Saving on German Travel

For an American traveling around Germany.....you can shake your head at times over the cost of enjoying the German countryside.  So I'm going to offer a few tips during the summer travel season on how a guy can save some bucks, within Germany.

First, the German Bahn guys offer up a special discount ticket....a saver (Sparpreise) ticket can run around 19 Euro, which enables you to travel 250 Km or less (second-class).  There group tickets where two or three or four people can band together and get heavily discounted tickets.

Second, bed-and-breakfast deals still exist in Germany.  Some are pricey....mostly because of the high-end house or 'mansion' that you end up staying at.  These all include breakfast, and typically are a good deal for the average traveler.

Third, some German hotel chains come to a point in the middle of summer...where rooms haven't been reserved at the rate they hoped....so in the midst of summer, they suddenly offer up 10-percent or even 30-percent discounts.  So last minute planning might lead you to stumble onto heavily discounted hotel in Berlin or Stuttgart.

Fourth, in some major cities....the significant hotels that you might stay at....will offer one "extra" in the package....a city-pass.  You might notice this in the advertising.  The city-pass is a card that allows you to use the local city trains and buses free of charge (only within the city limits).  Going for a weekend?  That free city-pass might be worth roughly $15 each (in Euro), for a couple.

Fifth, some major cities offer a discount card to enter all local museums.  An example, the Stutt-Card (available in Stuttgart) runs around ten Euro.  This card gets you into roughly a dozen museums in the local area and you might save forty Euro if paying at each entry as you walked in.  Some research for each region might dig up two dozen such cards around Germany.

Sixth, and final....an American family of four on the cheap....can pick up a dozen brotchens and salami in the early morning hours, and just have a quiet cheap lunch by the river, instead of spending forty Euro at some restaurant.

Nothing in Germany is truly cheap....but you can save a few bucks, if you plan ahead.