Arrival by plane
The main international airport (Flughafen) in Germany is in Frankfurt, located in the West of the country. The airport is large, one of the busiest in Europe and is not easy to navigate. There are numerous lounges available, the best being the Lufthansa First Class terminal - available for all passengers flying Lufthansa or Swiss First Class. Munich is also a major airport located in the South of the country, but with fewer international flights than Frankfurt. Naturally, there are numerous other smaller airports.
For the most parts, airports are easy to reach with a comprehensive rail network, offering local and intercity connections directly from the airport. Book in advance on Bahn.de and make sure you bring the credit card you used to buy the ticket with. Internal flights tend to be a similar price to the train - check out Air Berlin, Lufthansa and German Wings. For airport transfers to major cities, we recommend using Blacklane Limousines - use code 4NMXMSYB for €10 off your booking. CarDriving in Germany is easy - hiring a car is cheap (we pay around €100 for a 3 day weekend hire of a Mercedes C class) and there is a lot of space on the roads. If you're hiring, note that diesel is 15% cheaper than petrol, so it may be worth paying extra for a diesel powered car. The famous German Autobahns offer a fast option between cities, especially where there is no speed limit. Watch out for restricted areas though, because the speed cameras aren't painted bright yellow as they are in the UK; instead they tend to be camouflaged.
Driving, as in most of Europe, is on the right side of the road. Service stations (Rasthöfe) are frequent and tend to serve decent food. Toilets are always clean, although you may need to pay 50 cents to use them. This website has a decent overview of driving in Germany. |
Train travelTrain travel within Germany tends to be a pleasant experience - First class is a reasonable price, services tend to run on time and the trains are usually clean. A buffet car can be found on longer inter-city routes. Within cities, the S-bahn and U-bahn networks run efficiently and are cheap.
If speed isn't too important, check out the Ländertickets and Happy Weekend tickets; these offer great value travel for couple or groups, as long as you don't use the faster ICE or IC trains. If you are on a longer journey, you may get lucky and travel on the newer version of the ICE train - if you sit at the front this allows you to look out of the driver's window (although he can activate the privacy glass at a touch of a button). Travelling from the UK, it can be very good value to book a Eurostar ticket on bahn.de from London St Pancras through to German cities, such as Frankfurt (from €59 one way). |