It is very easy to travel to Germany by train, regardless of whether you're coming by rail from the UK, France or another of Germany's neighbours. With the largest passenger rail network in the European Union, all major communities in Germany are well-served by rail. The principal operator is Deutsche Bahn (known as DB), but many local and regional services are run by independent companies with timetables and fares which are fully integrated with DB.

DB’s flagship train is the sleek InterCity Express – 'ICE' for short. It's actually a family of different train types, the latest of which - the ICE4 - entered service in 2018. On three stretches of high-speed line within Germany, ICE trains may touch 300 kilometres per hour. But speeds on most routes are very much lower, and that’s part of the beauty of travelling by train through Germany: along the way, you can enjoy some of the most captivating scenery in Europe.

An excellent range of international services makes it easy to reach Germany by train from elsewhere in Europe. Passengers from Britain usually travel with Eurostar from London to Brussels, connecting there onto an ICE or Thalys train to Germany. There are also useful routings via Paris to destinations in southern Germany with direct trains from Paris to Stuttgart or Munich, Freiburg (for the Black Forest), Karlsruhe and Augsburg.

There are excellent cheap fares called Sparpreis or 'Saver' fares on international rail services to and from Germany. On some popular routes, such as London to Berlin or London to Cologne you really need to book early to secure bargain fares. Sparpreis fares are also available on DB’s international coach services run under the IC-Bus brand.

From the North Sea and Baltic coasts, through the hill country of central Germany and south to the Black Forest and Bavaria, rail travel in Germany is affordable and fun. Visit the big cities, such as Berlin and Munich, but make time too for smaller communities and rural regions which are all very accessible by train. Highlights appreciated by many of our customers include the hill country of Saxony and Thuringia, where a dense network of rural railways makes it easy to get off the beaten track. Other classics include the Black Forest region and the celebrated Rhine Valley route which runs upstream from Cologne via Koblenz to Mainz

For onward travel beyond Germany, you'll find a fine range of options, with direct trains from major German cities to the Alps and from Berlin to many capital cities in central and eastern Europe. Overnight trains run by DB now include only seated accommodation, but other operators have stepped in to fill the gap left by DB when it axed its sleeper services. You can still travel in a very comfortable sleeper from Hamburg to Vienna or Zurich, or from Berlin to Paris, Kraków or Budapest.