We're 3 adults traveling from London to Hamburg. I've found cheap flights on Ryanair but the times aren't the best. Easyjet won't work. There are other airline flights, but quite a bit more expensive. I was wondering anyone knows of any other similarly inexpensive options.

applefares.com lists a lot of the discount airlines (go to "routes&quot. It says BMI has flights from Heathrow and Air Berlin has flights from Stansted I think. If the one way fares look too expensive, try seeing if a round trip fare is better and don't use the return.

Jo1023,

be aware that Ryanair advertises flights to "Hamburg-Luebeck". Luebeck is in fact a separate city approx. 40 miles from Hamburg proper.
Luebeck makes for a very nice daytrip from Hamburg, so it might even come in convenient, as you would arrive right there. This has been mentioned on your previous post inquiring about Hamburg activities already. I will add here that having some coffee and cake at Niederegger Cafe in Luebeck's city center is definitely worthwhile. Niederegger is manufacturer of THE ultimate Marzipan sweets which you can buy a vast selection of for souvenirs in their adjacent shop. They also have a small museum on the making and history of this sinful almond based delicacy.

But then, if you do not have any intention of seeing Luebeck, flying into that airport will certainly cost you some time. Ryanair do have a shuttle bus from there into Hamburg, though, which should take about 1 hour to transport you into Hamburg.

Unfortunately I am not aware of any other low-cost carriers that fly into Hamburg directly from London. At least German operators HLX, GermanWings, DBA and Air Berlin do not offer any flights between London and Hamburg.
Air Berlin does offer flights between Stansted and Hanover, however. But Hanover is at approx. 110 miles much further away from Hamburg than Luebeck.

Sorry for being unable to be a bit more constructive on this issue.

Regards
hsv

<b>www.whichbudget.com</b>

Jo1023,

I do not want to wisecrack or point out the obvious, but you can access your older posts by clicking on your screen name in case you want to re-access your posts and see what other answers you received. Just in case the hints you got about Luebeck on your Hamburg themed thread did not yet find your attention.

Hope this helps
hsv

Thanks for the replies. HSV I am specifically looking for advice on getting from London to Hamburg. One website indicated there was a connection to be made by rail (obviously with some intermediary to get over the water), but I could find nothing on the indicated rail site. I also thought I'd read somewhere about a ferry. It is very helpful to know that the airport is is Luebeck as our time will be very limited. My daughter and I were hoping to go there, but travelling with my 77 year old mother makes it important that I keep things as simple as possible. This is an extremely difficult trip to plan because of my mother's age, limitations and narrow personal preferences so any and all information is much appreciated.

Ferry: Possible, but not eaxctly the best option. There is a ferry from Harwich to Cuxhaven. You would need transportation from London to Harwich and from Cuxhaven to Hamburg. Also it takes about 20 hours/overnight. It leaves around 16:00 and arrives next days at around noon. You could get more info here:
<b>http://www.dfdsseawaysusa.com</b>

Train: This is a little better option. It will involve 2 train changes but they are easy to do.
Catch the 10:42 Eurostar from London Waterloo to Brussels Midi, arriving at 14:05.
Transfer to the 14:28 Brussels Midi to Koln, arriving at 16:49.
Cross the platform to catch the 17:10 Koln to Hamburg, arriving at 21:12.
About 9:30 hours travel time but that's from city center to city center.

Jo1023,

AAFrequentFlyer is evidently well informed and gave you the only other options I can think of. I had already considered the ferry before adding my previous post, but it is not exactly convenient (and therefore I left it out). The ferry connection used to be between Hamburg and Harwich, but for some reasons they changed it to Cuxhaven about 2 years ago. Cuxhaven is approx. 140 km from Hamburg down the river. You could take a regional train from there but it takes about 2 hours to Hamburg Central Station.

There also used to be a cheap connection with Air Berlin, but they evidently could not compete with Lufthansa and BA on this route.

I do not know whether you have already booked your flights to Europe, though. If you haven't, try to consult with a travel agent because usually it does not make much of a difference in price if you fly into London or into Hamburg from the U.S. You might get a transfer to Hamburg on the carrier you are using on the transatlantic segment of your flights (if it is a member of BA's OneWorld or Lufthansa's Star Alliance) at a comparatively small surcharge to include that London stop-over. I know that my father always used to buy some &quot;appending&quot; tickets for basically just a fraction of what such a flight usually would have cost.

Have you made up your mind regarding where to stay already?

Another option might be these three privately owned hotels:
- Hotel Smolka in the Eppendorf/ Harvestehude residential district

- Garden Hotels Poeseldorf in the Harvestehude residential neighborhood

- Hotel Hanseatic in the residential neighborhood of Winterhude.

None of them is exactly in the city center, but all are centrally located in preferred upscale residential areas and usually receive very good reviews. As I live in the city, I obviously have not stayed there, but they should be fine judging from their location and their reputation.

Here are the respective links:

http://www.hotel-smolka.de/

http://www.garden-hotels.de/neu/index.htm

http://www.hanseatic-hamburg.de/

BTW: On your previous thread I did not exactly want to talk you into the Atlantic. I just wanted to mention it as IMHO a list of Hamburg's premier hotels not including it would not be complete. DAX's preference for the Hyatt certainly has a lot going for it, but it is usually pretty expensive and it might be harder to cut a deal there than at the other properties mentioned. Although negotiating with the above mentioned private places might be even harder.

Let me know if I can be of further assistance!

Best regards
hsv

Coming to think about it once more, if walking is an issue with your mother, you will most certainly be better accomodated on one of those chain hotels mentioned on the other thread, as the private places just suggested by me would involve at least some small strolls from bus stations located near them.

Sorry for any inconvenience caused by this mentioning of even further options.

hsv

Again, thanks for the wonderfully detailed advice. I think we will go with Ryanair to Hamburg/Luebeck. I haven't yet decided on a hotel for one night in that area, but, again, because of various considerations for my mom, a centrally located hotel with air conditioning is a must. I did check out the Atlantic and it was quite expensive.

On flights from NY to Germany, I did find several round-trips on major airlines' websites as well as on Orbitz.com and Travelocity.com from NY-London which, if I used Ryanair connections to/from London to Germany, were considerably (1/2-1/3) less than the cost of the flight directly to Germany (Hamburg or Frankfort). That's one of the reasons we decided to stop in London rather than just travelling on the continent. American Airlines was able to plan a trip using frequent flyer miles with London just as a stopover (even for several days)to a final destination in Germany. Because that plan involved several off-peak hours flights, longer travelling time and several changes of planes in both directions, we decided for my mother's sake, that would be too troublesome. Because of several bad experiences with missed connections, lost luggage, airline employee strikes and airlines going out of business mid-trip, I decided to keep changes to a minimum. We will be flying NY-London, then home from Franfurt, both direct flights.

In case you should decide on staying in Luebeck rather than Hamburg, there is a Radisson in Luebeck that, if a bit generic, is definitely the most comfortable of Luebeck's hotels and should be air conditioned.

All other hotels in Hamburg mentioned on your previous thread (with the exception of the private ones here) will definitely feature air condition.