London to Berlin travel advice

[philmo]

I looking for the best place to book tickets to travel from London (I presume it will have to be St Pancras) to Berlin in December.

Ideally with 2 stops, which from checking Trainline and raileurope sites seem to be changes at Brussels and Cologne.

Is raileurope the better option, or should I go with another site.

I will be travelling with my wife and 18 year old daughter.

Any help would be much appreciate, I am new to this site.

 

[peterblue]

Yes, it will be from St Pancras. You will cross a separate gateline and immigration checks before boarding Eurostar services.

You have a choice of routes to Berlin. Via Brussels & Cologne is possible - there is also the option of catching a night train from Brussels.

RailEurope is a reputable source. No site is any 'better' or worse. Some sites will charge a small booking fee, however.

 

[Alfonso]

Whatever site you buy from you will be able to log in to eurostar.com and change your seats if you don't like those originally allocated. Different booking engines may give you more flexibility if, for example, you want a longer stopover en-route. Many German trains will have a "kleinkinderabteil" (small children's compartment) which maybe a godsend or a nightmare depending on your preferences. Eurostars are less child friendly but do have spaces specifically for families, often near the bigger nappy changing friendly toilets, for example

 

[greatkingrat]

His daughter is 18, so hopefully nappy changing is not an issue!

 

[30907]

Worth noting that you can also book with bahn.com (DB in English) and they have some competitive fares for the Eurostar section - RailEurope may or may not be able to access those (and there may not much of a saving for that date on a quick check)

If you are coming back, especially if travelling through from Bristol, I would also cost out a 4-day Interrail Global pass. (In fact, it would almost be worth it for the one-way trip if you start in Bristol)

 

[WesternLancer]

I looking for the best place to book tickets to travel from London (I presume it will have to be St Pancras) to Berlin in December.

Ideally with 2 stops, which from checking Trainline and raileurope sites seem to be changes at Brussels and Cologne.

Is raileurope the better option, or should I go with another site.

I will be travelling with my wife and 18 year old daughter.

Any help would be much appreciate, I am new to this site.

If you don't already know it always good to consult The Man in Seat 61 website - usually also advises on where to buy tickets from as well as the different route options etc

London to Germany by train | Times, fares, how to buy tickets

Train times, fares & tickets from London to Cologne, Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin, Hamburg & Germany by Eurostar or ferry and onward train. UK to Germany without flying!

www.seat61.com

My personal view would not be to rely on any final connections of the day due to poor timekeeping on occasion by German Railways in and out of Brussels. IE do not reply on trains that end up with you needing to be on the last Brussels to London Eurostar of the day. German Rail staff will endorse tickets with an official stamp if requested, if trains are delayed. This can be useful in the event of missed connections.

 

[mangyiscute]

I would recommend booking at least the german trains through bahn.de, I have used them a few times now and they give you very easy access to e tickets and you can even self check in etc, they are also decent when it comes to checking whether trains are on time etc as long as you know how to do it - searching by train number is usually the best way

 

[WesternLancer]

I would recommend booking at least the german trains through bahn.de, I have used them a few times now and they give you very easy access to e tickets and you can even self check in etc, they are also decent when it comes to checking whether trains are on time etc as long as you know how to do it - searching by train number is usually the best way

This is a good point. And I think as I had registered with DB website and gave a mobile phone number as well as e-mail address, I was texted by DB with details of my train being delayed IIRC, which was of some use to me on the day concerned.

 

[Alfonso]

His daughter is 18, so hopefully nappy changing is not an issue!

Ha! I misread it as 18 months! Apologies for the irrelevant advice Philmo. In that case agree with others...German railways is probably best place to book, then change seats on eurostar.com if you want to, and I'd build in some time to look at some nice places on the way (Brussels, cologne, Hannover etc). All the big stations have left luggage lockers, and most have decent food and drink options in and around. Brussels midi station can feel a bit dodgy in places though.

 

[30907]

I'd build in some time to look at some nice places on the way (Brussels, cologne, Hannover etc). All the big stations have left luggage lockers, and most have decent food and drink options in and around. Brussels midi station can feel a bit dodgy in places though.

That will depend on whether the OP and family want to start in Bristol that day or overnight en route - in the past I have used Brussels for this as that's the most awkward connection (tight or a 2-hour wait).

 

[M28361M]

DB's "international" website at international-bahn.de can book the entire journey via Brussels and Cologne in one go, and they have a special quota of "DB Connect" tickets on Eurostar which are usually a bit cheaper than the standard Eurostar fare (subject to availability of course). Not sure if the 3rd party travel agents have access to these fares - I guess it would depend on which train company's systems they connect to when searching for tickets.

Booking through DB International, you will get two separate tickets - a London-Brussels Eurostar ticket and Brussels-Cologne-Berlin DB ticket (when I booked it I even had two separate charges on my credit card statement). However the Railteam "Hop on the Next Available Train" promise means you should be protected in the case of delays, even on two separate tickets.

Two alternative options to the London-Brussels-Cologne-Berlin route:

1) take Eurostar to Amsterdam and then the Amsterdam-Berlin InterCity. A longer journey but only one change, you would have about 1h 45m in Amsterdam which would give time to have a quick something to eat and drink. The Amsterdam-Berlin train is (for now) a traditional loco-hauled service with older-style carriages and you also have the fun of the loco swap on the German/Dutch border (although "fun" depends on how much of a rail enthusiast the OP is, I guess)

2) European Sleeper (europeansleeper.eu) and Nightjet (nightjet.com, from mid-December) run Brussels-Berlin sleeper trains. However you may find that December is already fully booked, or very expensive.

 

[philmo]

All very very helpful, thanks. We are going to drive to London (or the out-skirts to save the Bristol to Paddington leg) so only need to worry about St Pancras to Berlin.

My wife and I are travelling 1 way and looking to fly back 3 days later, the issue of course is it would have to be to Heathrow so we could get the car and flights are not cheap.

My daughter will stay for around 14 days and get the train back with a friend.

I have seen some better prices on the bahn.de site as suggested - so might look at those. And helpful to note the difference between the trains running from Brussels vs the Amsterdam route. Thanks.

My daughter will be travelling back 13 days later. Looking at her fares the best I could see as a return is £267, I've not used interrail before - but as far as I can see the '4 days in 1 month' is £177.
I understand that does cover Eurostar (1 leg out and 1 leg back) - so that makes more sense. Am I correctly understanding how Interrail works ?

I might now decide to also look at the adult Interrail so my wife and I come back the same way - maybe stay over in Brussels for a night. I can see for adults it would be '4 days in 1 month' is £226 (again assuming I am correctly understanding it).

Finally with Interrail do you get to reserve seats like you normally would ?

Any other advice is very welcome - thanks again all, so helpful.

 

[mangyiscute]

For interrail, some train services, including Eurostar, require you to purchase a supplementary reservation, and iirc for Eurostar it is about €30 per seat, so you would have to add €90 going out and then €90 coming back to the price of the interrail ticket, plus these seat reservations often sell out for eurostar trains in which case you then can't use interrail on that service - overall, it depends on the cost of the Brussels to Berlin trains but I don't think it will save you loads of money. Also worth noting that with interrail you get 2 days travel to cover getting out and back into the country, so if you did Bristol to London on the same day as the eurostar, you wouldn't have to pay for the Bristol to London train.

 

[philmo]

For interrail, some train services, including Eurostar, require you to purchase a supplementary reservation, and iirc for Eurostar it is about €30 per seat, so you would have to add €90 going out and then €90 coming back to the price of the interrail ticket, plus these seat reservations often sell out for eurostar trains in which case you then can't use interrail on that service - overall, it depends on the cost of the Brussels to Berlin trains but I don't think it will save you loads of money. Also worth noting that with interrail you get 2 days travel to cover getting out and back into the country, so if you did Bristol to London on the same day as the eurostar, you wouldn't have to pay for the Bristol to London train.

This is noted - so if I booked via Trainline / Eurorail or Bahn.com would I still have to pay extra for the Eurostar seat reservation or would it be included (to save £30 each leg per person)?

 

[30907]

these seat reservations often sell out for eurostar trains in which case you then can't use interrail on that service

Just to add to my post upthread:
The point about Eurostar reservations is important
On your travel date, you can book to Amsterdam on the 11.04 but not to Brussels. There is nothing to stop you getting off at Brussels with an Amsterdam ticket, and it's a lot quicker to get to Berlin via Köln than via Amsterdam! Or you can book on the 13.01departure.

This link will allow you to do the test booking without buying the pass (thanks, Seat61.com!)
https://www.b-europe.com/EN/Booking/Pass#TravelWish

 

[philmo]

Thanks for the link - I can see from here that there are 30 euro passes available for our desired time of travel (some good news at least today !) - just a case of doing the maths now to see what is cheaper the Interrail or buying elsewhere.
Would I get seat reservations included with Interrail for the Brussel > Koln > Berlin legs ?

Thanks

 

[mangyiscute]

This is noted - so if I booked via Trainline / Eurorail or Bahn.com would I still have to pay extra for the Eurostar seat reservation or would it be included (to save £30 each leg per person)?

Yeah the £30 is just for travelling with an interrail ticket, when you buy specific tickets for each train, this is included in the cost, so yeah you effectively add that cost to the price of the interrail ticket. On German trains, you can travel on them with just an interrail pass, but getting seat reservations is advised, they can be booked for I think €4.50 per seat on the Deutsche Bahn website

 

[philmo]

Great - thanks, I will book tonight when I have calculated the best option. I note the Trainline site has problems at the moment - so hope its working later.

 

[WesternLancer]

Yeah the £30 is just for travelling with an interrail ticket, when you buy specific tickets for each train, this is included in the cost, so yeah you effectively add that cost to the price of the interrail ticket. On German trains, you can travel on them with just an interrail pass, but getting seat reservations is advised, they can be booked for I think €4.50 per seat on the Deutsche Bahn website

and to add to that ref the reservations on the DB service - if booked via DB website I seem to recall you can select seats that you prefer (subject to availability) eg wanting to be together on a table with a decent window alignment for example. Plans of the train interiors to help with that (tho not vital) are on seat61 website if required. I think seat61 tells you how to do this if you need more info (check his inter rail info pages probably)

 

[philmo]

Seat61 was really helpful - I looked at it earlier, thanks.