Car Hire in Berlin

Getting to Berlin

Despite having three major airports, Berlin receives only a limited amount of long-haul flights, with most visitors arriving via the Frankfurt hub, or London and Amsterdam. Schönefeld does receive international flights from Asia, Africa and the America’s, while Tegel is slightly busier with frequent departures to German and European destinations. Templehof, famous for blockade-busting airlifts in 1948/49 is the citY’s main hub, with plenty of domestic departures to regional destinations. All three have reliable bus connections to the city though they can be somewhat confusing and inconvenient. Tempelhof is served by the U6 (U-bahn/metro/subway), Tegel is connected to the CityWest and Mitte district by the JetExpressBus and buses to/from Schönefeld airport depart from Zoo station.

Several train stations are located throughout the city, and the new Lehrter Bahnhof which is planned as a central hub for long distance trains is far from completed (2002). For now Bahnhof Zoo services the West and Ostbahnhof the East. Berlin is still one huge construction site, often confusion abounds regarding routing of transport, contrary to typical German organization.

Omnibusbahnhof am Funkturm (Charlottenburg – below the radio tower), is the main bus hub and from here you can catch non-stop services to most major European destinations. Being centrally located Berlin is easily accessible from all corners of Europe, reducing road travel times.

Driving in Germany is a pleasure, mainly due to their fantastic autobahn which tend to have minimum rather than maximum speed limits. Highways spread out in all directions towards the east and west. The A10 ring road links Berlin with other German and foreign cities in every direction.