Transport in Berlin with a single ticket
- By
- Aparna Patel
- |
- 23 Jul, 2023
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You’ll find that in Berlin especially you won’t be asked for your ticket whenever you board your bus or U-Bahn train. I wasn’t asked for a ticket at any point, although it is polite to show it to your driver if you are boarding your bus at the front.
Inspectors are often disguised though, on my U-Bahn to the airport the inspectors unzipped their jackets to reveal ID tags and started asking for tickets in the middle of the carriage. It was all rather dramatic.
An AB ticket is probably all you need, I had a five day ABC ticket and allowed me on pretty much all public transport throughout Berlin – Bus, train, S-Bahn. Getting around Berlin is easy, most hotels will offer you a travel map and train lines/bus routes are often marked on there.
Most Germans speak English, and there are a lot of signs in English. I never felt lost and I travelled alone.
Do note: Always remember to stamp your ticket after you have purchased it. There are stamp machines on the trains and buses, if you don’t stamp your ticket it will not be valid and inspectors will charge you a penalty. You only need to stamp it once for it to be valid (not every time you get on a bus/train).
Berlin also has the Hop on Hop off sightseeing bus tours, which is a good way to get to the main tourist attractions without getting lost for not a lot of money. We found subways are great, but you don’t see much.
You can find some good information on all the possible Berlin public transport tickets on their English language website here. They have a few different short time-period based tickets, which include various tourist discounts. The discounts may or may not be of interest.
Otherwise, you can get a day ticket (Tagesticket) for the AB zones for €6.90. That’ll be valid on the day that you stamp it, and until 3am the day after. For a 2 day stay, buy two of those from the ticket machine, stamp the first one on day 1, and the second on day 2. (There’s also a weekly AB ticket for about 30 euros, valid for 7 days, but that’s enough more that two daily tickets seems better. To go a very long way out, you’d need an ABC ticket for €7.40 a day – zone and route map here)
The ticket machines have an option to switch into English on them, and are fairly helpful.
Otherwise, it’s fairly easy to navigate Berlin without knowing German. Many of the announcements are in English (though shorter), and a fair number of signs are. About the only time you’ll have problems is during disruptions, but then just look lost and ask around and someone friendly will translate / help!
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I have not been to Berlin but a short google search did get me a page about a travel pass that also gives free entry to some museums, with a page in English. The site gives the option to buy online, as well as telling you where you can buy the pass.
I can not help you whether you need to activate the pass, but when you first enter any public transport hold it in your hand and look around with a question in your eyes and someone will tell you what to do. (And maybe the site or the pass will tell you. And likely in English as well, as it is aimed at tourists.)
Do not worry about not speaking German, most locals will speak some English and many of them will be fluent. And all but the most hurried will help you out when you do find yourself stuck. And even when you happen to find one of the few people who does not speak English at all, show a piece of paper with where you want to go (like a map or a leaflet of a museum) and they will point at where you need to go.
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