Germany Travel Forum

I am a student in Belgium. I have heard about a bahncard that people use in germany, which makes tickets a lot cheaper to buy. Is that card only for people in germany, or can I also go for it?

And also, which would be the cheapest way to get to germany from brussels?

And ! If I had around 4-5 days, which places should I plan on going to?

Thank you.

BahnCard is a discount card for 1 year. Makes only sense if you plan several visits in Germany.
http://www.bahn.de/international/view/en/prices/germany/bahncard.shtml
Advantage is that you'll that the BahnCard gives you always discounts on the normal price. Even at peak times.

For a planned short visit you can check for specials offer with the DB timetable
http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

A classical loop coming from Brussels would be
Aachen
http://www.aachen.de
Cologne
http://www.koeln.de/en/tourism/tourism.html
Middle Rhine Valley
http://www.welterbe-mittelrheintal.de/
Moselle Valley
e.g.
http://www.burg-eltz.de/
http://www.bernkastel.de/new2008/cms/front_content.php?idart=234&idcat=167
Trier
http://www.trier.de
- Luxembourg - Belgium

You could stick to regional trains and the so called Länder-Tickets (if normal tickets are not even less for short distances)

SchönerTagTicket NRW Single EUR 23,50
http://www.nahverkehr.nrw.de/media.php?mv_id=-962969640
(to give you an idea: the state NRW (North Rhine-Westphalia) is area size and population nearly identical with the Netherlands)

Rhineland-Palatinate Ticket Single EUR 18,00
http://www.der-takt.de/fileadmin/Bilder/Karten/karte_rp_ticket.html

These tickets cover all regional trains plus all other local public transport. Buses and in the bigger cities also trams. Validity is
Mo-Fr from 9am till 3am next day
Sa,Su from midnight till 3am next day

There are also mini group versions of these tickets (up to 5 persons) which are barely more expensive than the single (1 person) version (thus a really good deal).

hey abalada !

Thats a lot of information.. I'l check it out ASAP ! I dunno if I'l be coming down to Germany a lot, but I sure will come down a couple of times. I had heard people talking about the card, so thought I might as well ask !

Thanks for taking time out :))

Getting to Germany might be cheap on the Eurolines buses, which sometimes offer good special prices to places in Nordrhein-Weslfalen (the state that borders Belgium). From then, the local trains suggested by Abalada are a good idea.
Another way that you might already know is the Go Pass for people under 26 or its adult version (46 and ~70 euro). Those are 10 one-way tickets to anywhere in Belgium. A trip thus costs 4,60 euro only. Either use Hergenrath as the last stop and buy an additional cross-border ticket to Aachen (or forget to buy it), or go to Eupen and board the hourly bus to Aachen for a couple of euro.
If you decide to go to a distant place in Germany (Munich for example), you can buy special discounted tickets starting from 29 euro one-way. Check the German rail website for schedules:
http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en
If special offers are available, their prices will appear to the right. A ticket from the areas bordering Belgium to Munich or Berlin will have to be bought well in advance, though, maybe a month or so.

Hope that helps.
Venelin

I've hitchhiked from Germany back to the UK via Brussels many times and always found it to be easy (and obviously cheap) The people who stop are generally a lot more interesting than average, ie 1 opera singer and a special mention to a bunch of lads in a band from Brussels who insisted on giving me a guided tour of their City before I carried on through.
I've never felt threatened and and have only good experiences to report.
As it's a relatively short trip it may be worth a go.

I just remembered, there's also a car sharing scheme for hitchhikers in Germany. The Idea is you post your destination and someone gets in touch. You share the travel costs and There is some safety vetting too. I cant remember the name but someone else may be able to Help

Mark

The German car-sharing website is www.mitfahrzentrale.de
However, some basic German is needed to navigate the website and to get in contact with the drivers. Everybody is supposed to enter language info on his/her profile though, so you can see who is able to communicate with you in English as well.

http://www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de
is another one. This one and www.mitfahrzentrale.de are the best ones with (by far) the most entries.

Thank you guys .. thank you so much ! This is excellent !

m happy :))))