Off to Germany: pre-planning stages

[Thomas A Fina]

A choice sadly made that much harder by not really knowing where the US will be playing until it is too late.

One of the reasons why you end up getting "ass-raped" on Soccer Travel is the hidden "cost" of not really having to do much legwork for flights and hotels (I assume tickets are not included?)

[MikeLastort2]

For those interested in apartment or house rental in Germany, as opposed to hotels:

I've gotten excellent advice from the Slow Travel site, and its Slow Talk bulletin board for trips we've made to Italy and France.

Their main site (http://www.slowtrav.com)

Their bulletin board (http://slowtalk.com/groupee/)

This site (http://www.slowtrav.com/other/listings/germany.asp) lists vacation rentals in Germany, and I just started this thread (http://slowtalk.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/821606885/m/278109683) to ask about places to stay next summer.

[AyanO]

I guess overall i'm finding it odd, at least to me and how I travel that people are going to just stay in one city for the entire 2 weeks to a month. While Germany does have a great train system and easy to get around, i would think most people would do hotel/travel arrangements after December 9th..

Say the USA gets drawn in as E2 and u have games in Hanover at 3pm, then a few days later Colgone at 9pm and last game Nuremberg at 4pm.. just to choose the most central city, say you have pre-booked rooms in Frankfurt for the entire 11 days it takes to play those 3 games..

Just assuming taking a train, the travel from Frankfurt to Hanover for that 3pm game on Monday June 12th. You can depart Frankfurt at 11am, its a 2:30hr ride, get to Hanover at 1:15pm. Hopefully that is enough time to get to the stadium, thru security etc..

Now the game is over USA wins and its now 6pm, you have to get back to Frankfurt now. You can take a train back at 8:26pm, arrivng at 11:53pm.

Whew that is a LOOONG day, seems like a bit too much travel even knowing in advance where you are putting your head at night.. But still doable, but what if you chose to stay in Berlin or Munich the entire world cup, then its like an overnight train trip. Hopefully looking at a map most people who choose the booking hotel up front will opt for a central city like Frankfurt, Dortmund, or even a non WC city.

Now in my situation what I would do is book a room On December 10th, to stay in Hanover for that night of the game. And then the next day, after i'm rested, relaxed and done partying the USA's 2-1 win over Camaroon, i take a leisurely train ride to wherever i've found cheap accomidations until i have to get to Cologne for the next game 3 days later. Looking at a map, I would probably high tail it to Brussels or Amsterdam for a few days of less crowds, less $$, and most importantly good sights and beer..

I dunno that is I guess just how I am in the pre-planning stages of my trip, and yeah December 9th is going to be a very very important day for me, in terms of figuring out where I'll be sleeping for the month of June.

[DaniD]

A choice sadly made that much harder by not really knowing where the US will be playing until it is too late.

One of the reasons why you end up getting "ass-raped" on Soccer Travel is the hidden "cost" of not really having to do much legwork for flights and hotels (I assume tickets are not included?)

We looked into soccer travel (it's what Bison is using). We had tickets already, but the cost is really high for "no ticket" packages (like $3k a person). Bison and his gang went with ticket packages, which were only about $400-500 more, IIRC. Soccer Travel packages only include hotel, airport transfers, and rail pass, and then tickets or no tickets -- airfare is not included. I think I have the info still, if you want me to send it to you.

We are staying in Koln, since I understand it's easy to get around by train to the various venues from the area.

[Wizhawk]

I'm doing 2 weeks of soccer travel-3200/person for double room for 13 nights, 2 tickets for 3 games, and transport everywhere once in Germany.

Yes, I know I'm paying more than I should.

[MikeLastort2]

For folks who like maps

http://www.stadtplandienst.de

[SoulflyTribeFC]

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en


Thanks for the site. This helps a lot more than the little chart I had.

[SoulflyTribeFC]

I´m German supporting american soccer.

So if you need any support concerning accomodation, travelling tips
etc, everything about Germany, insider tips, please ask me.
I will try to help.

Bltleo
Germany

Halo. Ich brauche hilfe :confused: My German's terrible. Sorry!

I'm not really worried about travel in the major cities like Munich and Berlin but what about the smaller places like Kaiserslautern and Gelsenkirchen? Do all the cities da druben ;) have reliable rail service in town? Would it be safe to assume that as long as I'm in the city and not in some town nearby the city that i could get to the Bahnhof by foot instead of taking a cab? I'd like to avoid cabbies to keep my costs down.

Also, how early do the trains run? How late will they run? If there's a game that ends like at 8 p.m. or so in Koln for instance and I've got a place in Stuttgart or Frankfurt would it be better to stay in Koln?

[SoulflyTribeFC]

For folks who like maps

http://www.stadtplandienst.de

Okay, I'm not an expert in geography so where exactly is Gelsenkirchen? I found out it was really close to Essen but where the hell is Essen?!? Is it near Dusseldorf?

[eissman]

We looked into soccer travel (it's what Bison is using). We had tickets already, but the cost is really high for "no ticket" packages (like $3k a person). Bison and his gang went with ticket packages, which were only about $400-500 more, IIRC. Soccer Travel packages only include hotel, airport transfers, and rail pass, and then tickets or no tickets -- airfare is not included. I think I have the info still, if you want me to send it to you.

We are staying in Koln, since I understand it's easy to get around by train to the various venues from the area.

DaniD... I will PM you... I am interested in any information you have from SoccerTravel.
Thanks for your insights.

[MikeLastort2]

Okay, I'm not an expert in geography so where exactly is Gelsenkirchen? I found out it was really close to Essen but where the hell is Essen?!? Is it near Dusseldorf?

Gelsenkirchen is about 50 KM north east of Duesseldorf and about 35 KM east of Dortmund.

The World Cup cities of Gelsenkirchen (4) and Dortmund (5) are pretty close to each other, and Gelsenkirchen isn't too far from Cologne (7) - about 60 KM.

Cologne (7) is pretty close to Frankfurt (8) and Kaiserslautern (9).

http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/fifa/06/d/map_s.gif

http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/

[AyanO]

Okay, I'm not an expert in geography so where exactly is Gelsenkirchen?

Someone else posted a nice map so hopefully that gives you an idea..

As for Kaiserslautern, since this has a huge USA military presence, it might not be a well known city such as Munich, Frankfurt, Berlin, etc.. but i'm sure its easy to get to and from..

I can't stress enough just how good and efficient the german rail system is, case in point for Departures a week from today, Tuesday Sept 20th(just an example as the website wont let me search for June 2006).

Kaiserslautern to Frankfurt(where i'm sure connections are available rail/air to anywhere)
7:58am -> 9:50am
8:25am -> 9:52am
8:28am -> 10:53am
8:30am -> 10:49am
9:35am -> 11:12am
10:25am -> 11:53am

So just as an example basically trains every hour, somtimes twice an hour at "rush hour" periods..

I'm sure this is true for every city that is hosting WC games, very good train service and i'm sure they will have even more trains running on game days..

[Mikeymike15]

I guess overall i'm finding it odd, at least to me and how I travel that people are going to just stay in one city for the entire 2 weeks to a month. While Germany does have a great train system and easy to get around, i would think most people would do hotel/travel arrangements after December 9th..

My opinion (and just my opinion):

A) I don't want to experience the WC and residing in Germany in hotels the whole time. I won't get the European cultural experience in a hotel, that's part of the reason I'm getting a flat.

B) I'm not worried about long train travel times to go watch a US game. I'm pretty sure that there will be express trains (i.e. non stops) between several of the major cities which will cut down on some of the currently posted train times.

C) I've been to most of germany and seen most of the sites, I'm not going to watch tons of games each day, I will travel to the US games, attend as many games in Berlin as I can, and accomplish some Eastern European side trips to Krakow, Croatia, and Prague.

D) I'm coordinating a group of 22 people who will all want to do different things, such that making a base of operations allows anybody to do anything they want during the 4 weeks we're there and have a place to come home which is theres.


I'm doing 2 weeks of soccer travel-3200/person for double room for 13 nights, 2 tickets for 3 games, and transport everywhere once in Germany.

Here is the conservative budget I've laid out to my group.

Airfare - $1200 (you save money on this right now)
Flat - $30/night (5 people per flat, which requires 1 person to sleep on a cot)
Food/Beer - $75/Day (50 Euros/Day)
Rail - $200 (6 days of rail)*
Match Tickets - $400 (4 Games, 3x Group Games + Round of 16)
Hotel Accommodation = $100 (for a night in a destination 5+ hours away from berlin)

Total for 14 days = $3370

You can do 2 weeks on $3000 without needing to skimp by.

[HSV Hooligan]

Berlin - about 4.5 hours
Munich - about 4.5 hours
Leipzig - about 5 hours
Kaiserslautern - about 2.5 hours
Duesseldorf - about a half hour
How about by car?

[socrne1]

My opinion (and just my opinion):

A) I don't want to experience the WC and residing in Germany in hotels the whole time. I won't get the European cultural experience in a hotel, that's part of the reason I'm getting a flat.

B) I'm not worried about long train travel times to go watch a US game. I'm pretty sure that there will be express trains (i.e. non stops) between several of the major cities which will cut down on some of the currently posted train times.

C) I've been to most of germany and seen most of the sites, I'm not going to watch tons of games each day, I will travel to the US games, attend as many games in Berlin as I can, and accomplish some Eastern European side trips to Krakow, Croatia, and Prague.

D) I'm coordinating a group of 22 people who will all want to do different things, such that making a base of operations allows anybody to do anything they want during the 4 weeks we're there and have a place to come home which is theres.




Here is the conservative budget I've laid out to my group.

Airfare - $1200 (you save money on this right now)
Flat - $30/night (5 people per flat, which requires 1 person to sleep on a cot)
Food/Beer - $75/Day (50 Euros/Day)
Rail - $200 (6 days of rail)*
Match Tickets - $400 (4 Games, 3x Group Games + Round of 16)
Hotel Accommodation = $100 (for a night in a destination 5+ hours away from berlin)

Total for 14 days = $3370

You can do 2 weeks on $3000 without needing to skimp by.

Our group is doing something similar with about 10 people. But dont you have to add in the hotels the nights you are not staying in the flat? The side trips i mean.

[MikeLastort2]

How about by car?

The way I drive on the Autobahn, cut those times down about 20-30%.

The way MOST Americans should drive on the Autobahn, about the same amount of time. :)

But no matter what, you won't be able to drive between Duesseldorf and Cologne in less than a half hour. There's always too much traffic.

[Mikeymike15]

Our group is doing something similar with about 10 people. But dont you have to add in the hotels the nights you are not staying in the flat? The side trips i mean.

Yes, you are correct. However I did not add them above because those are incremental costs and not necessarily something that someone HAS to do while they are over there. My budget above is pretty much a comfortable minimum itinerary (i.e. the essentials). I don't consider a sidetrip an essential.

I priced out a sidetrip to Dubrovnik Croatia at about $500 for three days.

[SoulflyTribeFC]

I went to Germany last year and visited the Black Forest and Dachau concentration camp.

The Black Forest was amazing and beautiful. I'd definitely recommend it. Dachau was, well, very depressing but I felt I needed to go there.

I'm hoping on taking side trips to Switzerland and Holland and maybe Prague and Austria. That would be nice, which is why I'm leaning towards getting the all of Europe rail pass. I don't want a car. I want to travel by rail over there so I'm hoping I can make it work.

[AyanO]

D) I'm coordinating a group of 22 people who will all want to do different things, such that making a base of operations allows anybody to do anything they want during the 4 weeks we're there and have a place to come home which is theres.



First off WHOA.. I guess my planning is very simple as its just for Me, i know Me(hopefully) and know what I can endure in terms of travel, level of hotel/hostel, and what i want to do when not watching a game.. So if you are doing it for 22 people, i give you MAJOR props.. heck i dont know if i even have 22 friends, much less people with passports, who like to travel, enjoy soccer and can take off 2-3 weeks from their jobs/families.. So you have a helluva task ahead of you my man!!

[SoulflyTribeFC]

Okay, another question. Say you have a rail pass for unlimited travel or whatever. Do you have to get a ticket at a ticket counter or are there rail cars with open seating?