Rather than taking a flight between Frankfurt and Hamburg, we decided to save a good amount of money and spend some time seeing the countryside by taking the train.

View other posts in this series:

• Trip Introduction: A Birthday at the German Christmas Market
• Review: The Thompson Central Park NYC
• Exploring New York City with Kids
• Review: American Express Centurion Lounge JFK
• Review: Singapore Airlines A380 Business Class JFK-FRA
• Taking the Train in Germany with Kids (this post)
• Review: Park Hyatt Hamburg
• Exploring Hamburg with a Family
• Enjoying the Hamburg Christmas Market
• Review: Radisson Blu Hotel Hamburg Airport
• Review: British Airways A320 Club Europe Business Class
• Review: British Airways Galleries North
• Review: British Airways 777-300 Club World Business Class
• Bonus: Video Review

Booking

I booked train travel about a month in advance via the Deutsche Bahn website. In general, the earlier you book your train tickets, the cheaper they will be. To travel from Frankfurt to Hamburg, no train transfers were needed and it cost only 72 euro for the four of us to travel in first class, with another 12 euro to reserve our seats. If it were just the adults on the trip, I wouldn’t feel the need to reserve seats but given we had the kids, I wanted to make sure we had a table seating four all to ourselves to make it more comfortable. You might ask why first class and not second class? Because to be honest the upcharge from second class to first class was pretty insignificant, about 20 euro for the four of us. I didn’t get a chance to compare the train layouts between first and second class, but I will say that it didn’t feel cramped where we were.

I should also note that I did slightly mess up with the train reservation. When I originally booked the train, I didn’t realize I had booked it from the main train station in the city rather than the airport. I caught the error when I reviewed everything a few days before the trip. Thus I booked an extra segment from Frankfurt (airport) to Frankfurt (main). Thankfully the same train operates the entire trip, so we did not need to get out at Frankfurt (main) and switch trains. And since I only caught my error a few days before the trip, I could only purchase a more expensive version of the fare (45 euros) to stay in first class. I wouldn’t normally have felt compelled to purchase first class for this short of a segment, but it did allow us to not need to change cabins and it did give us access to the lounge before departure, so it wasn’t all a loss. But yes, please make sure you’re departing from the correct station in the city before purchasing!

Even with this slip up, this was still cheaper than flying, as I was finding flights to cost roughly 100 euro per person for economy for the trip to Hamburg.

Arrival to the Lounge

It’s a pretty easy journey to go from the airport to the train station and there are plenty of signs to help guide you along the way. But there was a bit of a problem along the way, which can be seen in the picture immediately below. There are several long escalators leading up to the bridge leading to the train station, but the escalators going up were not operational. So everyone was forced to carry their luggage up the stairs. I’m sure somewhere there was an elevator to take us up, but I didn’t see signage for it. I imagine this is more of a one-off, but that was a bit of an unpleasant surprise given all the luggage we had.

After a long hallway at the top of the stairs, we arrived at a large dome with plenty of natural lighting. This is the train station attached to the airport, with the tracks immediately underneath this platform. There were a few stores and restaurants here, making it a good place to relax before departure. Since I had lounge access due to my mistake described above, we headed over to the lounge, which is down a short escalator from here.

Just inside was a machine where we could scan our boarding passes to gain access to the lounge. It seemed like there were many customers throughout our stay who attempted to enter but were turned away because their ticket did not include access. To be honest, I’m not quite sure they missed out on all that much. This isn’t the same quality you might expect from an airport lounge. Rather, the lounge only had a few options for drinks (soft drinks or coffee), some newspaper and magazines, and that’s about it. There was no food available. Thankfully, I did do some research to know that I would be unlikely to find food here and we ate something small before arriving.

Also, note that it’s painfully quiet inside, and we felt out of place with the kids. It seemed mostly like German businessmen were here. There are no announcements for arriving trains, so you better keep track of the time. And the restroom is very small–the men’s room only had one stall. With most of the customers also males, that created a lengthy wait for the restroom. On the plus side, the lounge seemed renovated recently and there is conveniently an elevator that takes you down to the tracks from the lounge, but that’s about all I can say. Unless you’re looking for a simple beverage before your train takes off, I honestly don’t feel compelled to recommend the lounge. Certainly don’t go out of your way to spend extra for lounge access (remember not all first class tickets include access, only the more expensive fares).

Boarding and First Impressions

At about five minutes to go before our scheduled departure, we took the elevator down from the lounge to the train tracks. This may be obvious on how to read these screens, but just in case, here’s a crash course. We are standing at track (gleis in German) six, as noted by the “6” on the far right of the picture below. The picture of the train on the digital screen shows roughly where the train will be positioned on track 6. I took this picture at section D, which according to the digital screen means that I’d be at car eight. My reserved seats are in car 12, so I need to move further down the track to letter F. The shading on the digital screen also helps to show which cars are reserved for first class (those cars colored white) and which cars are for second class (the cars without color). The car split half and half right under the letter E was the dining car.

Sure enough, the train was punctual, and arrived before we made the short walk over to car 12. It also departed right on time without much warning. I’m used to airplanes where there are many reminders by boarding staff to hurry up or we will leave without you. Here, the train will leave without you and not feel any remorse for not giving you a heads up. Also note for this journey that high-quality face masks were required for all train travel for passengers over age five yet they weren’t required for air travel. Seems a bit odd for the inconsistency, but I won’t opine on German politics.

The cabin felt clean but it was pretty crowded, with most seats occupied. And it would have been nicer if there was more luggage space on these long-distance trains. There is some space for smaller bags above the seat, but it’s difficult to find space for the big bags.

Naturally there was someone seated in our reserved seats. After passing through Frankfurt (main), I attempted to have a conversation with the person to explain we have reserved the seats, but it was a bit of a struggle when she was only speaking in German to us. Sadly, Duolingo didn’t give me adequate training to explain to someone in German how to resolve this discrepancy. She eventually showed me her ticket and I saw what the issue was–she was sitting in seat 123 but her ticket said she had seat 23. Even after pointing it out visually, she didn’t want to leave. It was only when she saw we weren’t going to leave that she gave up and said “all right, fine” and left. I’m not sure how strong her English skills were, but it was a difficult conversation to have when not having a good grasp of the native language. We did hear some of the other passengers talking about the exchange we had, which is fine, but it would have been helpful if someone could have helped to mediate.

Eventually, someone did come by to check our tickets. He was friendly and spoke perfect German and English, and probably would have been a good asset to have to resolve the issue if he stopped by earlier. He also gave the kids a coupon, which we could take to the dining car and redeem for a free toy and booklet. I believe this is the same toy that comes along with a kids meal, if you purchase one at the dining car. The booklet is all in German, but it still provided some entertainment for the kids just looking at the images inside.

The Train Ride

This particular train took almost four hours from the airport train station to Hamburg, our final destination. It was a bit lengthy, and at times the kids got a bit restless, but they did a good job staying awake the whole trip. With the train set to arrive in Hamburg around 4:30 in the afternoon, I wouldn’t want the kids to get jetlag by sleeping on the train. And while the kids are not yet at an age where they can appreciate looking out the window and seeing the countryside, I have to admit that we didn’t see too much that looked engaging, especially with so many clouds in the sky. There are more thrilling train routes than this one but that isn’t to say this one was bad–we just had to entertain ourselves for the trip. We did make frequent trips to the dining car when the kids needed to stretch their legs.

The dining car itself was pretty small, with a narrow passageway to get around it to place an order. They do have a decent number of snacks to purchase. And while I don’t have a picture of the food, it did taste fine. It’s nothing really to write home about. The prices seemed lower they would be on an airplane, and it did taste better than the average snack purchased on a plane, so there’s that. We purchased a pumpkin soup and a special bread with cheese and other toppings on it. The adults enjoyed the small meal, but the kids not so much.

When we were near the end of our journey, staff arrived to hand out some chocolates thanking us to joining them on today’s trip. The kids definitely were a fan of this trip, and it was a nice end to the train ride.

Recommendation: It’s Not for Everyone

I thought taking the train instead of another flight would be a good alternative to see the countryside and help the kids get a different perspective. I think the length of the ride ultimately was about an hour too long to help make that point and everyone was showing a bit of fatigue towards the end. The train was cheaper than flying, but it comes at the expense of speed, as a flight would have taken a fraction of the time. Still, there’s something to be said that we didn’t lose our luggage from the connection. I always get a little concerned the airlines will mishandle bags when tickets are booked under separate reservations and you need to rely on one airline properly handing off the bag to another. It’s different when the transfer is done all on the same reservation, but regardless of how many times I do it, it still feels a little bit scary when done on separate reservations. So I feel under the same scenario, I might do it again though hopefully this time it’s to a closer destination. But assuredly, I will skip the lounge next time with the kids.

Have you taken long-distance trains in Germany? How has your experience been?