🇩🇪Germany

How your entry route is decided

Germany is a full Schengen member and the Bundespolizei enforces the Schengen rules, not German ones.

1. EU / EEA / Swiss citizens have freedom of movement. A valid national identity card is enough - no visa, no proof of funds, no registration.
2. Visa-exempt third-country nationals (the USA, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and others) get 90 days in any 180-day period for tourism or business. Those days are counted across the whole Schengen area, so time already spent in Austria or Italy eats into your German allowance.
3. Everyone else needs a Schengen type C visa from a German mission before departure. Germany issues no visa on arrival and no e-visa for tourism. The fee is EUR 90 for adults and EUR 45 for children aged 6 to 12.

Passport rule: issued within the last 10 years, valid at least 3 months beyond the day you leave Schengen. Airlines often apply a 6-month rule at check-in.

What the officer can ask for

Visa-exempt non-EU travellers should be ready to show:

• A return or onward ticket - flight, rail or coach.
• Proof of accommodation: a hotel booking, a rental confirmation, or a formal invitation (Verpflichtungserklaerung) issued by your host.
• Evidence of funds, assessed at roughly EUR 45 to EUR 50 per day of the planned stay.
• Travel health insurance covering at least EUR 30,000 including repatriation. It is mandatory for visa holders and routinely asked of others.

Formalities that apply to everyone

• EES biometrics replaced the stamp. Since 10 April 2026 the EU Entry/Exit System is fully operational at German borders: face and fingerprints are captured at your first crossing, and overstays are computed automatically. Expect longer queues at the non-EU desks at Frankfurt and Munich on busy mornings.
• ETIAS is not live. The fee is set at EUR 20 with under-18s and over-70s exempt, but as of August 2026 no launch date has been announced and applications are not open. Any website selling ETIAS today is fraudulent.
• Cash of EUR 10,000 or more in notes, bearer instruments or physical gold must be declared in writing on form 040001 at the red customs channel when arriving from outside the EU. Arriving from another EU state, you must declare it verbally if asked. The fine for not declaring reaches EUR 1,000,000.
• No health or arrival form of any kind is required.

Overstaying is a criminal offence under section 95 of the Residence Act, not an administrative slip: prosecution, a fine, removal at your own cost, and a Schengen-wide entry ban of 1 to 5 years logged in the Schengen Information System.

• Between EU countries there is no duty-free limit. Goods bought tax-paid in another member state travel with you; customs may only ask what a very large quantity is for, against indicative figures of 800 cigarettes and 10 litres of spirits.
• Arriving from outside the EU the allowance is one set of numbers: 200 cigarettes, 1 litre of spirits over 22 % (or 2 litres of fortified or sparkling wine), 4 litres of still wine and 16 litres of beer.
• Other goods are capped by value - EUR 430 arriving by air or sea, EUR 300 by land - and the allowance cannot be pooled between travellers for a single item.
• Cash of EUR 10,000 or more must be declared, counting notes, coins, cheques and prepaid cards together. The money is seized for not declaring it, not for carrying it.
• Switzerland is not in the EU. The crossings around Basel and Konstanz are customs borders, and the German limits apply the moment you cross back.

Tap water is safe everywhere and monitored more tightly than the bottled kind under the Trinkwasserverordnung. Ask for Leitungswasser if you want it in a restaurant, though many will still bring a bottle.

• No vaccinations are required. Keep routine ones (tetanus, diphtheria, polio, measles) current.
• Ticks are the one real local risk. Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg are designated tick-borne encephalitis (FSME) zones between April and October. If you plan forest walks, consider the FSME vaccination and tuck long trousers into socks. Lyme disease is present in the same areas.
• No malaria, no dengue.

Pharmacies work differently here

• Painkillers are pharmacy-only. Ibuprofen, paracetamol and aspirin cannot be bought in supermarkets, kiosks or petrol stations - only in a licensed Apotheke, marked by a large red A. Bring your own supply.
• Hours: roughly 08:30 to 18:30 or 20:00, Monday to Saturday, closed Sunday.
• Nights and Sundays: pharmacies run a rotating emergency service (Notdienst). Every closed pharmacy posts the nearest open one in its window. A surcharge of about EUR 2.50 applies.

Hospitals and money

• Emergency rooms (Notaufnahme) treat acute emergencies regardless of nationality or ability to pay upfront, but non-EU visitors are personally liable for the whole bill afterwards. German providers do not bill foreign schemes such as US Medicare.
• Travel health insurance of at least EUR 30,000 including repatriation is legally mandatory for Schengen visa holders and strongly advisable for everyone else.
• EU and EEA visitors: carry the EHIC, which covers necessary state treatment.
• 116 117 reaches the on-call doctor service for things that are urgent but not emergencies, when practices are closed.

Bringing your own medication

• Up to a 3-month supply of personal prescription medicine is allowed.
• Controlled medicines - strong opioids, codeine, methylphenidate, medical cannabis - need a doctor's certificate, validated under Article 75 of the Schengen Agreement for Schengen residents or an equivalent official attestation otherwise.
• CBD above 0.2% THC and unauthorised performance-enhancing substances are prohibited imports.

Bring the physical passport to check-in. Section 29 of the Federal Registration Act obliges every commercial host to record foreign guests on a Meldeschein and inspect the original document. A photo or a scan on your phone is not legally sufficient and a reception desk may refuse you.

• Trade fairs wreck the market. During a Messe in Frankfurt, Duesseldorf, Munich, Cologne or Hanover, and during Oktoberfest from late September to early October, rates double or triple and availability collapses. Check the fair calendar before fixing dates.
• Booking platforms: Booking.com and Airbnb dominate; HRS.de is the German platform worth checking for independent hotels.
• Tourist taxes are charged on top: Berlin 5% of the net room rate, Frankfurt EUR 2.00 per person per night, Hamburg EUR 0.50 to EUR 4.00 per person per night on a sliding scale. Business travellers can often be exempted with an employer letter.

Where to stay for a first visit

• Berlin: Mitte for walking distance to the Brandenburger Tor, Museum Island and the Reichstag; Prenzlauer Berg for quiet 19th-century streets and cafes; Charlottenburg for the calmer, smarter west around Kurfuerstendamm.
• Munich: Altstadt-Lehel beside Marienplatz and the museums; Maxvorstadt for galleries and student life; Haidhausen east of the Isar for a residential feel and old taverns.
• Frankfurt: Innenstadt and Altstadt around the Roemerberg for the centre; Sachsenhausen across the Main for apple wine taverns; Westend for a quiet, elegant base near the Palmengarten. Avoid booking blind in the Bahnhofsviertel just because it is cheap and next to the station.

Buy an eSIM before you fly, or budget an hour for a video identity check.

• Section 111 of the Telecommunications Act (TKG) requires every prepaid SIM to be registered to a verified identity before it will activate. You cannot buy a SIM at a kiosk, put it in and use it. Verification is done one of three ways: in person at a carrier store, by PostIdent at a Deutsche Post branch, or by VideoIdent, a live video call where an agent inspects your passport.
• An international eSIM bypasses all of it. Saily sells a profile you install by QR code before departure and that works on landing: USD 12.99 for 5 GB or USD 19.99 for 10 GB over 30 days. For a trip under two weeks this is the correct answer for almost everyone.
• EU and EEA visitors need nothing. Roam-like-at-home means your domestic bundle works at domestic prices.

The networks

• Deutsche Telekom has the best overall coverage and rural reach, and the highest speeds. Its MagentaMobil Prepaid with 5 GB for 30 days is EUR 19.99.
• Vodafone Germany is a close second on the main corridors and in cities. CallYa Allnet with 5 GB for 30 days is EUR 14.99.
• Telefonica (O2) is the cheapest and strong in cities, weaker in the countryside.
• MVNOs resell the same networks more cheaply: Aldi Talk (on O2, 5 GB for 30 days at EUR 14.99, sold in ALDI stores), Lidl Connect (on Vodafone), congstar and Fraenk (both on Telekom).

Where to buy

• Carrier stores - Telekom Shop, Vodafone Shop, O2 Shop - are the only places that can verify you on the spot.
• Supermarkets (REWE, ALDI, Lidl), airport newsagents such as Relay, and petrol stations sell starter kits, but you still have to complete VideoIdent yourself afterwards.
• A local prepaid eSIM is awkward for visitors. Telekom prepaid eSIMs are generally not available without a German address or tax ID. Vodafone, congstar and Fraenk do support them, but still require the video check.

A German prepaid SIM does roam across the EU at no surcharge, which is worth something if Germany is one stop of several.

Sockets in Germany are Type F at 230 V, 50 Hz - the Schuko, a round recessed socket with earth clips gripping the rim instead of an earth hole.

• The plug goes in either way round. Schuko is unpolarised, which is a genuine difference from British and American wiring rather than a detail.
• A Europlug fits, and so does a French plug in practice. The hybrid CEE 7/7 plug that most European appliances now carry works in both German and French sockets.
• British, American and Australian plugs need an adapter. Cheap two-pin adapters do not carry earth through; for anything with a metal case, buy one with the earth clips.
• 230 V matches most of the world outside the Americas and Japan. American 120 V appliances need a converter, not just an adapter.
• Sockets in old apartment buildings are still Schuko but sometimes wired without an earth behind the wall, which is invisible from the front.

Sunday is closed. Plan Saturday accordingly.

• The Shop Closing Act keeps retail, supermarkets and pharmacies shut all day Sunday across the country. The legal exceptions are shops inside main stations (Hauptbahnhof), airports and motorway services - which is why the station supermarket is packed on a Sunday afternoon.
• Normal hours: supermarkets 07:00 or 08:00 to 20:00 Monday to Saturday, up to 22:00 in Berlin. Department stores 10:00 to 20:00.
• Power: Type C and F sockets, 230V, 50Hz. UK, US and Australian plugs need an adapter.
• Time: CET (UTC+1) in winter, CEST (UTC+2) from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October.
• Tap water is safe everywhere and free.
• Language: English is widely spoken by younger people, hotel and airport staff and in tourist venues, and much less so in bakeries, small towns, government offices and among older people. Guten Tag and bitte go a long way.

Public holidays that close everything

New Year's Day, Good Friday and Easter Monday, 1 May, Ascension Day and Whit Monday, 3 October (Day of German Unity), and 25 and 26 December. Transport runs a Sunday timetable. Corpus Christi and All Saints' Day (1 November) close business only in Catholic states such as Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia, which catches people travelling between regions.

Small things that matter

• Pfand: bottles and cans carry a EUR 0.25 deposit, refunded by machines in supermarkets.
• Recycling is taken seriously and bins are separated by colour in every building.
• Quiet hours (Ruhezeit) apply in residential buildings, generally 22:00 to 06:00 and all day Sunday. Neighbours do complain.
• Public toilets usually cost EUR 0.50 to EUR 1.00, often coin-only.
• Cash for the bakery. It bears repeating.

Money and paying for things

Germany uses the euro (EUR).

• Carry cash. Really. Card acceptance is now normal in supermarkets, hotels and department stores, but bakeries, butchers, Berlin Spaetis, beer gardens, doener and currywurst stands, flea markets, public toilets and short taxi rides are still frequently cash-only. EUR 50 in your pocket removes most friction.
• Girocard is the local debit network and some small merchants take it while refusing Visa and Mastercard. American Express is widely refused outside big hotels and chains.
• Use bank ATMs: Sparkasse, Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, Volksbank Raiffeisenbank and Postbank do not add their own surcharge to a foreign withdrawal.
• Avoid Euronet, Cashzone and Your Cash. These independent machines cluster near landmarks and nightlife and charge EUR 4 to EUR 7.99 per withdrawal on top of pushing a bad conversion.
• Always decline dynamic currency conversion. Being billed in your home currency at an ATM or terminal costs 8% to 15% over the interbank rate. Choose "continue in EUR" every time.
• Do not change cash at airport or station Wechselstube counters such as Reisebank; spreads run 10% to 20% off market. An ATM withdrawal is always better.

Tipping

• 5% to 10% in a sit-down restaurant is normal, no more.
• Say the total, do not leave coins. When the server takes payment you state the amount you want to pay including the tip - "25 Euro, bitte" for a EUR 23.50 bill - before they tap the card. Leaving money on the table afterwards is not how it is done here.
• Cafes and street food: round up or drop change in the jar.

What things cost

Pfand: most bottles and cans carry a deposit of EUR 0.25 added at the till and refunded by a machine in any supermarket. Do not throw them away - and if you leave one beside a bin rather than in it, you are following local custom rather than littering.

Take the train. In Germany it is genuinely always the right answer.

Buy one ticket and it covers everything local - regional train, S-Bahn, U-Bahn, tram and bus - inside that region's network.

• Regional transit authorities (Verkehrsverbuende) set the fares: VBB in Berlin, MVV in Munich, RMV in Frankfurt, HVV in Hamburg, VRR in Duesseldorf. A single urban ticket runs EUR 3.30 to EUR 4.40.
• The Deutschlandticket costs EUR 63 per month and covers unlimited travel on all local and regional transport nationwide, second class, including Hamburg's harbour ferries. It is not valid on ICE, IC, EC or FlixTrain.
• The Deutschlandticket catch: it is sold only as a rolling monthly subscription. Cancel on or before the 10th of the month or you are charged for the next one. For a stay of a week or more that crosses a month boundary, do the arithmetic before subscribing.
• Validate paper tickets in the platform stamping machine. Inspectors are frequent and plain-clothed, and "I bought it" is not a defence if it is not stamped.
• Ride-hailing: Uber, Bolt and FreeNow all operate. Under the Passenger Transportation Act they can only dispatch licensed private hire cars with professional drivers, or route you to a real taxi - so prices sit close to taxi fares rather than below them.
• Long distance: Deutsche Bahn Sparpreis fares booked ahead are far cheaper than walk-up Flexpreis. FlixBus and FlixTrain undercut DB on the main routes.
• Watch the cycle lanes. Red brick strips beside the pavement are bike lanes, cyclists move fast on them and they have right of way. Stepping into one is the most common way a visitor gets hurt in a German city.

• DB Navigator - https://www.bahn.de/service/mobile/db-navigator - Deutsche Bahn's official app. Timetables, live platform changes, delays and tickets for every regional and long-distance train. The single most useful app in the country.
• FreeNow - https://www.free-now.com/de/ - Books official metered taxis in every large city.
• Uber - https://www.uber.com/de/ - Licensed private hire, priced near taxi level.
• Bolt - https://bolt.eu/ - Ride-hailing and e-scooters.
• BVG Fahrinfo - https://www.bvg.de/ - Berlin transit routing and tickets.
• MVGO - https://www.mvg.de/ - Munich transit routing and tickets.
• RMVgo - https://www.rmv.de/ - Frankfurt and the Rhine-Main region.
• HVV Switch - https://www.hvv.de/ - Hamburg transit and ferries.
• Citymapper - https://citymapper.com/ - Better live routing than Google Maps in Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt.
• Lieferando - https://www.lieferando.de/ - The dominant food delivery service.
• DeepL - https://www.deepl.com/ - Translation; a German original beats a German menu photo.

Free motorways, an advisory rather than a limit on parts of the Autobahn, and two rules that catch every visitor.

• The Umweltplakette is required for city low-emission zones in Berlin, Munich, Cologne, Stuttgart and dozens more. It is a windscreen sticker bought once; a hire car normally has one.
• The Rettungsgasse is the law. When traffic stops on a motorway, the left lane moves left and every other lane moves right to leave a corridor down the middle - before the sirens, not when you hear them. Failing to form it is a fine and a licence penalty.
• The unrestricted sections have an advisory 130 km/h. Exceeding it is legal and increases your liability in any accident; the fast lane at 200 km/h is not a myth and closes faster than a visitor expects.
• The alcohol limit is 0.5 g/l, and zero for drivers under 21 or with less than two years' experience.
• Winter tyres are required by conditions, not by date - snow, ice or slush means the alpine symbol on the tyre, whatever the month.

Germany is very safe. The risk is your pockets, not your person.

• Pickpocketing concentrates in central stations (Hauptbahnhof), on U-Bahn lines and on the tourist squares - Alexanderplatz in Berlin, Marienplatz in Munich, the Cologne cathedral forecourt.
• The clipboard petition is the classic: someone asks you to sign for a deaf-mute charity, the board blocks your view, an accomplice works your bag. Keep walking and say nothing.
• Distraction theft on trains: one person drops coins or asks directions, another lifts the bag from the seat opposite. Keep luggage where you can touch it.
• Shell game (Huetchenspiel) on Alexanderplatz and other squares. Everyone winning is part of the crew. You cannot win.
• Unlicensed drivers in airport halls offering a "fixed price" that is not fixed.

Areas to be alert at night

• Frankfurt: the Bahnhofsviertel directly in front of the main station - Taunusstrasse, Moselstrasse, Kaiserstrasse. Open drug use is visible; violence against tourists is rare, but it is not where you want to wander at 03:00.
• Berlin: around Kottbusser Tor, Goerlitzer Park, Leopoldplatz and parts of Neukoelln after midnight.
• Hamburg: the side streets off the Reeperbahn in St. Pauli late at night.

Laws visitors break

• Jaywalking is illegal. Crossing on a red pedestrian light is a EUR 5 to EUR 10 fine and draws genuine public disapproval, especially in front of children.
• Cannabis is legal to possess, not to buy. Since 1 April 2024 adults may hold 25 g in public and 50 g at home, but there is no legal shop and commercial sale to tourists remains illegal. Public smoking is banned within 100 metres of schools, playgrounds and sports grounds, and in pedestrian zones between 07:00 and 20:00. Every other drug remains a serious criminal matter.
• Do not overtake on the right on the Autobahn. It is illegal, and on unrestricted sections the car in the left lane may be doing 200 km/h.

Solo and female travellers: Germany is safe, stations have emergency call pillars on platforms, and night transport is well used. LGBTQ+ travellers have full legal protection and same-sex marriage since 2017, with large communities in Berlin, Cologne, Hamburg and Munich.

Emergency numbers

• 112 - fire brigade (Feuerwehr) and ambulance (Rettungsdienst). Free from any phone, including one with no SIM.
• 110 - police (Polizei), for crime, accidents and urgent security threats.
• 116 117 - the on-call medical service for urgent problems that are not emergencies, when doctors' practices are closed. Free nationwide.

There is no tourist police in Germany. State police (Landespolizei) and federal police (Bundespolizei, stationed at airports and main stations) handle everything. Dispatchers on 112 and 110 speak English.

If your passport is lost or stolen

1. Report it at any Polizeirevier or the Bundespolizei desk in an airport or main station, and ask for the written loss report (Verlustanzeige). You will need that paper for hotels, domestic travel and the consulate.
2. Contact your embassy for an emergency travel document.

Embassies in Berlin

• United States - Pariser Platz 2, 10117 Berlin - +49 30 8305 0 (consulates in Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg, Duesseldorf)
• United Kingdom - Wilhelmstrasse 70 to 71, 10117 Berlin - +49 30 20160 0 (consulates in Munich, Duesseldorf)
• Canada - Leipziger Platz 17, 10117 Berlin - +49 30 20312 0
• Australia - Wallstrasse 76 to 79, 10179 Berlin - +49 30 880088 0

EU and EEA citizens are covered by the EHIC for necessary state medical care. Schengen visa holders must carry insurance with at least EUR 30,000 of cover.