VOCATIONAL ORIENTATED CULTURAL

AND LANGUAGE PREPARATION

Arrival

Due to its central location in Europe, it is easy to get to Germany by all means of transport. Depending on your travel budget, where you want to go in Germany and how much time you have, you can arrive by train, bus, plane, car, or ferry.

Travelling within Germany

Railway: The Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) (German Railway Operator) is in charge of train traffic in Germany. You can choose between high-speed trains like the ICE (Intercity Express where you pay a supplementary charge) and regional trains like the RB (Regionalbahn).

Larger cities have their own transportation systems (e.g. HVV in Hamburg). Buses, trams, the subway or local trains will take you anywhere within the city on just one ticket. Inexpensive day, weekly, monthly or year passes are available in most cities.

Outside cities, buses operated by regional bus companies serve sparsely populated areas where trains would be inefficient. Travelling long distance on buses is rather uncommon, though.

Plane: Every big city in Germany has an airport. In some cases, going by plane might be cheaper than taking a train. To be eligible for inexpensive student fares, get an ISIC-Card (international student ID).

Car sharing: Check out BlaBlaCar and try to find someone going to the same place you are heading to or find someone to share the ride with you if you are planning a long car trip. Expenses for petrol will be divided by the number to passengers. This is a fun and popular way to travel, it is often cheaper than going by plane or train.

Cheap train fares

The German Railway offers a large variety of fares, which are even hard to understand for ticket vendors, not to mention that they change every 2-3 years. Special offers depend on the booking date (how long in advance), age, number of passengers (group fares), time (weekend, time of day), and type of train.

Students can purchase a ”Bahncard“ (BC) (railway card) at half the regular price (100€). With a BC you get 50 % off any regular fare on any train within Germany. During the week so called Landestickets (valid within a certain federal state) are available after 9 a.m.