Saturday, April 21, 2012

Travelling to Germany from Amsterdam

Hi fellow TAs,





Need some help here.





I found a good price for a flight to Amsterdam OR Frankfurt.





So here are my questions:





1. Is it advisable to fly to Amsterdam, then by train Amsterdam to various cities in Germany? Or would Frankfurt be a better option (in terms of pricing and sightseeing)?





2. My route plan: Amsterdam - Minden - Hamburg - Berlin - Munich - Amsterdam in 20 days. Please suggest other cities enroute (although Hamburg, Minden and Munich is a must, as I plan to visit friends there).





3. How far is Munich to Amsterdam by train? If its not a good idea, i would just buy an open jaw ticket, ie; Singapore to Amsterdam, then return Munich to Singapore. It would cost about 200e more only. Considering the 200e vs train tickets fr Munich to AMsterdam, what would your suggestion be?





4. Read in another forums that train tickets in Germany allows stop overs. Does it mean i can stop over and stay overnight in that city, and continue the next day to my final destination?





Just a few points to note:I am a lady travelling alone and I dont drive. So lots of footwork and buses /trains. Will be nice if the suggestions were for places easily accessible by local transports.







Thanks a bunch!






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With your itinerary I would consider a German Rail Pass.



bahn.de/international/…german_rail_pass.shtml



With standard fare (flexible tickets) this will get rather expensive.





Frankfurt is rather central inside Germany, thus cutting travel time to Amsterdam. Latter would be also not covered by a German Rail Pass.





Between Frankfurt and Cologne there is the Middle Rhine Valley (a classic tourist destination).



http://www.welterbe-mittelrheintal.de/





Between Berlin and Munich you could include places like Bamberg, Nuremberg, Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Regensburg.





For checking connections and see standard fares



DB timetable



http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en





Use %26quot;FRA%26quot; for Frankfurt Airport and %26quot;Schiphol%26quot; for Amsterdam Airport train stations.



Inside Germany the DB timetable covers all public transport, thus e.g. also trams and buses. You can not just query for stations/stops but also by address or for POI (points of interest).




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Thanks for the reply. So much to read!





The rail pass sounds expensive (308e for 10 days pass).





Would you agree its cheaper to buy tickets two days before travel?





When i travelled in Italy they had off peak train tickets that were cheaper. Would it help to get those kinda tickets? Do they have such tickets in Germany?




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%26gt;Would you agree its cheaper to buy tickets two days before travel?





No, why should it be? Once the advance specials are sold out, the normal tickets cost the same whenever you buy them.





%26gt;When i travelled in Italy they had off peak train tickets that were cheaper. Would it help to get those kinda tickets?





No because such tickets don´t exist. A ticket is not bound to a particular train.





The only thing you might mean are Länder-Tickets, whcih are valid for all local trains in a federal state for a fixed price (around 20 € for one person and around 30 € for 2-5 persons) which on weekdays are only valid past 9 am.




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%26gt; The rail pass sounds expensive (308e for 10 days pass).



EUR 30,80 per travel day.





%26gt; Would you agree its cheaper to buy tickets two days before travel?



No. E.g. Hamburg to Berlin - a trip of 1:40 - is EUR 68,00 if you buy it 2 days before travel.





%26gt; When i travelled in Italy they had off peak train tickets that were cheaper. Would it help to get those kinda tickets? Do they have such tickets in Germany?



Dauer-Spezial. But you have to buy these pretty early (from 89 days in advance) as they are limited in numbers and tend to sell out fast. And it makes no sense to buy an EUR 29,00 special which is limited to the connection bought for (no change, no refund) when the alternative is a fully flexible rail pass where the same costs EUR 30,80.




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You guys are right!





I%26#39;ll go ahead with the rail pass if my trip materialises.





Thank you so much!

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