When taking the train from München / Munich to Hamburg, there is a a choice available between travelling during the day on a sleek ICE train, or travelling through the night on a Nightjet.
Final Destination: Hamburg-Altona (or Kiel)
All trains also call at: Hannover, Hamburg-Harburg and Hamburg-Dammtor
All of these trains will call at two stations adjacent to Hamburg city centre - Hamburg Hbf and Hamburg Dammtor
So it can be worthwhile working out which of these stations in the city, will suit your needs best, before making the journey.
Also some of these trains from Munchen to Hamburg are joined to trains heading to Bremen for the journey between Munchen and Hannover.
If you haven't reserved take care that you're in the part of the train which will be heading to Hamburg.
The trains
A variety of different types of ICE trains are used on this route, some departures are by the ICE 1 trains a few departures will be by the brand new ICE 4 trains; if you want to travel with a bicycle you will need to take the ICE 4 trains.
ICE 2 and ICE T trains are also used on this route, particularly at weekends.
These two types of ICE trains are more typically used on the departures which divide at Hannover, to serve both Hamburg and Bremen, the ICE 1 and ICE-4 trains are not used on the departures that serve both cities.
The alternative route:
On arrival at Muchen Hbf you may see trains to Hamburg on the departure screens, leaving at a different time to the train that will be on your ticket.
That's because there also are trains to Hamburg via Berlin from Munchen; so avoid confusing them with the train via Hannover that you will be taking.
The trains via Berlin are slower than these trains, hence DB Bahn not offering tickets for sale on trains via Berlin.
1 x train per hour on the faster route with a journey time of around 5hr 30min.
Book early and save: Yes
Online bookings usually open: 6 months ahead of the travel date
When making an online booking, check that you’re looking at booking info for the direct trains.
On the DB Bahn booking site look for journeys that have:
Trains departing at different times can be cheaper than others leaving on the same day, o you may need to look through the day's departures to find the cheapest fares.
There can be gaps of nearly two hours between the departures from Munchen of these direct trains to Hamburg, so you may also need to use the earlier/later buttons to find them when booking online.
Reservations are highly recommended for this journey; though If you book a 1st class ticket it will include the reservation.
Rail pass users should ignore the ICE trains that travel from Munchen to Hamburg via Berlin, the journey time will be longer compared to these trains that travel via Hannover.
Tickets for Munchen to Hamburg journeys can't be booked on those trains via Berlin.
Ticket Provider | Approximate Cost | |
---|---|---|
DB | from €17.90 | |
Omio | from €17.90 | |
Happy rail | from €17.90 | |
Trainline | from €17.90 |
From April to December 9th 2023, a key section of the primary north<>south high-speed line in Germany is closed due to renewal works.
During the this time, the ICE trains travelling between Fulda and Kassel will be diverted on to the older classic line, which the high-speed route avoids; so the diversion will add around 60 mins to the journey time.
So trains will arrive into Hamburg around an hour later than the usual time.
The slower trains travel via Augsburg and those trains also call at Munchen-Passing.
The faster trains use the high speed line between Ingolstadt and Nurnberg.
This is a journey of five distinct phases
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This train is usually scheduled to depart from Munchen Hbf at 22:37 and arrive in Hamburg Hbf at 08:47.
Final Destination: Hamburg-Altona
This train also calls at: Hamburg-Dammtor
This train will call at two stations adjacent to Hamburg city centre; Hamburg Hbf and Hamburg Dammtor.
So it can be worthwhile working out which of these stations in the city, will suit your needs best, before making the journey.
1 x train per night
Book early and save: Yes
Online bookings open:
6 months ahead of the travel date on OBB
3 months ahead of the travel date on DB Bahn
These Nightjet trains are managed by the Austrian national rail operator OBB, hence its sells tickets for this route, which doesn't travel through Austria.
The train conveys:
The first price you will see on the OBB ticketing site will be for the compartment seats.
Click the train button above for more info including the rail pass reservation fees:
Rail pass users must reserve before boarding these trains and these can be booked in advance on the OBB website, without paying booking fees.
Though the required steps are far from obvious, hence their inclusion in the step-by-step guide to using the OBB website.
Ticket Provider | Approximate Cost | |
---|---|---|
OBB | * | |
DB Bahn | * |
This second version of ShowMeTheJourney is exciting and new, so we are genuinely thrilled that you are here and reading this, but we also need your help.
We’re striving not to let anything get in the way of providing the most useful service possible, hence a facility has been set up with DonorBox which can be used to support the running costs and make improvements.
Instead of advertising or paywalls, your financial support will make a positive difference to delivering an enhanced service, as there’s a lot of ideas which we want to make happen.
So if you have found the info provided here to be useful, please consider saying thank you.
This is one of more than 100 train travel guides available on ShowMeTheJourney, which will make it easier to take the train journeys you want or need to make. As always, all images were captured on trips taken by ShowMeTheJourney.