Warnemunde to Lubeck

[CruiserPK]

We are stopping at Warnemunde on our Baltics cruise next week. We have decided against a ship's tour and would like to vist Lubeck as it is listed in "1000 Places to see Before you Die". Has anyone taken the train to Lubeck and if so, did you enjoy the city? I know this will be a much longer train ride than just seeing Rostock and Warnemunde. Thanks for any information.

Cheers, Pam

[dbh62ark]

We went to Lubeck and Wismar last year from Rostock (our Celebrity cruise called at Rostock instead of Warnemunde). It was a very enjoyable day, and going by train was very easy. The only negative I have is that the train was not air conditioned, and it was very sunny that day in early September, so we were hot on the train. So if you have one of those little motorized fans, I'd take that. One tip that we had is that we didn't understand when buying our train tickets that we could travel with 5 on the same tourist ticket. We had 6 in our group and bought 3 tickets when we only needed 2. I think we walked approx 1/2 mile or a mile from the train station into the historic area of the city. If you haven't considered a stop at Wismar, we also found it to be very charming.

 

Have a great trip,

Donna

[CruiserPK]

Hi Donna,

 

Thanks for the detailed information. Is it hard to figure out the train system and are their people at the train station who speak English? Do you remember how long the train ride is to Lubeck? I think we would travel there first and work our way back to the ship with other stops in the afternoon.

Cheers, Pam

[gratefulguy]

If you google for the Deutsche Bahn (German railroad), you will find their English language web-site with full info on trains, fares, etc. I used it for a trip last year and even printed-out the tickets on my home computer before I left. There are also info web-sites with city maps to help plan sightseeing.

[dbh62ark]

Yes, the web site for train schedules in Germany is http://www.bahn.de. Hopefully this link will work: http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en. If not, go to http://www.bahn.de then click on International Guests on the right for the English version.

 

No, it was not hard to figure out the train system. We didn't have any issues communicating, but we had researched our train schedules prior to leaving, so we didn't have to ask a lot of questions at the train station. I don't think you'll have any problems but would say that the train station personnel are not fluent in English.

 

We went from Rostock to Lubeck, Lubeck to Wismar, Wismar to Bad Doberan, then Bad Doberan to Rostock. We had a port stop from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. and were on the train at around 8:00 a.m. We were back at the ship at 7:30 p.m. or maybe earlier. I think the ride from Rostock to Lubeck was over an hour, but we were talking, so it seem like it was short.

 

I went to Warnemunde and Rostock on a previous trip and think they are good options too. I think Wismar was my favorite in the area though because it was so picturesque. However, Schwerin seems to be popular but we didn't get to go there (the castle was under scaffolding last year, so we opted to go to Lubeck instead).

 

Donna

[rodan]

Dear Donna,

I went to the website you mentioned and noticed that they have a regional ticket that you can use for one day for 5 people on 2nd class. I have a few questions. Did you purchase your tickets online or at the train station? Are those tickets good for travel all day long (can you get on and off at different stops). I notice they have a web page for purchasing that type of ticket but it is in German only (regular ticket purchases are on a web page that is in English) did you use that web page in German if you purchased your tickets on the web ? Did you board the train from Warnemunde or Rostock?

 

Thanks,

Irwin

[dbh62ark]

Yes, you found the type of ticket that we purchased. We did purchase ours at the train station, and the attendant there is the one who gave us advice because we didn't know about that tourist ticket in advance and had simply checked train schedules on the bahn.de site (but have seen similar types of tickets in other countries in Europe). We were allowed to use the ticket for multiple journeys during the day, so we didn't have to purchase any additional tickets after we bought our ticket at the train station in Rostock (our ship called in Rostock instead of Warnemunde in 2005). If you are docked in Rostock, please note that the commute to the train station was a LONG taxi ride, about 20 minutes for about 26 Euros. If you're in Warnemunde, it's much easier.

 

Have a great trip,

Donna