ESSLLI 2008

Hamburg has an excellent public transport system with S-Bahn (suburban railway), U-Bahn (underground), buses and boats. The whole public transport system is united in the Hamburger Verkehrsverbund (HVV) and uses one system of tickets.

How to buy tickets. In buses, you buy the tickets from the bus driver or at machines at the bus stop. In order to enter an S-Bahn or U-Bahn train, you need to have a ticket before embarking the train.

The fare system of the HVV is complicated and has many special fares. The two fares of relevance for ESSLLI participants are the

• single fare Nahstrecke: € 1.65
  Public transport from the Youth Hostel Am Stintfang and from the A&O Amsinckstraße classifies as Nahstrecke.
• single fare Großbereich: € 2.60
  Public transport from both student dorms (Paul-Sudeck-Haus and Rahlstedt) and from the Youth Hostel Horner Rennbahn needs a Großbereich ticket.

If you plan to use public transport for both directions (to and from the ESSLLI site) every day, you should therefore calculate either € 16.50 (Nahstrecke) or € 26 (Großbereich) per week in public transport costs.

Special ESSLLI Group Ticket. (Ordering for the group ticket is closed!) We offered two special ESSLLI week tickets for the price of € 20. This ticket is valid for six days and will allow you to travel everywhere within the Großbereich Hamburg with public transport. The ticket was only available to ESSLLI participants who do not live in Hamburg.

Important. When travelling with the ESSLLI Group Ticket, you need to carry identification with you that proves that you do not live in Hamburg (or other places served by the HVV).

These special ESSLLI Group Tickets must be preordered, so it was only possible to order them before 1 July 2008.

The two different tickets we offer are a ticket for the first week (valid from 4 August to 9 August), and a ticket for the second week (valid from 10 August to 15 August). Note that neither of the tickets includes the arrival and departure days (3 and 16 August), and you will have to buy a separate ticket if you plan to use public transport on one of these days.