Travelling to/around Berlin
Location
Berlin is located in northeast Germany, not far from the border with Poland. Union's home patch is the district of Köpenick, in the southeast of the city.
Once an enclave within the former East Germany, Berlin is a long way from many other towns and cities in the unified country. It's 290km (180 miles) from Hannover, the same distance from Hamburg and even 190km (120 miles) from Leipzig, another former East German city.
Travel by plane
Having until fairly recently had 3 international airports (Tempelhof, Tegel and Schönefeld), Berlin is now served by just the one, Berlin Brandenburg International (BER). BER is located across the apron from the old Schönefeld terminal building, to the south-east of the city centre. It is just 9 miles from Union's Alte Försterei ground.
NB: The Berlin local transport area is split into zones A, B and C. 99% of all the places you go in Berlin during your stay are likely to be in zones A and B. But be warned: the airport is in zone C! If you're caught departing or arriving at the aiport on public transport without a zone C ticket, you will get an on-the-spot fine.
Travel by car
Berlin is well served by motorways. The Autobahn A10 acts as an outer ringroad around the city, with the A24, A11, A12, A13, A9 and A2 all feeding into it from different directions. Driving east from Wolfsburg, predominantly on the A2, will, for instance, take you around 2 hours 30 minutes, while driving up from Dresden, also on the A2, will take just under 2 hours.
All of those motorways are, of course, linked to the rest of the nationwide Autobahn network, enabling driving times from other German cities to Berlin of, for example, approximately those shown here:
Cologne: 5 hr 50 min
Dortmund: 4 hr 50 min
Frankfurt: 6 hr
Munich: 6 hr 10 min
If you're thinking of hiring a car, I'd try Avis, Budget or Europcar.
Travel by coach
FlixBus, Germany's leading long-distance coach travel company, run services from BER Airport, the main coach station across to the west of the city in Charlottenberg, Berlin main railway station (north central Berlin) and Südkreuz S-Bahn (metro) station (at 6 o'clock on the ring). For travel times and fares (which can be very cheap) check out the FlixBus website.
Travel by train
The main station in the city is Berlin Hbf (from which you can take an S3 (destination Erkner) S-Bahn train (metro) direct to Köpenick. From Köpenick S-Bahn station the ground is at most a 10-minute walk.
Depending on your route into Berlin, it is possible that instead of the main station, you will arrive in the city at Ostbahnhof. From there too you can take the S3 straight to Köpenick.
For information on the facilities available at the two stations (e.g. luggage lockers, hire cars, etc.), see the Berlin Hbf and Berlin Ostbahnof pages on Deutsche Bahn's station information website bahnhof.de.
For information on Deutsche Bahn ticket offers, go to my Rail page.
For more on getting to the stadium, see my Stadion an der Alten Försterei page.
Travel by local public transport
The local bus, S-Bahn, underground and tram services come under the umbrella of the regional VBB public transport network. Ticket and timetable information can be found on the VBB website.
Depending on the length of your planned stay in the area/Germany, it might be worth you getting a Deutschlandticket for unlimited use of local and regional public transport not only in the Berlin area, but also throughout the country. Alternatively, if you're planning on doing some sightseeing while in the German capital, then a Berlin Welcome Card, which gives you both unlimited local travel and discounts on entry to many sights, might be worth looking at.
NB: Union Berlin match tickets do NOT give you any free use of public transport.
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