How five people can travel from Lübeck to Munich for only €37
August 1st, 2009 by Tim Uden
If you travel from Lübeck to Munich on the ICE high-speed train it will cost you €127 and take between 6½ and 7 hours. This comes to €635 for a group of five people travelling together.
You can also travel from north to south within Germany entirely on local trains (that is using the S-Bahn plus RB and RE trains). Travelling on local trains the trip from Lübeck to Munich will take around 14 hours and involve up to eight transfers.
Buying individual tickets on this journey will cost €90.10. However there is a much cheaper option if you’re travelling on a weekend.
DB’s Happy-Weekend-Ticket (Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket) is good for unlimited travel on weekends in Germany on all local trains for up to five people travelling together. This ticket costs €37 if you buy it online or €39 if you buy it from a ticket machine at the station. Split between five people that comes to only €7.40 each.
Five people travelling from Lübeck to Munich would save up to €598 if they travel with a Happy-Weekend-Ticket instead of the ICE train. That saving is enough for around 70 litres of beer at the Oktoberfest.
I don’t know about you but – as much as I enjoy travelling on a fast train – I would take the slow train and save my money for Munich’s beer halls.
Lübeck to Munich is pretty much the longest train journey you’re likely to make within Germany so this is an extreme example, but it illustrates what you can save if a group of five travellers want to save some money (but don’t mind spending an extra five or six hours travelling).
What are the cheapest days to travel?
July 29th, 2008 by Tim Uden
It is commonplace for airlines to use a yield management pricing structure and other forms of transport such as buses and trains are also starting to use this pricing system. Basically this means that the advertised prices refer to the cheapest seats, which sell out first; leaving the more expensive seats for those who don’t book ahead. In other words busier travel times are more expensive than off-peak times unless you book well in advance.
Naked Bus (a New Zealand-based low-cost intercity bus operator) reveals that Tuesdays and Wednesdays are generally the cheapest days to travel as there are fewer other people travelling on these days and less competition for the cheapest seats.
Obviously the cheapest days and more expensive days to travel depend on the mode of transport and whether it is a leisure or business destination; but in most cases Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the cheapest days to travel.
Travel to weekend break destinations will be more expensive on Friday nights, Saturday mornings, Sunday nights and early Monday mornings and air travel to business destinations usually costs more early morning and in the evening, but is often cheaper around midday (especially midweek).
You’ll save money by booking well in advance, but often it is difficult to book too far in advance especially if you want to keep an element of spontaneity. However it always pays to be flexible with your travel days and check a couple of days either side of your planned travel day to ensure you don’t miss out of a bargain.
ScanRail pass discontinued
December 30th, 2007 by Tim Uden
The ScanRail pass will no longer be available after 31 December 2007. That means that you have less than two days left if you want to buy a ScanRail pass for travel in 2008.
Europeans still get cheap train travel in Scandinavia with the Interrail pass and starting in 2008, non-Europeans will be able to buy the Eurail Scandinavia pass, which will be almost identical to the old ScanRail pass.
Eurostar gets a new home in London
November 13th, 2007 by Tim Uden
The last Eurostar train left London Waterloo on at 6.12pm yesterday evening and this morning Wednesday 14 November Britain’s first real high speed train line will open and Eurostar’s London terminal will move to St Pancras International.
With more tube lines running under St Pancras and a big choice of mainline trains at St Pancras, Kings Cross and nearby Euston stations, it will be a more practical gateway to Europe for many travellers. St Pancras Station has undergone a huge renovation to house Eurostar’s 400m-long trains so there is a big change for anyone who may have last used St Pancras station a few years ago.
The new high-speed line means that the Eurostar will be able to travel at 300km/h for the entire trip, including the UK portion of the journey. This will slash travel times with the trip to Paris taking only two hours and 15 minutes. Brussels and Lille are even closer with the journey to Brussels taking one hour 51 minutes and Lille only an hour and 20 minutes.
