Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
and the Ostbahnhof, which may be
more convenient for your destination.
Public transport
tickets
are valid for the entire
system of trams, buses and suburban and under-
ground trains. If you plan to use public transport
throughout your stay, then get a ticket that covers
several days (see p.22) - all these can be validated
to cover your journey from the airport and are
available from ticket machines at all points of arrival.
In addition, a handful of upmarket hotels offer
courtesy
shuttles
.
S-Bahn
(4.30am-11pm), which takes about 40
minutes but may be more convenient as it has
more stops; the same BVG zone A, B and C (single
€3.20; day pass €7.20) ticket is valid on either service
(see p.22). Long queues at the ticket machines in
the underground passageway can usually be
avoided by buying tickets from identical machines
on the platform. A
taxi
into the town centre from
Schönefeld/BBI costs around €37.
By train
Trains
from European destinations generally head
straight to the swanky
Hauptbahnhof
, which has
late-opening shops and all the facilities you would
expect from a major train station. The station is
also a stop on the major S-Bahn line, and on the
U-Bahn network. Your train ticket may well include
use of zones A and B of the city's public transport
system (see p.22) at the end of your journey: if
you're not sure, check with the conductor or at the
ticket o
ce.
By plane
Until the much delayed and anticipated completion
of Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) airport in 2014,
Berlin's air tra
c (
W
berlin-airport.de) will be shared
between the
Schönefeld
airport, which lies on an
adjacent site, and
Tegel
airport, 7km northwest of
the city centre.
Tegel
Many scheduled and charter flights still arrive at the
small and manageable
Tegel (TXL)
airport, where
you'll find shops, currency exchange, left luggage
facilities and several car rental companies on the
land-side. (When flying out, note that once past
security it's another story, with only the most
rudimentary services.)
Several
buses
head from Tegel into the city. The
TXL JetExpressBus (daily 5am-11.30pm, every
15-20min) heads to Hauptbahnhof (28min) and
Alexanderplatz (40min).
Bus
X9
(Mon-Fri 4.50am-
11pm, every 5-10min; Sat & Sun 5.20am-12.30am,
every 10min) goes to Bahnhof Zoo (20min), while
Bus #109
heads to S-Bahn station Charlottenburg
and #
128
to U-Bahn station Osloer Strasse.
If you intend to buy a Welcome Card, City Tour
Card or simply a weekly
ticket
(see p.22), do this
from the ticket machine just outside the terminal -
the bus driver can only sell single (€2.60) and day
tickets (€6.70 for zones A and B).
Taxis
cover the
distance in half the time (depending on the tra
c)
and cost about €20.
By bus
Most international
buses
and those from other
German cities stop at the
Zentraler Omnibus-
bahnhof
or
ZOB
(central bus station;
W
iob-berlin
.de), Masurenallee, Charlottenburg, west of the
centre, near the Funkturm. Several city buses,
including the #M49 service to the centre, and the
U-Bahn from U-Kaiserdamm, link it to the Ku'damm
area, a journey of about fifteen minutes. The bus
station has an information booth, a taxi stand and a
couple of snack places.
By car
Getting into Berlin
by car
is relatively easy as
Germany's famed autobahns (
Autobahnen
) pass
reasonably close to the city centre. It may, however,
be a long trip - the autobahns are very congested
and delays are the norm. From the west you're most
likely to approach on autobahn A2, which will turn
into A10 (the ring-road around Berlin), from which
you turn off onto A115, a highway that eases you
onto Kaiserdamm on the western side of the city,
from where it is just fifteen minutes to Zoo station.
From the south you'll approach on autobahn A9,
but the route once you hit the A10 is the same.
Drivers coming from the Hamburg area will
approach from the north on M24, which also turns
into A10, but this time you take the A111 into the
Charlottenburg district of Berlin.
Schönefeld and Berlin Brandenburg
Schönefeld
, 20km southeast of the city centre,
mostly serves budget airlines and holiday charters.
Beside it is its soon-to-be replacement,
Berlin
Brandenburg Airport
,
which will eventually
consume it. The train station is a five-minute walk
from the terminal; from here you can get the
Airport Express
train
(daily 5am-midnight), which
takes 30 minutes to reach the Hauptbahnhof, or the
