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[cheli]

I find myself with two weeks in Germany at the beginning of October, but very little money to play with! I was hoping people here might be able to give me a run down of my options both itinerary and transport cost wise:

I'll be travelling from Amsterdam, and I'd love to see Berlin while I'm in the country. I fly out of Frankfurt on the 17th and figure I could spend at least 2 days there as I enjoy museums, Berlin I expect to spend around 5 days. So that leaves me with about a week to fill. I'm not too sure what I'd like to see, but I have already been to Munich so that's not necessary (and highly unlikely as it's a bit out of the way!) I'm quite happy to look at locations based on something that's easy and cheap to get to on the way from Amsterdam to Berlin or Berlin to Frankfurt.

I found an English link to Mitfahrzentrale on this forum: http://www.mitfahrzentrale.de/startseite which I'm interested in considering but safety and language barriers concern me. There seems to be very little info on many of the people offering lifts and I don't think I'd feel comfortable accepting their offer of a ride share as a result - can anyone offer me any experience with using this service? Also - not all members can speak English and try as I might my German is non existent. I'm assuming this would prose a serious problem?

Interrail have a Germany pass but it seems terribly expensive: http://www.interrailnet.com/interrail_one_...ny?currency=gbp unfortunately I can't qualify for the youth prices anymore.

Eurolines passes seem more flexible: http://www.eurolines-pass.com/index.php?id=110 but I can't find any route information on their website (I could just be being blond though!) which makes it hard for me to work out how useful the pass could be for my situation.

Can anyone give me any suggestions, advice or extra information on other options I haven't discovered yet?

[starlagurl]

Maybe taking a bus is cheaper?
http://goeurope.about.com/od/germanbuscomp...nsportation.htm

[cheli]

Thanks, I'm currently leaning towards considering the car pooling websites with BerlinLinienBus as a back up: http://www.berlinlinienbus.de/index.php?lang=en

[starlagurl]

Cool, we don't get many Germans around these parts, I wonder why...

[lar4290]

I know this is probably too late to help, but someone else will possibly find it useful. Most German states have Laender tickets for unlimited travel in a region in a day for a fixed price. The trickets are good only for regional trains; EC/IC/ICE/etc. high speed trains are not a part of this offer. However, if you have extra time to spend, the Laender tickets are a great way to get around. For example, an IntercityExpress Tickete from Munich to Frankfurt will cost at least 70 Euros, whereas, one culd buy the Bavaria Laender Ticket (19 Euros for an individual or only 27 Euros for a group up to five) and take any connection to Kahl am Main, which is only just over 30 minutes from Frankfurt. From there, a ticket to the ceneter city is only 6.75 Euros. Another similar deal-breaking alternative is a Schoenes Wochenende (Happy Weekend) Ticket, with which up to 5 people can travel through all of Germany on a Saturday/Sunday for only 37 Euros.

If you have a city that you want to explore, Laender tickets can be great for daytrips...also check out the Deutsche Bahn site (some of it is only in German though) for more details on specials they run.

http://www.bahn.de/international/view/en/p...r_tickets.shtml

[p.bauer]

here is a very good site. it combines different means of travel and looks for the cheapest!!
http://www.verkehrsmittelvergleich.de