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What is the cheapest way to get to Gottingen from Berlin ? I checked the Bahn Website and found some routes from Tegel airport. Are there any other cheaper routes ?

I also found something called "Savings fare". What is it ?

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    this week until sunday the train driver union will strike so it could be difficult to travel by train :-)
    – thorb65
    Commented May 4, 2015 at 9:29
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    In addition, it does not look like the conflict that started the strike is remotely close to being settled.. if you plan the trip within the next few weeks, do keep an eye out for new strikes! Some trains WILL be running, though, because not all drivers are on strike, so looking if you are lucky and your train is still planned within the emergency-schedule is worth it. (it's a bit complicated).
    – Layna
    Commented May 7, 2015 at 9:17

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Train is the fastest and bus is the cheapest means of transportation for that route.

For a departure in seven days I found the following:

  • Train: 29 EUR, ~ 2h45
  • Bus: 18 EUR, ~ 4h00

For a departure today, there are still bus tickets available at 18 EUR. The train fare is 80 EUR in that case. If you are fine with travelling on local and regional trains, the fare drops to 44 EUR ("Quer-durchs-Land-Ticket"). But the travel time goes up to 5h00 - 5h30.

Source: http://www.busliniensuche.de and http://www.bahn.de

If your final destination within Berlin is Tegel Airport, you have to add 2.70 EUR to the bus ticket and 1.60 EUR to the train ticket, for local transport.

The 29 EUR train ticket is a "saving fare" (Sparpreis). These tickets are only available in limited number. The ticket has to be booked at least one day before the departure.

Saving fares have some particular cancellation restrictions, just as long-distance bus tickets have.

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Have a look at Mitfahrgelegenheit. Its search will show you "Sparpreis" fares on the Bahn, buses, and people offering rides in private cars in exchange for gas money.

You might also want to look at l'tur. The "Bahnreisen" section has cheap connections for one country every month. If that happens to be Switzerland, you can get a direct ICE to Basel that stops at Göttingen.

The deal with Sparpreis tickets is that you have to go on the named train and can only partially refund them before the day of travel. But they can be quite a bit cheaper.

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    For train tickets, they are just searching for Sparangebote. (Also, personally, I would spring for the extra 10€ or so to take the Bahn, unless money is really tight.)
    – Louis
    Commented May 3, 2015 at 15:26
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I also checked in on the Bahn.de site and found that it is a 2 hour plus journey, even by fast train. That means that there is likely no local buses that can make your journey fast and cheap, there are long distance buses and you will find more lower down this answer.

The standard cost of the tickets is €80. The savings fare means that you book your ticket for one particular train, you have to travel on that train or have to buy a new ticket for an other train. But the tickets are often much cheaper, for coming Monday you can get them for less than €60 and when booking further ahead you can get them as cheaper, I have seen them as low as €29. According to one of the comments they are refundable but expect to pay a high fee for that. Do enter your age into the planner if asked, as for some travels (surely international ones) it can make a difference.

If you have to start from Tegel Airport you have to travel for a bit by bus, making the journey a bit more involved than when you start from a railway station. But that site will give you all details for the travel needed. When there is no reason for a start from the airport, I would start from the main railway station, the Berlin Hauptbahnhof.

A quick google search showed up several bus search sites, I used this bus search site and if found regular buses from Berlin to Göttingen. In the results it also shows train journeys, so check out that you do look at the bus journeys. They seem to start from €18. I have no experience with long distance buses in Germany but I expect an early booking low price and a higher price when you leave buying tickets to the day you travel.

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  • What you mean by The savings fare means that you book your ticket for one particular train, you have to travel on that train or have to buy a new ticket for an other train. is that the ticket is non-exchangeable and non-refundable, right?
    – JoErNanO ♦
    Commented May 2, 2015 at 10:30
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    Saving fares from the Deutsche Bahn are refundable for a fee of 17,50 Euro before the day of the travel. However, if you want to change on the day of travel, it is not refundable (it's only exchangeable if you pay the difference to the regular fare plus a fee of 17,50 Euro).
    – dunni
    Commented May 2, 2015 at 10:48
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    @JoErNanO: An explanation you may be missing is that with the normal price, you can usually take any train (of the paid-for or a lower pricing level) on the indicated route. (i.e. the normal price of DB is more flexible than, say, airplane tickets, where you book a particular flight (at a particular day and time)). In contrast to that, the savings fare tickets are only valid for a particular connection at the date and time specified on the ticket.
    – O. R. Mapper
    Commented May 4, 2015 at 7:21

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