jamiecropley
Traveller
1 comments
Posted 4 months ago
Trying to find a cheap way out of UK by rail to Europe... Specifically Berlin. Been a while since I last did international rail travel, but its my preferred alternative next to planes. What kind of sites and apps are good for achieving this? I was looking at paying around £100 maximum or cheaper. I am a part time student as well so not sure if inter rail passes and the likes can help? I used to use Sta Travel in the UK in the past for these kinds of questions and offbeat like journeys but now I am at a loss.
nltrainer
Traveller
1397 comments
There is not. €* has raised its prices-or in fact does not really offer any of the former really cheap fares.
Also you omit a lot of points that may give you a far better answer:
1.from around where in UK-Just LON or further? 2.TIME-date. The peak of the main tourist season-or even that football madness now going on- or it does not matter-the total price is more imptt. 3.age/status. 4.single or return-and if out+back (H+R it is here in DE): how long in between. 5.willing to brave it-time taken for the whole exp can lengthen a lot to get lower price. 6.Also wanting to do more trips on transit whilst here in Deutschland?
As a broad rule, the BUS (coach for Brits)_like FLIX usually comes out as cheapest, but off-season and if booked well in advance a flite-from an obscure outer small airpt and on an obscure unknown low-budget airline-or perhaps even that very well know Irish price-beater-but only if you can limit your luggages taken.
OTOH most people who ask about low prices-and even more those from that island in the NorthSea-often hardly really care in the end about it-Germans do far more. Is that 100gbp for single or return?
Check seat61 for routing+booking-the normal way-and bahn.de-cut it up in segments- for timings+prices-up to max 3-4 month advance.
You can very easy-students should have done that before posting-see what IR cost, what the extra´s are (in this case at least 2x30€ for that €*).
IF you really want-and are serious about it- a thorough answer-start first with an answer to 1-6 (and again I think that a little thinking would already have made that clear before). Best greetings here from Saarbrücke now-a truely international city on the border of DE and FR. It even has an international tram to FR-on which I rode today
nltrainer
Traveller
1397 comments
so out of curiosity I checked for a signle ex LON on 18/9: midweek=cheaper as weekend
FLY on Ryan: LST-BER, from 25 gbp+ all the extra for luggage etc
BUS: in 22 hrs on FLix-1 change in awful BRU-Noord; 65€
Train: via bahn.de: €*+ ice from BRU to K=Cologne for you-then on to B-around 18/19 hrs (+ the prevalent delays always here in DE-but these may even give you a 25% cashback): from 95€
IF you come back in 1 month and IF you have to add a long-dist in UK: then a Youth/junior IR-pass for 4 days may work out cheaper.
jamiecropley
Traveller
1 comments
Thanks for the replies. It seems theres not as many cheaper options as there used to be £100 for a return lol. I don't think this is possible though, I may as well just get a flight as they come to about £150 or so.
MisterSteve
Traveller
1073 comments
The problem seems to be solved but for the benefit of facts, the fares system doesn't work like old fashioned airlines which STA used to play. Unlike old air fare rules, there are no legal restictions on what journeys can be sold so no need to find obscure ways around rules to sell empty seats.
There is currently only one rail operator through the tunnel, that's Eurostar and they are controlled by SNCF. They have a fairly basic public fare offer like SNCF. They do offer some seats to the travel trade and other operators at slightly better prices to be bundled with something else, like a hotel or a train ticket from Brussels to Berlin but they don't have huge numbers of empty seats to dump like an old airline. The likes of Traveline do not negotiate their own rates, they sell whatever the train companies sell and make money from commission. Looking at what's possible in three months time, DB have a single ticket price of €59 on Eurostar (which is about as low as ES go at that time) which they bundle with their own Advance tickets from Brussels to Berlin which are €59.99. But in 4 months time there is some slack so the ES portion is €39 (which is less than the lowest direct fare at that time) and it's bundled with the Advance ticket to Berlin which is €49.99. Fares always go up as tickets sell out.
Interrail won't help because the Eurostar part is a fixed price surcharge (most of which is the tunnel equivalent of the airport charge within a flight ticket) which has to be added to the cost of the Interrail pass, which for a simple dash to Berlin will cost more than the DB tickets.
But don't forget, the air fare doesn't include the cost of getting to and from airport - and a decent amount of baggage is included with Eurostar and DB.