserve seats also?

Would appreciate any help...Thanks.

b_mac2

I've rented cars plenty of times over there with my debit card.

Cheshire Cat

Hamburg and Berlin both have brilliant public transport. You don't need a car there. It's also fast and fairly cheap to take a train from Hamburg to Berlin. The trick is to book as much in advance as possible. The cheapest way is to commit to a specific train (Zugpreisbindung) Have a look on https://www.bahn.com/en/view/index.shtml

spurious

The Germans have all sorts of special offers for train travel, especially at weekends.

otnomart

Take the train http://www.seat61.com/Germany-trains.htm

VG31

Jomond1 wrote: »

Hi All,
I'm visiting Germany in May for a week, Hamburg to Berlin, I was going to hire a car but they all seem to require a credit card (which I do not possess because I don't want one) I have a debit card with more than sufficent funds but was told it has to be a credit card....is this correct?

Most car hire firms require a credit card. It's Germany though, the public transport is excellent (and cheap); I would not advise hiring a car.

Jomond1 wrote: »

I was considering purchasing a one country inter rail are they value for money?

Unless you are travelling on trains throughout the country for a long period they're not worth buying. Just use day tickets in Berlin and Hamburg and buy a separate ticket for the intercity train journey.

Jomond1 wrote: »

Do you have to pay and reserve seats also?

It's optional. You'll most likely be OK if travelling off-peak but if you want to be sure of seats together reserve seats. It doesn't cost much more.

For booking trains in Germany use the Deutsche Bahn site (https://www.bahn.com/) only. Any other reseller sites will charge you much more. The Intercity-Express (ICE) high-speed trains take only 1 hr 45 mins from Hamburg to Berlin. I advise buying tickets a few weeks in advance to get the cheapest price. Buy the savings fare which is restricted to one train departure. Fares appear to start from €24. The flexible tickets cost a lot more. Enter Hamburg Hbf to Berlin Hbf on the Deutsche Bahn site to see the prices (Hauptbahnhof = main station).

I highly recommend that you take a day trip from Hamburg to Lübeck, a Hanseatic city and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Regional trains from Hamburg to Lübeck take 45 mins. You should buy the Schleswig-Holstein ticket which costs €14.30 and includes all regional trains and buses in the state of Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg (including city transport) for the day.

munchkin_utd

b_mac2 wrote: »

I've rented cars plenty of times over there with my debit card.

grand, where ? And what "debit card" have you got and is it issued in Ireland or where ?
I've only ever seen car hire firms in Germany accept German bank cards, so possibly even bypassing all of the american debit / credit card providers and using a straight bank direct debit mandate. And even then you'd be paying every optional insurance and cash deposits.

nevertheless, unless you have a valid pressing need to hire a car (carrying 100s of kg of equipment, going 100s of km into the wilderness, lugging intransigent kids etc) it makes no sense to hire a car

You can get from Berlin to Hamburg for €19 euros by high speed train if you are reasonably flexible and book in advance and you can even get an sbahn (suburban train) journey for free before and after if you need to get to and from where the intercity train goes from.

b_mac2

munchkin_utd wrote: »

grand, where ? And what "debit card" have you got and is it issued in Ireland or where ?.

Warum heulst du so herum?

I used my Irish issued Visa debit card with this crowd- https://www.buchbinder.de/de/stationen/autovermietung-stuttgart/mietwagen-stuttgart-flughafen.html - in Stuttgart airport.

Jomond1

Thanks people for your advice.

I believe that Hamburg train station has storage lockers for luggage, does anyone know the rate they charge for this service ?

joeysoap

Munich was €4 for a day in november, so probably similar. We needed €1 coins

Cheshire Cat

€4 for a small locker and €6 for a big one. Price is per 24h

MightyMandarin

The key with DB is to book at least a month out and choose a train that either goes really early or really late. Typically the fair costs €24 at the cheapest.

Alternatively, I'd recommend Flixbus, as it's usually slightly slower than the train but almost always cheaper. There's plenty of tickets that go for €10 and it doesn't depend on time of day, like DB fares tend to be. The buses are also really, really, comfortable and have wifi and toilets on them aswell.

I have a Bahncard, so I normally get 25% off DB fares, but I still take flixbus most times as it's cheaper and as reliable/more reliable than DB in terms of delays.

Jomond1

I shall be travelling from Hamburg to Schwerin, then onto Berlin, would it be worth me getting some kind of travel pass? I shall also be using public transport for viewing the sights in and around Berlin and Hamburg.
Any insights would be great..

MightyMandarin

Jomond1 wrote: »

I shall be travelling from Hamburg to Schwerin, then onto Berlin, would it be worth me getting some kind of travel pass? I shall also be using public transport for viewing the sights in and around Berlin and Hamburg.
Any insights would be great..

I don't know of any pass worth getting for 2 journeys tbh. Probably best to look at Flixbus and DB for links, and since Schwerin is decently sized it should be serviced by Flixbus pretty well.

For Berlin, as I don't know Hamburg well, depending on how long you're there for you could get a week ticket although they're quite expensive; €30+ I think.

Alternatively you can get 4 tickets for €9, which is better than buying individual tickets for sure. No matter how many stops you take they'll charge you €2.80 each time and the ticket lasts for 2.5 hours after you stamp it in the machine, so you can hop on-hop off as much as you like during that time.

The first time I was there, I only stayed for 4 days which kinda left me in no-man's land between buying individual tickets and a week pass, so what I did (with the help of my mate who lives in Berlin) was to buy a used week ticket from some dodgy looking guy at the station for a tenner. Once I checked the date and everything it worked fine, although it's obviously illegal to do. I'm not gonna recommend it, but if you know someone in the city, they might know of some tricks to the system to get the cheapest deal.

Jomond1

Do I need to reserve seats for going to Schwerin and Berlin?

VG31

Jomond1 wrote: »

Do I need to reserve seats for going to Schwerin and Berlin?

Direct trains from Schwerin to Berlin are Regional (RE) trains. You can't reserve seats on regional trains.

MightyMandarin

Jomond1 wrote: »

Do I need to reserve seats for going to Schwerin and Berlin?

You can reserve seats on DB ICE trains (with a fee of course), but not Flixbus. You should be able to get a seat on either though.

Geuze

Jomond1 wrote: »

Do I need to reserve seats for going to Schwerin and Berlin?

The direct trains take 2h30, cost 27 euro, and are regional trains, so no reservations.

www.bahn.de

Geuze

Jomond1 wrote: »

I shall be travelling from Hamburg to Schwerin, then onto Berlin, would it be worth me getting some kind of travel pass? I shall also be using public transport for viewing the sights in and around Berlin and Hamburg.
Any insights would be great..

There are three types of rail passes:

(1) Lander ticket = one state, one day, regional trains only


There are regional daily rail passes, Lander ticket, but it seems that you will be passing through three Lander, so they may not make sense.

https://www.bahn.com/en/view/offers/regional/index.shtml?dbkanal_007=L04_S02_D002_KIN0059_FLYOUT-ANGEBOTE-REGIONAL-ANGEBOTE_LZ01


(2) Schones-Wochenende ticket [Happy Weekend ticket] = whole country, one day, Sat or Sun, regional trains only = 40 euro


(3) Quer-durchs-Land-Ticket
(for all of Germany)

Whole country, one day, regional trains = 44 euro

Geuze

Rail maps - long-distance trains

https://www.bahn.com/en/view/mdb/bahnintern/angebotsberatung/sparpreis/mdb_241246_db-fernverkehr-12-2016.pdf


All maps:

https://www.bahn.de/p/view/service/fahrplaene/streckennetz.shtml