Germany » Getting to Berlin

An approximate flight time to Berlin from London is 1 hour and 55 minutes.

By Air

Flying can be the cheapest way to get to Germany, particularly if the flights are book well in advance. Almost all large and small cities in Germany have airports and numerous carriers operate domestic flights. Frankfurt, Munich and Düsseldorf are the most important airports in Germany. Berlin, Cologne and Hamburg (port city in Germany) have some connection to international travellers as well. Frankfurt is Germany's main hub and one of Europe's four major hubs, and the destination of most in between countries flights. Munich is a secondary hub. Travellers can easily fly in from most places of the world and then connect with Germany's biggest and most admire airline Lufthansa.

Some German airports are connected to the Intercity Express and other rail lines. The others all feature some kind of connection to the nearest rail station as well as public transport to the central station of the respective cities. Passengers travelling from Frankfurt Airport have the option to check in their luggage in Cologne or Stuttgart train stations and connect to the airport by Inter City Express (ICE).

Germany is one of Europe's budget airline capitals. There are budget flights to almost every city in Europe from Germany. Therefore, a person seeking a budget flight should first check with the nearest airport. Examples of budget airline hubs are Berlin Schönefeld and Dortmund for easy Jet. German Wings and tuifl, Air Berlin and WizzAir offer budget flights from many varied airports across Germany and Europe Ryan air flights from London to Berlin Schoenefeld, Altenburg (Leipzig), Lübeck (near to Hamburg), Weeze (near Düsseldorf) and from some other European destinations to Frankfurt/Hahn.

 

By Train

Germany has a one of the world’s best and most efficient railway systems, which reaches almost every city of the country, while the trip will be comfortable, cheap and punctual. Trains in Germany are modern and fast. Usual train services connect Germany with all neighbouring countries. Almost all neighbouring countries especially Switzerland, Poland, Denmark, Czech Republic and Austria and even some non-neighbouring countries like Italy are quite well connected with "Euro City" trains. They are a little bit slower than the European high speed trains but reach nevertheless up to 200 km/h. They are a beneficial way to travel not only for budget travellers (despite the fact that budget airlines might be inexpensive) or landscape viewers (especially the Rhine valley lines).

There are also several European high speed trains to cross into or get out of Germany. The Thalys brings you from Cologne to Paris in approximately four hours and to Brussels (capital of Belgium) in about two hours.

The ICE (Inter City Express) brings you at 330 km/h top speed from Frankfurt (3h 15), Cologne (2h 30) or Düsseldorf (2h 15) to Amsterdam. The train journey from Frankfurt to Paris using the ICE will take about six hours; going from Hamburg (port city in Germany) to Paris can take eight and a half hours. There is also an ICE line from Frankfurt to Brussels via Cologne.

Between Stuttgart and Milan (via Zurich) the Cisalpine offers several connections and is at the moment the only direct Trans alpine train connection. Deutsche Bahn is the major German railway association. If you plan to travel a lot by train, you should consider buying a "German rail pass", which might be cheaper to buy via travel-agencies outside of the country. It allows unlimited travels on the validity dates.