Cheap transfer from Berlin Tegel
 

Hello,

I am arriving into Berlin late and as much as I love to use public transport, I want to get to my hotel in Alexanderplatz as soon as possible. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for good value transfers or pre-booked taxi companies in Berlin?

The TXL bus is best, takes half an hour and costs only 2 Euros 80.

Honestly if there is no wait for a TXL bus when you arrive, this will be nearly as quick as a taxi and significantly cheaper. There would be no need to pre-order a taxi, there is always taxis available.

+2 take the bus.

Even in the late evening, it runs every 5 min or so and it merely takes 30 min to get to Alexanderplatz. You can use an app such as Citymapper if you need directions on where to walk and where to transfer.

You can buy a ticket just outside the terminal at one of those yellowish vending machines. They accept contactless credit cards.

Taxi might safe you 10 minutes but will cost you 25 EUR more. Your choice, :) The TXL bus terminates in Alexanderplatz

10 minutes out of 30..is 33%..so taxi would represent a not insignificant time saving. If you have luggage of any significance, that's another pro of the taxi. I guess it as per usual depends on how much one values convenience over savings or vice versa.

From Tegel, the bus would be my choice as well.

I also recommend the bus. In the end it's your choice of course.

I'll be going to Berlin in September - does the weekly S- and U-bahn card work for the X9 bus, and if so, can I buy one at the airport on my way out?

The conference I'm going to is near Bahnhof Zoo, so the express bus seems like the way to go, and I figured I would just get a Wochenkarte to get around the city for the week.

There are machines out by where the busses go to buy daily and multi day passes.

My experience in June, I got there and the bus was approaching. A transit officer had me pay her for the bus (2.80 Euros) and I got on the bus for Zoologischer Garten (I took the 109 ). I checked into my nearby hotel.

Later, I was able to go to a much calmer place in the Zoo S bahn station and buy my 3 day pass. It was good for all S bahn, Ubahn, Trams, and busses within the zones I picked.

So, you can buy the multi-day pass at the airport, but there is sometimes a line inside, and it was a little chaotic outside. It will work for all transit (bus, Ubahn, Sbahn, Trams). Just validate it and hold on to it.

Awesome! Thanks! I'll go based on how the lines are then, since I'll have just flown from LA and probably want to get to the hotel pretty quickly.

You can buy your day ticket and tourist tickets also with the BVG app. So no worries or lines at TXL.

The BVG app is very good!

I just installed the BVG app and registered and noticed one minor potential problem: for country it only has options for EU countries. It let me register just fine when I just put in my address but put in Germany for country, but will it cause any kind of problem later in use?

TXL bus route change
 

Achtung! Effective this afternoon "until further notice", the TXL bus no longer runs to Alexanderplatz. They seem to be terminating it at Brandenburg Gate, in that the announcements (in German only that I have seen) for each of the destinations between there and Alexanderplatz all suggest taking the 100 bus to Brandenburg Gate.

If you have to change anyway, it is likely faster now to take the two connections route via U and S bahn to pick up the TXL a few stops away from the airport. This info has been posted here in FT recently.

I checked because I am currently in Alexanderplatz and was planning to take TXL on Saturday.

TXL bus on normal route again
 

In fact I am on it, picked up at Alexanderplatz. There is much construction between there and Brandenburg Gate so maybe this was short term to keep to schedule?

Do they have Uber in Berlin?

No.
Taxis are cheap and we also have very good public transport.
If you are intent on using app-based taxi then download My Taxi.

Yes, they do. Just used an Uber last week to get from the Farbfernseher club back to my hotel room.

I second this. Order the MyTaxi when you are leaving the aircraft, he'll be in front of your exit gate within two minutes. No major city airport can match that.

This would have been the "not-even-semi-legal-Uber-car-hire-service".

The municipality of Berlin who control taxi licences here have banned the regular Uber minicab service.

Not relevant where you are going from/to.

We will get the 7 day transit pass so this would make sense. Do they let you haul large suitcases on the bus?

I don't know yet where we will be staying, but am drawn to Keuzberg (61) where I used to live for a few years in the 80s.

Dude, despite living in Berlin, you are terribly ill-informed. Uber isn't illegal in Germany. The company is fairly active in Berlin and Munich. Not in other German cities, just in those two. What you are writing about Uber is BS.

You can use Uber in Munich and Berlin (only UberX and Uber Black in Munich). At the moment there are pending lawsuits. Uber Black is subject to a big lawsuit at the moment, the sentencing will be at 13th December.
They now also offer UberTaxi in Berlin which is in fact a regular Taxi (also same tarif).

Most big companies have pending lawsuits (Deutsche Bank, Bayer, you name it)...

Uber is about to re-start service in Frankfurt. They will offer both Uber X and Uber Taxi.

I kow, but this one is quite essential...….

My last UberX rides in Berlin (all within the last few weeks) were in a Toyota Prius+, a Mercedes-Benz E class, and a Hyundai Ioniq, respectively. All had a dark blue/black paint, none of them were in a regular taxi (which is usually painted in an off-white/creamy color).

Also: GIYF. Uber has dedicated web pages on its services in Berlin, Munich, and Frankfurt. Some people here seem to post based on information that's several years old.

For those who read German, there just was an article in the Spiegel about the Uber situation in Germany:
Frankfurt am Main: Uber kehrt mit UberGreen und UberX zurück - SPIEGEL ONLINE

Thank you for confirming that you were not using regular Uber in Berlin, which, as I said up-thread, is not available in Berlin.
Forgive me also, for not referring to you as "Dude" in the manner as you so graciously chose to address me when you replied to/quoted my post.

UberX is Uber's most popular product. As I stated, you are not competent on this issue. There is no product called "Uber". Uber is the company name. Uber's products are called UberPop, UberBlack, UberX, UberTaxi, and UberSUV.

The classic and most popular Uber concept Uber pop is obviously still illegal in German and will remain illegal until legislation changes which should not be expected.
Uber X is a limousine brokering service and uses the same concept as Sixt MyDriver or Blacklane. Uber Taxi is a Taxi app and nothing but Taxi Deutschland or myTaxi. So if you used Uber in Berlin you used either a normal German Taxi or a licensed German limousine service. This, however, will not make Uber anyhow successful in Germany. myTaxi is a Mercedes Benz affiliate with very deep pockets and the same is true for myDriver as a Sixt affiliate. Uber in Germany is good as a tourist trap but not for locals.
.

If you want to be educative and show your brilliant knowledge, you should be precise. Uber is certainly not the company name but Uber is a brand. They are acting (or pretend to act) in Germany under the corporate structure of a Dutch B.V. (Amsterdam trade register, number 56317441)

Uber B.V. had to learn through several court and administration decisions in Germany that Uber pop is illegal, breaches German civil, competition and criminal law, puts the driver and the customer in jeopardy. And just for your information: The European Court of Justice ruled the same way.

To use the language you used in another thread: I am really "shocked" how much propaganda you bring forward for an unethical organisation in constant breach of German law.

According to UBER they are not using this business model any longer but changed it in 2004. This however shows once again that UBER is a corporate not really caring about local law but more a mafia like organisation.

https://www.suedkurier.de/ueberregio...410924,9990008

They must have spend a huge amount in this lawsuits so far with so little effort. I think most of the business in Europe is a fiasco so far.

Can anyone give an update on the Uber situation in Berlin? I will be there in a couple weeks and would like to know if this is an option.