Since most of you are in Kaiserslautern (K-town) or Stuttgart, we’ve prepared a detailed list of transportation options from southwestern Germany to cruise ports in the Southern Med.
- Driving your own car
Rome and Barcelona are about a 12-13 hour drive from central Germany. Naples is 15, Marseille is 9. So for those ports, flying or training it may be easier for your family.
This is a good option if your cruise departure port is GENOA, VENICE, SAVONA or LA SPEZIA. Those ports are all around 8-9 hours by car from central Germany.
We used Google maps to see how far all Southern cruise ports are from Stuttgart. If you’re not in Stuttgart, here’s a link to Google Maps, so you can get directions and travel times from wherever you are!
- Genoa is 6 hours and 45 minutes,
- Savona, 7 hours
- La Spezia 7 and ½
- Venice is about 7 hours.
- Trieste 7
- Rome 10 and ½
- Bari 13
- Barcelona 11
- Naples hours
- Messina, 18
- Palermo 19 and ½
- Valencia, 14 hours
- Malaga, 20 hours
There are convenient and affordable parking options at all those ports which costs anywhere from 65 to 95 Euros.
See our cruise port info and parking page for more details.
Train
Our recommendation for travel from Germany to Venice or Milan is the German train company, DB Bahn,
You can get an ICE (intercity express) train from Stuttgart to Venice Italy for as little as 79 Euro and the trip will take 9 hours. These trains go up to 180 mph!
K-town to Marseille by train is only 7 hours and $124 pp (unless it’s a holiday or peak travel time). This makes Marseille the fastest and most affordable port to access by train.
K-town to Milan takes 8-9 hours and costs 83 E on the Bahn.
Stuttgart to Milan takes only around 7 hours and costs 53 E.
(These were the prices for the second week in April when we checked in January, but of course, prices for other dates may differ.)
We recommend using Milan as a midpoint if you’re going to an Italian port.
From Milan, take the Italian train line, Italiarail, to your Italian cruise port.A ticket from Milan to Venice or Genoa is only $13!
Time by train from Milan to port cities in Italy:
One and ½ hours to Genoa
Two hours to Savona
Only 2 and ½ hours to Venice.
Only 3 hours to Rome or Ancona.
Four hours and 40 minutes to Naples.
Seven hours and 45 minutes to Bari.\
Train from Venice to Genoa is 4 and ½ hours, and costs $80, for folks who did the open jaw cruise from Genoa to Venice.
- BUS
European bus lines: Sena, Baltour or Eurolines
Search them all here: http://autolinee.baltour.it/Home/455-1-en.html
A bus from Stuttgart to Milan only takes 6 hours and 15 minutes and costs $65 or 45E.
Mannheim (near K-town) to Genoa takes 11 and ½ hours and only costs $83
Munich to Rome, by bus, departing at 4 a.m. arriving 18:45, only 110 Euros.
- Flights
First, you’ll need to know which airports are within driving distance of you.
Below are listed driving distance from K-town to cities in Germany with airports.
Frankfurt Hahn – 1 hour and 15 minutes north
IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT FRANKFURT AIRPORTS
There are TWO airports that have Frankfurt in their title, but the HAHN one is actually 1 and ½ hours west of Frankfurt, and it is the one used by Ryan Air.
Other main airlines will use the MAIN Frankfurt airport located in Frankfurt, about one and a half hours northeast of K-town.
Baden-Baden – 1 hour 40 minutes south
Strasbourg, France, 1 hour 50 minutes
Cologne – 2 and ½ hours north
Dusseldorf – 2 and ¾ hours north
Nuremberg – 3 hours east
Brussels, 3 hours and 20 minutes (same as airport near Munich)
Memmingen – toward Munich, southeast, 3 hours, 20 minutes
Dortmund – 3 hours and 15 minutes north
Munster, 3 hours and 45 minutes north
Leipzig, 4 and ½ hours northeast
Bremen – 5 hours due north
Hamburg, 5 and ½ hours north
Berlin, 6 hours