Cheap Traveling Life Hacks in Germany

Confuse what to write this week, my friend suddenly asked me about a train ticket when I told them everything I know about transportation in Germany and I realized that maybe the information that I have can help someone out there, so I decided to write about it. In the Germany train ticket are really expensive, most people said it’s due to the fact that the only company who operate train here is Deutsche Bahn, they control the train company as a whole allowing no competition to arise. However, don’t worry I’m about to share some tips on how to travel cheaper in Germany.

1. Bus

This is hardly a news but I’m going to write it anyway!

What else if not the Meinfenbus Flixbus!

Meinfernbus were starting to rise in 2013 and after that couples of long-distance bus company popped up (Flixbus, Postbus, Megabus, etc) over the next few years Flixbus and Meinfernbus merged as one company and they started the acquisition of other long-distance buses, despite the “monopoly” status they still over us a good price.

1. Train!

Yep, you read it correctly, but by train I mean only when they give you a special offer!

Every now and then the Deutsche Bahn always gives interesting offers for it’s customer such as, discounted version of Bahncard which gives you 25% or 50% discount and if you already have Bahncard you can collect points and exchange it for tickets, and also their regional offer for the regional train for example, Baden-Württemberg ticket that cost 23 Euro for a person and 5 Euro extra for every extra person up to 5 person for a whole day for a whole region.

Not only the “obvious” one, there is also offer that can be gained through the partnership between Deutsche Bahn and Mytrain. At the moment it cost 60 euro round trip with ICE/IC/EC train.Although not all of the schedule is available with 69 Euro round trip what are we to protest :) There is also 3rd party travel website that usually has an interesting offer for example Ltur.

The last option I will mention is Flixtrain. Yes, it’s the same company as the mega bus company, now they are starting to build a train company, having a couple important lines, from Berlin to Stuttgart and from Hamburg to Cologne. At this moment, they offer one ride for only around 10 Euros.

1. Car Sharing

Car sharing is also one of the easy and cheap way to travel in Germany, they are more famous for short trip ride between cities rather than long trip ride due to the uncertainty factor.
One of the most reliable website now is Bla Bla Car, there you can also be the one that offer the free space in your car. I have been using it for years (also for a long ride) and have no problem until now.

Is it safe ? i would say yes, for the driver to be able to offer the ride they need to give ID and all the other requirements to the company and on the other hand the driver can also first see who will ride with them and accept them or also don't accept them. Here is about the rating of the driver and the passenger, as long as you are choosing it carefully you should not get problem.

One more thing, and this i would say is the life hack part of my post.
Some of the time if you are traveling from and to "not so famous" city, it's not easy to find someone who also travel from your "not so famous" city and want to go your "not so famous" destination.

However! there are people who also travel from famous city that will pass your city and/or your destination (which they don't write because they don't think there is a demand), here is the key, try to write the driver a message if it's possible for him to pick you up or that you first go to one place with bus or other kind of transportation so the driver can pick you up.

This has happened to me for few times already, there was no offer from my city to my destination but i managed to negotiate with the driver and so he picked me up in my "not so famous" city and dropped me off in my "actually quite famous" destination.

So that all so far what i know on how to travel cheaper in Germany, any ideas or critics are welcome :)

Link:
Flixbus: https://www.flixbus.com/
Flixtrain: https://www.flixtrain.com
Mytrain: https://www.mytrain.de/
Ltur: https://www.ltur.com
Car Sharing: https://www.blablacar.de/