I will be arriving on an intra-European flight into Hamburg at 540pm.

It appears that I can take a train directly from the airport at 630pm or so and then transfers at the main Hamburg station for a train to Berlin.

Is the 50 minutes sufficient? This seems to be very straightforward. I can buy the ticket online for 73 Euro but not sure if that is refundable in case of a misconnect.

Am I OK to buy from a machine or on the train instead, or am I better off buying ahead of time (any way to buy it lower rather than 73 Euro)?

Finally, what are my best options to buy a 2G or 5G micro-sim data card for my IPAD2 (United States ATT variety), and can I buy the card at the Hamburg airport, main Berlin train station or at the Zoogarten terminal?

Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions!

50 minutes should be sufficient even with checked luggage. It doesn't take more than 10 minutes at most to move yourself from the plane to the train station. Add time to wait for bags but the few times I've waited for bags they've been on the belt fairly quickly.

Assuming no longer delay, 50 minutes is absolutely sufficient. When traveling with checked luggage through HAM I usually need 20 minutes from plane to rental-car pickup which is about the same distance as the train station, inclduing the wait for my bags


73� is a full-fare train-ticket in Hamburg-Berlin - you can take any train you like on the day of your ticket and the following day. You could try to find a "Sparpreis" with Deutsche Bahn - these start at 29�, however they are subject to availability, require a minimum three day advance purchase and are tied to the train you booked them on, yet can be paid up to full-fare (i.e. pay the difference to 73 Euros) if you miss the originally booked train.

I'd buy ahead, it saves time and the legendary "usable" ticket-vending machines of Deutsche Bahn...:-)!

Greetings - Dirk

Vodafone Germany offers what they call Websessions packages with micro sim cards for EUR 4.95:

http://shop.vodafone.de/Shop/picknmi...Id=prod1034456

This includes the micro sim card and 24h of internet. You can buy additional time with a credit card.

The closest Vodafone shop to Berlin Zoologischer Garten train station is:

Vodafone Shop Kranzler Eck, Kurf�rstendamm 19, 10719 Berlin

You can't buy your ticket on the train. Your first train is a suburban train (S-Bahn), and not only is there no facility to buy tickets on board but you get fined if you are caught without a ticket. There is no barrier, and there are no regular inspections on board, but if you get caught in one of their occasional spot checks you're in trouble.

There is no ticket office at the airport station, and as hinted at in a previous post the machines aren't terribly user friendly. You definitely want to buy your ticket online if you can.

After grabbing your luggage from the belt at HAM airport, which is really a breeze, it's a smooth 2 mins walk to the escalator to the suburban train (S-Bahn).
The S-Bahn line S1 operates every 10 minutes between Hamburg Airport and Hamburg�s central railway station, Hauptbahnhof, a journey of only 25 minutes. The �Hamburg Airport (Flughafen)� S-Bahn station is directly in front of both terminals and can easily be reached by lift, escalator or stairs.
Be sure to get a ticket from the ticket machine before boarding the train. For a single-ticket press "3" (2,85 �) and be aware that you have sufficient coins on hand (the ticket machine only takes 5 � & 10 � bills!).
At Hamburg central station your S-Bahn will arrive at platform #1, trains to Berlin usually depart from platform 6 to 8.

Don't confuse the OP please.

He does not have to buy a separate ticket for the S-Bahn if he has a ticket to Berlin.

True ^ But OP has to choose "Hamburg Airport" as station of departure. I'm not sure if it works out with DB special deals

You enter Hamburg Airport as your departure station at the time of booking - simple(s)!

Fare is exactly the same.