4 easy ways to save on train tickets in Germany
Whether you are going to Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Cologne or any other city, traveling by rail in Germany is usually a pleasure—except where your pocketbook is concerned.
It pays to think about saving on your ground transportation costs before you even arrive in Germany. In this article, we’ll show you four simple ways to cut the cost of your rail travel dramatically.
1. Book early on the Bahn website.
The only sure-fire method of saving money on German trains is to book your travel as early as possible directly through the website of the German railway, Deutsche Bahn (bahn.de).
You can score deals as low as €19 on long-distance or international connections, if you are among the first to make reservations. When you are certain of your travel dates, there is nothing to be gained by waiting. As time passes and the cheapest tickets sell out, each further contingent costs €10 more for the exact same trip.
If you allow a certain amount of flexibility in your travel times, you may find, for example, an early morning connection that is available at a lower price, so it is worthwhile to search various times of day before booking. The downside to this method: you are stuck with a specific train time and route and these tickets are generally non-refundable.
Related: Why you should book your own train tickets, rather than using an agent.
If you will be traveling by train frequently, consider a BahnCard 25. Photo: Namics
2. Research a BahnCard
If you plan to make at least two full-price train trips within Germany, purchasing a BahnCard 25 may well save you money, as it gives you a 25% discount on every trip you book.
However, before buying a card, consider these points:
1. Do the math yourself. Do the savings on your tickets outweigh the cost of the BahnCard at all? A trial BahnCard 25 (valid for three months) is currently available for €15. If there is no trial card available, an annual card costs €62. For the former, you save once your total ticket purchases per person have surpassed €60, but for the latter, you must spend over €248 to see any savings.
2. Be prepared to cancel. The BahnCard is a subscription service, meaning that it automatically renews and is billed to you if you do not cancel it in time (typically six weeks before it is due to expire). At the time you purchase your BahnCard, you should also submit a cancellation notice through the online customer service forms of the DB website. You can find a detailed German description of the process here, including the cancellation request text in German, which you can simply copy and paste into your message. Be sure to include your BahnCard number and use the email address associated with your DB registration.
3. Buy “group tickets” and save.
Groups of travelers will have their savings amplified by traveling on group ticket offers which utilize regional trains rather than high-speed (ICE) trains. This method is most profitable and least tedious for travel within one German state or region—such as a group day trip from Munich to Salzburg, Austria (€43 for 5 people) on the Bayern-Ticket or from Berlin to Szeczin, Poland (€29 for 5 people) on the Berlin-Brandenburg-Ticket. You can find full details of the regional ticket offers for the states you’ll be visiting here.
If your travel includes more than one state, you’ll likely have to buy a Quer-durchs-Land-Ticket for weekday travel or a Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket for weekend travel. These tickets are valid from 9 am to 3 am the following day for any regional train in the entire country. The QdL ticket starts at €44 for one traveler, but less than double that for up to five people—a five-person group spends around €15 per person to ride the rails. The weekend ticket has better conditions for less money: The price starts at €40 for a single traveler, but five people pay just €12 euros each for travel from midnight of the day of travel until 3 am the following morning.
That said, you should be clear that regional trains have neither the speed nor the service standard of IC/EC or ICE trains. For example, compare the following travel times:
Berlin-Hamburg
ICE: 1:45 hrs. on ICE with o transfers
Regional: 3-4 hrs. with up to 3 transfers
Berlin-Munich
ICE: 6 hrs. with 0-1 transfers
Regional: 9:30-11 hrs. with 3-6 transfers
Berlin-Frankfurt
ICE: 4:15 hrs. with 0-1 transfers
Regional: 8:15-9:15 hrs. with 3-5 transfers
You should consider carefully whether the price difference alone justifies losing most of a valuable travel day to slower trains. If you go for it, don’t forget to pack yourself and your crew enough reading material, food, and drink for the entire length of your journey!
4. Get a refund if you arrive late.
Consumer protection laws in Germany require the Deutsche Bahn to refund part of your ticket costs if your train is delayed over an hour. For any train arriving more than 60 minutes late, you are entitled to a refund of 25% of your ticket price; for trains over 120 minutes late, you are entitled to 50% of your ticket price.
When you arrive at your destination, have your late arrival “verified” (i.e., stamped on your ticket) by the train station service personnel. If it’s not too late, fill out the required refund form (available from train service personnel or at train station service counters), and turn in your ticket for an immediate cash refund.
If you need your ticket for return travel, turn everything in at any other train station service counter later in your trip. While you officially have six months to request your refund, getting your money back becomes more complicated once you’ve left the country, so take care of it prior to your departure back home.
Travel alternative: Hit the road
If train travel is still too expensive, consider hopping on Germany’s newest travel trend: long-distance buses. See how you can travel across the country for just a few euros in our article on riding the budget bus lines in Germany with fares from €5.
About the author
I think your article is right on the mark! As an American I set up an account/username /password on the DB website and even downloaded their App on my smartphone which stored my train reservations. Be ware that you will need to pay with a credit card(Bank of America MasterCard worked- some US card companies may not go through) I paid, booked seat reservation, printed out ticket from home prior to trip , the conductor scanned them ( have your passport and credit card in case they ask) and the times were in real German time schedules and were at least 50/80% cheaper than ( I won’t name them) US ticketing rail sites. I had No Problem.