In the following weeks we’ll provide you with more detailed information – but let’s get started with an overview of all kind of possibilities how to get to our beautiful Rostock and MV.
Airport
Rostock has its own Airport and for all those coming from the UK, you can feel lucky because Germanwings and Lufthansa have recently established some flights between Birmingham, Edinburgh, London City, London-Heathrow, London Stansted and Manchester. The problem here is that most of the time all flights are sooo expensive that you may as well buy a two-week-all-inclusive-journey to the Bahamas…but still, you may be lucky and get some of those Promotions with interesting offers and reductions. You may want to have a look at the page of Rostock Airport where you also find links for an immediate access to Germanwings, Lufthansa and a Swiss company Helvetic.
But fortunately Rostock is not far away from Berlin, Hamburg and Lübeck! Beginning with the latter Airport, we also start with (most of the time) the cheapest way to get here. Ryan Air is flying from different Airports in the UK but also from Italy and Sweden to Lübeck (on their list indicated as Hamburg-Lübeck even though both cities are two hours away from each other) – and as you may probably know, it is the cheapest low-cost flying company ever seen. Sometimes you can get tickets for only 10 € or £10 plus credit charge and you are even allowed to take a hand luggage of 10 kg which may be enough to take the most important things you need for one or two weeks. Nevertheless, you have, of course, the possibility to take some extra checked luggage by paying a fee of about 20 € or £ 20 (the strange thing is that they don’t make any difference between Euro and Sterling Pound even if there exchange rate differs a lot sometimes, but whatever…) So have a look at their site ryanair.com and maybe they have one of those incredible low cost flights for you. From Lübeck you need to get to Rostock and MV. This is also as easy as you won’t imagine: you just have to take the train which is nearby the Airport. As the procedure is nearly the same as for Hamburg, we are now switching over to Hamburg Airport and further down you’ll find all details for train tickets and the use of the German train system. Right, if Ryan Air is overbooked you might choose a plane from the UK, the USA Europe in general or even Russia because it is one of our International Airports in Germany. Have a look at their website http://www.hamburg-airport.de/en/ where you can find all important information about their network and the companies serving Hamburg’s Airport. Well and then it is once again quiet simply to get to MV. Departing from the Airport you should take one of the Shuttle-Busses to Hamburg Hauptbahnhof the Main Station (often abbreviated as HH HBF and Station in general which means Bahnhof as BHF, just in case you see those weird things on schedules or train tickets^^ e.g Hamburg Hauptbahnhof to Rostock Hauptbahnof could be HH HBF to HRO HBF!!!) and then you get one of many Regional Express (RE) trains getting you directly to Rostock. The Shuttle-Bus prices are very low maybe 2 to 3 Euros and the busses leave every ten minutes in front of the airport. You don’t need to reserve anything. You can also take the train or different public busses but honestly this would be a little complicated. Last but not least would be the Airport of Berlin but before telling so you something about it we want you to give a short overview about the trains and tickets you might need from Lübeck or Hamburg
Train
The German Railway Company DB is very “youngsters and backpackers”-friendly because you can purchase a Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Ticket for only 21 € for one person and every added person costs only 3 € more. On this ticket you can travel by 5 persons, so that you would have to pay at maximum 32 € divided by six which makes…? Right only 5,33 € for each of you! This ticket is valid the whole day and everywhere in the region of MV but only weekly from Monday to Friday from 9:00 am to 3:00 am the next day. If you arrive on weekends than you can take the Schöne-Wochenende-Ticket for only 39 € for five persons. This ticket is even more advantageous because you can travel around everywhere in Germany, only in Regional Express trains but however everywhere! It is valid for Saturdays or Sundays from midnight to 3:00 am the next day. Just one more tip: you always should take the tickets from the machines in the stations (and don’t worry you can select English as language ^^) because otherwise you have to pay a little more in the train or when you buy it in the travel-centre.
Ok back to our planes. You can also take planes from Europe and the UK directly to Berlin. There you have two different airports. Berlin Tegel and Berlin Schönefeld. The last one has an easier access to a train service which brings you directly to Rostock, the so called Berlin-Schönefeld-Express. Arriving at Berlin Schönefeld you just have to follow the signs to get to a nearby station where you can take the Berlin-Schönefeld-Express. When you arrive at Berlin Tegel you must take the busline 123, the TXL Bus line, which leads you in about 15 min. to Berlin Hauptbahnof the capital’s main station. From the main station you can get a lot of train to Rostock, even the Berlin-Schönefeld-Express which is a normal Regional Express (RE) train. Unfortunately by travelling by DB it’ll be a little more expensive from Berlin to Rostock because here you need to purchase two regional tickets. First of all you need the Berlin-Brandenburg Ticket and then the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Ticket. Both are available for 78 € for maximum five persons.
Another possibility would be the InterConnex train – a private company which is much cheaper but leaves only two times the day. If you succeed in buying the tickets on the internet you can get them for only 14 € per person from Berlin to Rostock. The problem here is that the website is only in German but maybe in the following weeks we will try to give you a good instruction to buy them even without understanding a word! The price in the train it is about 23 € per person.
Well and then you have another possibility which is the Berlin Linien Bus. You can catch a coach from Berlin ZOB (Zentraler Omnibus Bahnof, and yes the Germans love abbreviations because we have too many looooong words ^^ and it means the Central Bus Station) to Rostock Dierkower Kreuz. Their website fortunately is also in English and there you will find prices and timetables. Just for you: a one-way ticket is about 19 €. From Rostock Dierkower Kreuz you can catch any tram and bus service to get into the city centre. Line 1, 2 and 4 lead you in only 15 min. to the heart of Rostock or even to its main station.
Ok guys, that’s all for the moment. We wanted, above all, to give you a global overview; details may follow later.
Now we want you to give some tips about the Mitfahrgelegenheiten, the German car sharing system. Maybe you already know the system because its UK equivalent is Rideshare where you can get all explanations about how to use it. This site is also available for France, Spain, Greece, Austria, Switzerland and Poland. In fact, you can search for car drivers going from Berlin or Hamburg or Lübeck or elsewhere to Rostock. Prices may vary but normally you should count 10 to 12 € from Berlin, Hamburg or Lübeck. You should also know that a lot of people in Germany are able to speak or at least to understand quite a few words in English. So don’t hesitate to contact them in English.
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