Savings fares (Sparpreise), discount tickets (Schönes Wochenende, Happy Weekend, Länder), and internet specials allow for cheap rail travel on Deutsche Bahn in Germany.

Germany’s extensive and reliable railway network makes public transportation often the best choice for the foreign traveler. However, at first glance train tickets may seem very expensive. Standard fares (Normalpreise) allow for full flexibility but are generally not cheap. Fortunately, a wealth of discount fares and tickets is available for travelers willing to travel slower and / or less flexible.

• German train tickets bought on the internet or ticket machines are generally €2 cheaper than the same ticket bought from a ticket counter.
• Tickets bought on trains require a 10% surcharge and no discounted fares are available.
• Boarding an S-Bahn, or local train where tickets are not sold onboard, incurs a €40 fine per person.

Internet-Only Cheap Train Tickets in Germany

Deutsche Bahn’s website should be the first stop for all travelers to Germany planning on using trains. Many internet-only fares are available – the specific offers change frequently. Although tickets can be bought in English, the finer details and intricacies of regional tickets are only explained in German.

Savings Train Fares (Sparpreise) in Germany

Special savings train fares (Sparpreise) are available only on return trips. Savings of 25 and 50 percent are available on trips booked at least three days in advance. Travelers must use the specific trains booked or face a hefty surcharge.

• Sparpreise are available on long-distance trains – in fact, for discounts to apply at least part of the journey must be on Inter-City (IC), Euro-City (EC), or Inter-City-Express (ICE) trains.

Länder-Tickets (State Tickets)

Länder-Tickets (State-Tickets) offer excellent deals for travelers doing sightseeing in a limited geographical region. Länder-Tickets are generally available only for travel in a specific federal state, although for smaller states up to three are combined in the same ticket.

Länder-Tickets are generally group tickets and valid for up to five passengers traveling together. Single tickets are available in a few states but the saving over the group ticket is very small.

• The catch with Länder-Tickets is that only regional and local trains may be used. This present little problems when sightseeing as long-distance trains do not stop at many smaller stations in any case.

Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket (Happy Weekend Ticket)

The Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket has mostly the same conditions as the Länder-Ticket with the noticeable exceptions that it is only available on weekends but allows travel countrywide.

• For longer-distance travel, the Schönes-Wochenende and Länder-Tickets can be cost effective too but only for travelers with time on hand.

ICE vs. Local Trains – Time is Money

It is worth comparing prices as a little bit of research can go a long distance towards saving on train fares when traveling in Germany. For example, a standard second-class, one-way fare from Hamburg to Munich on an Inter-City-Express (ICE) train taking 5h30 is €122. With advance bookings, using easily available internet savings, and committing to taking a specific train, the same ICE train journey need only cost €29!

Traveling on a weekend and using only local trains, a group of five can use the Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket for €35 total. However, in this case the journey from Hamburg to Munich will require six transfers and last a few minutes shy of twelve hours.

In addition to these saving fares, Deutsche Bahn has further railway cards and rail passes that offer further savings options to train passengers.