Destination guides > Europe > Germany > Berlin > Coming & going

Berlin

Coming & going

AIR

Berlin has two airports.

Flughafen Tegal

Flughafen Tegal (TXL) is the main airport, which is 8km northwest of the city centre in West Berlin. Buses109 and 128 plus the JetExpressBUs TXL run between Tegal airport and Hauptbahnhof and Expressbus X9 connects Tegal airport with Zoologischer Garten station. The bus ride into the city centre costs €2.10.

Flughafen Schönefeld

Flughafen Schönefeld (SXF) is East Berlin's airport and is 18km southeast of the city centre. It has good transport connections to the city centre as it is served by S-Bahn lines S9 and S49 as well as AirportExpress trains that run frequently to Alexanderplatz, Friedrichstraße, Hauptbahnhof, Ostbahnhof and Zoologischer Garten stations. The train ride into the city centre costs €2.80.

BUS & COACH

Zentraler Omnibusbahnhof (ZOB; Am Messegelände Masurenallee 4-6,
14057 Berlin; S-Bahn Messe Nord/ICC U-Bahn Kaiserdamm) is the main coach station with departures to 350 destinations in Germany and throughout Europe. It is served by the following coach companies: BerlinLinienbus, Eurolines, EuroTouring and Gullivers.

DRIVING

Central Berlin (the area bordered by the ring S-Bahn line) has been designated an environmental zone and only vehicles complying with emissions standards and bearing a sticker indicating that the car is emissions compliant are allowed within this area. You can obtain environmental zone stickers from several motoring organisations, however if you have an older car that will not qualify for the sticker - or you just can't be bothered - then the easiest option is to park in the suburbs and take the S-Bahn or U-Bahn into the city.

HITCHHIKING & RIDE SHARING

It is quite easy to hitchhike out of Berlin, although you should consult Hitchwiki for the best hitching spots.

 

If want to share a ride but prefer a more organised alternative to traditional hitching then you can look for a ride on hitchhikers.org or try one of the following ride sharing agencies that can organise someone to share a ride with: Citynetz Mitfahrzentralen (tel (030) 19 444); Mitfahr 2000 (tel (030) 19 4 2000); Mitfahrzentrale am Zoo (tel (030) 194 40) and Mitfahrzentrale am Alex (tel (030) 241 58 20).

TRAIN

Berlin's Hauptbahnhof (Europaplatz, 10557 Berlin; S-Bahn Hauptbahnhof) has only been in operation since 2006. This brand new station is Europe's largest two-level train station and has over 1000 train departures every day.

 

Other Berlin train stations with high speed ICE and IC trains include Gesundbrunnen, Ostbahnhof, Spandau and Südkreuz stations and there are also some long distance train services from Alexanderplatz, Friedrichstraße, Lichtenberg, Potsdamer Platz, Schönefeld Flughafen, Wannsee and Zoologischer Garten stations.

 

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