World City Guide

Getting There By Road

Germany is covered by an excellent and extensive system of major roads (prefixed ‘B’) and motorways (prefixed ‘A’ for Autobahn). There are no tolls or speed limits on the Autobahnen but a maximum of 130kph (81mph) is recommended. Speed limits are 130kph (81mph) or 100kph (62mph) on major and minor roads outside the cities and 50kph (30mph) in built-up areas. Traffic drives on the right. Seatbelts must be worn at all times and children under 12 are forbidden to travel in the front seat without a child restraint.

The minimum age for driving is 18 years. Foreign drivers require proof of insurance and their national driving licence. A Green Card is strongly recommended. A country identification sticker is compulsory. The legal maximum alcohol to blood ratio for driving is 0.05%. Leaded petrol is unavailable; unleaded petrol with a lead additive can be found at some petrol stations.

The Allgemeine Deutsche Automobil Club – ADAC (tel: (01805) 101 112; fax: (01805) 302 928 (both charged at 12 cents per minute); website: www.adac.de) provides breakdown services throughout the country. In the Berlin area, Auto Club Europa – ACE (tel: (01802) 336 677; website: www.ace-online.de) can also offer assistance.

Emergency breakdown services:
ADAC (01802) 222 222
ACE (01802) 343 536

Routes to the city: The A10 is an orbital motorway that entirely circles the city. The A111 and A115 connect this to the A100 – which wraps part way around the Western centre – from the north and south, respectively. The main roads leading to Berlin from outside the orbital are the A24 (from Hamburg), A9 (from Leipzig and Munich), A13 (from Dresden), A12 (from the Polish border) and A2 (from Hanover, from where the A7 connects to the A5 toward Frankfurt am Main in the south).

Approximate driving times to Berlin: From Hamburg – 3 hours 15 minutes; Dresden – 2 hours 25 minutes; Frankfurt am Main – 5 hours 50 minutes.

Coach services: Eurolines international coach services to over 300 destinations are operated by Bayern Express & P Kühn Berlin GmbH (tel: (030) 860 960; website: www.deutsche-touring.com or www.bex-berlin.de). Destinations include Paris, Strasbourg, Vienna and London, and more locally, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich. Buses on both international and domestic routes arrive at the Zentraler Omnibusbahnhof (ZOB) am Funkturm, Masurenallee, near the western end of the Ku’damm and the Messe Berlin. The station has a restaurant and snack bar; information and tickets are available from the ZOB-Reisebüro (tel: (030) 301 0380; fax: (030) 3010 3820) daily 0630–2100. Taxis are available and the U-Bahn Kaiserdamm and S-Bahn Witzleben stations are located nearby. There is a general coach information line (tel: (01805) 250 254 (charged at 12 cents per minute)).