¬ just serendipity 🍀 (not just serendipity)

This post is written as a reference for friends who would visit me in Germany 🇩🇪.

If you come for at least 7 days and intend to use public transit (which is excellent!) and travel to outside the city center e.g. to do some sightseeing and/or hiking, you should probably get the Deutschland Ticket.

The DL-Ticket is purely for public transit. It’s not a CityCard for a CityPass or similar i.e. no access to museums and/or other attractions. Such a card exists, but I cannot vouch for it at this time. I have the impression it’s only worth it if you intend to pack a lot of activities within a shorter period of 2-5 days.

The DL-Ticket used to cost 49€ per month until December 2024. Since January 2025 it costs 58€ per month (a ~15% increase).

Is this a lot? I can give you some data points for Munich, Bavaria:

• A weekly ticket within the main zone (‘M’) in Munich costs ~20€.
• A one-way ticket from the airport costs (zone ‘M-5’) ~15€¹.
• Therefore: Two one-way airport tickets + one weekly ticket equals 50€.

Another data point: a Munich monthly ticket within zone ‘M’ costs ~68€.

This is not an exhaustive list of all possibilities to get tickets: it’s also possible to buy group tickets by pooling people together so that the total can be even cheaper. However, it can get complicated quite fast, and it’s likely not worth the vacation stress to stay on top of German bureaucracy. This is why I would recommend to simply get the DL-Ticket, without thinking too much, if you’ll stay for 7+ days.

Another benefit of the DL-Ticket is that it allows you to take pretty much (almost) any public transit within Germany. The previously mentioned monthly ticket within the zone ‘M’ in Munich is only valid within certain parts of Munich. The DL-Ticket, on the other hand, is valid in Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Dresden…that’s why it’s much more cost-effective (and simpler!) than fiddling with other ticket combinations. And this includes going for long-distance regional train trips departing from Munich.

What is “public transit”? In Germany, it’s split into local transit (“ÖPNV”) and long-distance transit (“Fernverkehr”). In my definition:

Local transit:

• S-Bahn = surface trains (S1, S2, S3, …)
• U-Bahn = underground / subway / metro (U1, U2, U3, …)
• Straßenbahn = tram = light rail = street cars (these have numbers e.g. 12, 16, 17)
• Bus (these have numbers: e.g. 53, 153)

Long-distance transit:

• Regional trains: go from a city to another (RB, RE)
• Inter-city express trains: same, but faster and skipping many cities along the way. These are often dubbed “ICs” or “ICEs”

Regional trains (e.g. RE6) are in general included within the DL-Ticket. There are exceptions though (this is bureaucratic Germany!):

The Deutschland-Ticket can be used throughout Germany on all local trains such as RB, RE, S-Bahn trains (SPNV) and also on public transport such as buses, trams, subways, etc. (ÖPNV) of the participating state tariffs, transit authorities and transport companies in accordance with the area of validity and their conditions for any number of journeys. This applies regardless of which transport company, transit authority or national tariff is noted on the ticket itself. A Deutschland-Ticket purchased in Munich, for example, can therefore also be used for journeys in Frankfurt and the surrounding area.

Please note, however, that the Deutschland-Ticket is generally not valid on trains operated by DB Fernverkehr AG or other long-distance providers such as FlixTrain (e.g. IC, EC, ICE, but also RE of DB Fernverkehr AG). DB Fernverkehr is currently in talks with the federal states and local transport authorities about exceptions on certain sections of the route.

Consult the link above, which contains this PDF, to be 100% sure. Or just keep it simple: accept that ~98% (citation needed) of all available regional trains are within scope, and hope for the best².

Now that you were fully convinced to purchase a DL-Ticket, assuming that you didn’t already regret trying to understand the rules, how do you get one in the first place?

You could get it physically, but no one³ does that. You cannot get one from a ticket machine. You should get it digitally, and then it becomes available in your phone. If you get inspected then you just show a QR code from your phone.

There are two practical ways I would suggest to get it digitally:

1. AutoBus Oberbayern: It’s possible to make it automatically cancel within one month. (“Single ticket only: Your subscription will be cancelled directly, you will receive only one ticket for the selected month”). Normally, the DL-Ticket is a monthly subscription (“Abo”), and cancelling it is somewhat of a hassle⁴. Foreign credit cards are accepted, as well as SEPA Direct Debit.

2. Mopla: By default it is a monthly subscription, but it’s very easy to pause and/or cancel it. It accepts credit cards, Apple Pay and PayPal.

I would recommend 1) for guests with a short stay and 2) for people who would stay in Germany for a longer period (e.g. a few months). Some people I know who live in Germany also opt for 2), instead of a more traditional Deutsche Bahn (DB) or MVG subscription, because Mopla makes it trivial to pause the subscription at any time, whilst other providers require you to time your cancellation before a specific cut-off day (typically the 10th day of the previous month) before it gets automatically renewed.

One caveat of Mopla: it seems you need to have your App Store set to Germany in order to use its app. I could not verify that personally, but see the source.

Last but not least: the validity of the DL-Ticket counts on a per calendar month basis, i.e. January 2025, February 2025, and so on. If you’re arriving, say, on Jan 28th, then you’re out of luck. It’s not possible to make it count for “30 days from now”.

If the information above isn’t enough, I suggest to read up more on All About Berlin which summarizes it better than I do.

Ah, and what if you only visit for only a few days, less than a week? Then the best cost-benefit really depends, and it’s harder to make a general recommendation. I would be happy to make a suggestion depending on the amount of people, how you are arriving (e.g. main train station versus main airport), when (time of day) you are arriving, and what are your travel plans.

Auf wiederlesen!

References #

• All About Berlin
• Deutsche Bahn
• MVV
• MVG