The Don’ts of German Trains

Whether you are traveling to Berlin, Munich, Cologne or Dusseldorf you are probably going to be taking the train in Germany. Here we go through what tourists should know about taking the train in Germany. The Do’s and Don’ts of German Train Travel. The Deutschebahn can show you all of Germany.
Filmed in Bamberg, Germany

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oh my God my train is not delayed I don’t believe it hey the fil Travelers Mark here with walers world and today we’re in bomberg Germany getting ready to take the train and yes my Train’s on time and what I want to give you today are the don’ts of taking the trains in Germany and sadly I think it’s important I talk about this down first and that is don’t be surprised if your train is late when you’re here in Germany now here’s the thing the deuta bond has a history of being probably the best train system in Europe but lately it’s had some issues with on time ESS they’re trying to get better I’ll give that to them but I would say is don’t be surprised if your train is a little bit delayed let’s say and uh if you have another thing if you got close connections I would say this when you plan your voyages don’t have tight connections you know the ones are like 10 minutes 11 minutes cuz one delay because of construction or something can really knock it back just 5 minutes here 5 minutes there it adds on and you can miss those connections so if you’re going to be doing a lot of connections to get places that can cause some issues that’s why I got to tell you um if you can don’t do connections try to get the direct train like here in bomag there’s actually a direct train to Munich it doesn’t go all the time but there is a direct IC train that goes so I can get here without having to switch in nberg now if I want to go via nberg this trains like every half an hour from Munich to nurg no big deal same thing from nberg to bomberg it’s pretty close it’s no big deal but if I’ve got my luggage do I want to switch it around that that can be Troublesome and speaking of luggage I got to tell you this don’t overpack when you’re coming on the trains in Germany not because they don’t have good overhead bins they do but the thing is it’s just the lack of space at sometimes that happens because I got to tell you this don’t be surprised if there’s not a lot of room on the train when you get there especially if you’re using some of those Regional trains like the Rees Regional expresses or inter regos inter Regional trains because those are more commuter trains so a lot of people might be there in the morning time or in the afternoon Time coming back from work during rush hours so be aware of that now obvious a big don’t I have for you is don’t try to take the train without a ticket because no one’s going to check your ticket before you get on the train but the thing is when you’re on the train people do come by and I can’t tell you how many tours just oh can I just buy the ticket on the train well you’re probably going to get a fine for that okay and the fines are not a joke here when you’re on the train so don’t forget to pick up a ticket before you go and I and I’ll talk about the online ticketing and and the app and all kinds of things like that but honestly don’t forget to get a ticket cuz it’s kind of important now another don’t is when you’re getting ready to get to your destination don’t wait until the train stops to get your things down and go to the door because don’t think the Germans will let you off it is like a bum rush to get on the train as soon as possible so it’s like people are getting on and off at the same time German line culture is just a very odd thing when it comes to public transportation and the trains they’re coming on if there’s nobody at that door so if you’re still in the train getting your stuff down you might not be able to get off okay so if you’re taking like a regional train like this it’s usually not a problem but those IC that only have maybe a two or 3 minute stop you might get stuck in and up in the next city so do be aware of that so get your stuff ready kazil announce oh and vinega hi can be in a few minutes we’ll be getting to they’ll name your town like ah I know we’re supposed to get there get your stuff down start heading towards where the exit is and then when you get there you can get out oh also don’t forget you might need to push a button to get the door to open cuz I’ve seen some tourists just standing there going why isn’t open why is everybody else out cuz there’s a little button you should push there to open the door okay so you have that ah yes and there’s the toilet situation on the train one thing I got to tell you don’t pass up going to the bathroom before you get on the train I mean sometimes they’re clean and it’s okay but sometimes they’re not so much but the bathrooms and the stations are clean okay but I got to tell you this don’t forget to have some coins because you probably have to pay to use the bathroom in the stations but they are clean so that’s very nice nice but uh yeah cuz you don’t really want to have a toilet experience when you’re in the train in Germany another don’t I have for you is don’t forget to grab some snacks cuz if you’re going to be on the train for a while you’re going to want something to eat and those IC the fancy trains yes they do have the restaurant car the little embus that’s on there so you get some Stacks but the regional trains they usually don’t have much on there or anything at all I mean I’ve seen a few like little vending machines but in general you might be out of luck so don’t forget to grab some snacks either in the station or there might be vending machines to take coins or card actually on the platform so that could be something there but please don’t bring the stinky snacks because o that’s gross and and don’t miss your train because they will not wait for you even if you were running down you’re saying wait wait wait they’re going to leave without you now another don’t I have for you is if you’re looking to see when trains are going to go plac or when they’re going to arrive at different destinations don’t forget to check the F Planet the the traveling plan here now remember if you’re looking for obod don’t forget obod is depart okay so the yellow ones that is departure the white ones are the arrivals odins okay but what’s cool is you can look on here and see when all the trains are going to go so you know what track it’s going to be on you know where it’s going to stop and so that can be helpful if you’re not sure like I want to go to cob but which train do I need to take you can look on here and it’s going to be helpful and yes don’t forget to check the the boards to see if the train line changed but 90% of the time what says on here is what you’re going to get so you can head over to your track and have everything there oh yeah I got to tell you this on busy weekends don’t forget to get reservations so you have a seat okay it’s very important to have and if you do have any issues don’t forget to talk to the bomb people they’re very very friendly but I think one thing I need to tell you is about the don’t from being inside the train so uh let’s talk about that now let’s talk about the don’ts you have inside the train because honestly it would be rude of me to film this inside the train because the biggest don’t I have for you when you’re in the train in Germany is don’t be loud the Germans like it they like it still they like it calm and quiet on the trains whether they’re doing work listen to their headphones whatever so loudness not not cool on the German trains okay and if people are loud don’t be surprised if someone goes hello and gets your attention to get them to quiet down now when you’re on the train here in Germany it is a good idea don’t forget to get seat reservations because they don’t have a limited number of tickets on the train so literally there’s can be more people on the train than there actually are places to sit so it is a good idea to get seat reservations and don’t think the seat reservations are expensive it’s literally like5 maybe to get a seat to make your life so much easier now if you do get your seat reservations I got to tell you this don’t be surprised if you have to ask somebody to move and also don’t be surprised if that person asks you to prove well show me on the the deutche ban you know app let me see your seat reservation so I know you have the right thing cuz Germans can be a little bit sticky where that comes around so do be ready to show it if they don’t move don’t be afraid to go and talk to the conductor the conductor is actually very helpful I find the deutan conductors actually pretty nice and insightful and they’ll gladly help you out to help them move from their seat so they can find something else and you can get your seat reservations now the thing is most people don’t get SE reservations and don’t worry if you don’t have SE reservations they will still let you on the train because they actually sell more you know they sell more tickets than there actually are seats on the train so don’t be be surprised on like a Friday night or a Sunday night or during the holidays if you’re literally either one sitting in the bar card to have a seat or sitting on the floor between the trains like where the stairs are going down because yeah that’s that that’s really a thing here cuz it does get that pat now if you want to get tickets and you don’t want to use the kios or go online or anything like that you can go to the Rises Centrum inside the people they’ll sell you the tickets your ticket reservations like if you have your EUR oil pass so you already have your tickets but you need the reservations you go in there and get them people are very friendly very helpful so they’ll be able to hook you up but don’t feel you have to go there to buy your tickets because you can use these ticket automats and they’re all over German they’re very simple to use they come in like like 10 languages so if you don’t speak German it’s okay you can choose your language and it’ll help out there they take lot of takes cash credit card so you can pay that way hey this one takes coins so you can get your tickets here and so that can be a little bit easier and faster especially when there’s a la line cuz the rise of Centrum I got to tell you those lines can take a while another thing that’s cool is if you’re the train St here in Germany don’t forget the shops are open on Sundays in the train station around Germany all the shops close on Sunday except at the train station so this can be your little like help I have no food and it’s Sunday or think I got to buy I got to get a souvenir or something train station can hook you up now also when you’re taking the train I got to tell you this um don’t pack too much now the reason why I say that is because there’s usually not a lot of space like on the ground for you to put your luggage You’ got to put your luggage up above the seat seats and those can get very full but I will give Germany this on the IC the ICC trains the nicer ones there’s usually plenty of luggage space but you’ve got to lift it up and put it up there so don’t pack heavy and don’t have it Loose cuz things roll around I had a friend of mine no joke watermelon rolled off the the overhang thing and hit her in the head I thought she was going to die okay so L I’m glad you survived all right but these are things you got to worry about I mean and honestly you don’t have to worry too much on the train it’s a very safe experience when you are on there but I think some other duns you need to know one don’t put your bags on the seat next to you you may not want somebody to sit there but they’re going to sit there cuz they’re going to notice that there’s nobody no se reservation and they’ll ask is St a fly is it free here and you got to let them have that so it’s better to have your stuff up and out of the way than have to do it later when there’s no space above oh also if you don’t have the seat reservation and you get on the train don’t forget to look above the seats and see if there is a res spot and you might see a sign that says oh this is reserved from Munich to Berlin or maybe it’s only from bomberg to nurenberg it’s Reserve so you can kind of plan out which seats are available when so you can do that but realize it does have that reservation up there someone probably is going to come for that seat now I know I keep going into the sea reservations but I think it’s also important to realize some trains don’t have sea reservations so if you’re like in a regional Express or a regional Bond like a regional train those a lot of times don’t have any SE reservations so there’s really nothing you can do about that and if you’re going to be taking a regional train to get to a city don’t expect a lot of luggage space on those Regional trains and I guess that leads to this um don’t think that every train in Germany is the same train and also don’t think every ticket works for every train in Germany because if you buy a ticket and you look online whether you’re on the app or you’re looking in the kios or wherever and you see oh there’s a train of Munich for for €50 EUR and another one for 150 I’ll take the 50 one you want to make sure you look and see what type of train it is because the one might be the IC that’s fast and gets you there in an hour and a half the one other one might be the regional express it takes 4 hours to get there so it’s really important to kind of think about that because don’t just look at the departure time look at the departure and arrival time because you might see that one train leaves later but actually gets in sooner because of that so just be thinking now let’s talk about some of the don’ts when it comes to tickets and one of the biggest thing is don’t wait to buy your tickets here in Germany because the earlier you buy them the cheaper it can be I mean we’re talking significant price differences like you could take a first class if you book it way ahead versus booking at the day of so that’s one thing but also don’t think that all tickets are the same so in J there’s two kind of tickets you see you’ll see what are called a spa price ticket and a flex price ticket so the spa price ticket it means save tickets so that’s your cheapest ticket but the thing is don’t forget you could only take the train that that Spa pric is for so you have to do that where if you take the flex price ticket that one does cost more but you have more variety so you maybe want to buy the ticket to go from bomberg to Munich but you don’t really know what time you want to leave bomberg because it’s so beautiful so maybe you do the flex price ticket so you can go any time of the day but if I know hey we need to get back to Munich cuz I got a dinner reservation so I want to take the noon train back I can book that with the spa price and save even more money cuz I know I’m going to stay on that one okay the thing is you know a lot of places you just buy your one ticket for one trip and that’s it but I think another don’t I have for you is don’t forget about the passes they have here in Germany there’s like Landes tickets or like State tickets so you can travel anywhere in a state on those Regional trains Regional expresses kind of stuff inter regos on those for one set price and sometimes it’s for a group of people and it can be very economical especially if you’re doing day trips we used to get the buy them ticket all the time and just take it to do all these fantastic day trips from mun just taking the regional trees because it wasn’t that far away so we could take them and it didn’t make a big difference like if you look at the IC versus the regional Bond you’re going from Berlin to Munich it’s going to be a big time difference right but if you’re do doing those like just within a state those passes are really great and you might have heard of the Deutschland ticket which is the entire Germany ticket where you can take the regional trains I will say don’t think that’s meant for tourist because it’s a subscription model so you can either pay for the whole year up front or they charge you month by month so it might be better just to buy your Regional ticket and do that when you have it I mean Germans are really good at giving you good deals and that’s why sometimes you might want to get the bond card so the bond card gives you 25% discounts or 50% discounts on train tickets okay the thing is that’s more for people that are going to be staying here for a while then it’ll pay for itself if you’re only here for a week the bond card probably is not going to be for you but it can be good I know when I lived here in Germany I always had the bond card to get those discounts now for my Euro rail pass holders don’t worry the Euro Rail Pass does work on the IC but you do need a reservation if you want to have a seat if you don’t want to worry about a seat you just want to sit wherever and you know cross your fingers you can just get on with your Euro Rail Pass you’ll be okay but don’t forget to have it validated before you begin oh and a lot of people forget that the esbon the esbon trains around the cities like in Munich and Berlin don’t forget that’s actually part of the dche bond that’s part of the train system here so if you have a train ticket to a city and it usually says to the city itself then you could actually take your esbon out to wherever you need to go not the ubon they don’t work on the subway they don’t work on the the buses and stuff but on the esbon it’s part of the part of the training system so that could be a little helpful help helpful tip I know for me when I bought my tickets from the Munich Airport and I was going down to inbrook I just bought it from the airport to inbrook and it was part of the ticket the esbon S8 from the the airport to the Munich Central Station and then my train ticket from Munich Central Station down to inbrook so that could be very helpful to know and I’ll be honest with you if you’re looking to book tickets for Germany or actually anywhere in Europe don’t skip out on bond. De that is the deuta Bond’s website they probably had the best timetable system any of any train system in Europe I mean I remember I was in Denmark and they were looking at Bond de to tell us the train times in other countries I mean it’s super helpful and you can use that pick the days and times you’re looking to travel like month you know a few months ahead and you can see winter white train options which is really cool and the thing is you can also buy your tickets in Germany through there as well which is nice and if you’re going to be traveling within Germany and just Germany you can actually get the the deutche bond app for your phone very helpful to have it all right there on your phone you just show that they check it on the train and you’re good to go hey also don’t forget not every single City’s train station has Hal bonhof this is the main station here in bonber yes it’s the hurg Hal bonhof but if you go to Berlin there’s the H bof there’s the O Bonoff there’s the Z Bon Hof there’s multiple train stations Okay so want make sure you know which train station you need to get on in on and when you need to get out of and especially if you’re going to be transferring within a big city you might find that not the main train station but one of the outer train stations might be easier to catch your connection than this main one so don’t forget to check which train station you actually need to be at what the name actually is now when you’re looking to leave the train station and go to your hotel or go other places around the city uh one thing I would say is don’t take random rides from people inside you don’t have that as often anymore people ask tourists but some the bigger tourist areas people might come by like oh you want a Uber or a lift you know honestly go get the don’t pass up on taking a taxi the taxis in Germany are pretty honest um I got to admit I haven’t had any problems with them over the years they’ll be in the Mercedes there’ll be a line outside and then at least you know you’ll get your re you’ll get taken where you need to go without getting taken for a ride so something to think about also when you’re outside the station sometimes you will see people like guys that will be begging outside or you’ll see kind of like Ruffian looking characters with their dogs begging for money or asking for stuff don’t let those people bother you don’t give them money the state takes care of people here in Germany but just make sure you know if you feel uncomfortable you can walk on the other side just just walk by and they’ll leave you alone but I have had a number of tourists over the years mentioned how those people the the the the kind of younger men with the dogs outside kind of kind of worry them don’t worry just walk past you’ll be okay now these lockers here are a godsend when you’re in train stations in Germany so if you want to do a day trip to take some of these Regional train to go some of the beautiful towns that are around the big cities you go to don’t think you have to take your luggage with you the whole time they have these the lockers that you can use and just put your bags away there now they don’t always have them but some place they do you can actually check online to see who has them and that can be helpful there to give you that space to use the lockers and get to enjoy some of those great day trips you have here in Germany because the Doon really does a great job of actually showing you the country like that’s what I got to say is don’t take my making fun of the docheon as a bad thing cuz honestly Doan has helped me see so much of this country and really enjoy from the big cities like a Munich and Berlin to like a mediumsized cities you know in smaller cities like here in bomag or reagens BG or going to the hearts mountains I mean the doban goes all over the place and really don’t be afraid to use it you don’t have to drive around and do the autobot you can take those trains and see the beautiful country that’s here and honestly don’t forget to look out the window when you’re on the train because when you’re going through and you see those Church stles going by those small villages when you go by you’re like like my God Germany really is truly beautiful and the dond shows you that so don’t be afraid to take the train to go explore when you’re here in Germany and then I got to tell you this one part um don’t expect the trains in Germany to be cheap even if you can get some of those discounts you’ll notice taking the train in Germany is not a super cheap way to go that might be why it’s a good idea to maybe look at the flight from you know Hamburg to Munich instead of taking the train because I bet you can get a lot cheaper flight than you can get a train going that way especially if you’re looking at time factoring in to go along with the money that’s something to kind of think about so I do want to keep you late in case your train is actually on time here in Germany so what are some of the D thing you have for taking the train in Germany honestly I’ve loved being here I’ve Loved taking the train for the years I lived here when I’ve come here year after year after year after year after year after year literally it was every year from 96 through 20 you know till today except for 2020 I did not make it in 2020 obviously but I’ve taken the doot it’s helped me out it’s actually one of my five love and hates of coming here is my love and hate relationship with the do V how it lets me see this beautiful country but also the frustration of misconnections and late Train sometimes but honestly I hope this helps you enjoy more of Germany let us know some of the donuts you have for the deut bond down below I wish you all the best and I’ll say chees from here in bomberg Germany I got to go catch my train well it’s time to go I hope you all have a great adventure here in Germany on the trains if you want to learn more check us out our website at ws.com and I’ll say choose from here in the trains in Germany