BVG U- and S- bahn tickets

Sometimes it really pays to read the directions. For example, I just found out this past weekend that the BVG allows unlimited transfers within two hours on their single tickets for €2,10. Since August, I had assumed that they worked like New York's subway tickets in which one ticket = one ride. Of course, in New York, they allow bus-to-subway transfers and vice versa, but I hardly ever took the bus.

But if you plan carefully in Berlin, this is a good way to run a few errands on one ticket, especially since the ticket is valid on all the systems: trams, S-bahn, U-bahn, bus. Within the two-hour window, the only thing once can't do is go back the way one came.

So, for example, I wanted to go to St. George's bookstore and get a haircut, both in Prinzlauerberg. Since St. George's was closer to my house, I stopped at St. George's first for an hour to sell some used books and to browse. Then I hopped on the tram again to continue to the hairdresser, always going in the same direction.

To make good use of the single ticket, just be sure to make your final destination the farthest-away from you and make a stop or two in between, depending on how long you need to stop. For example, I would like to go to the S-bahn stop Westend to finally shop at Centro Italia, but it is too far away for me to bike and spending 4 euros just to shop just seems wasteful. So I could combine a visit to Centro Italia with some errands in Mitte or anywhere else I only need to spend an hour or less.

But the real lesson here is to read everything so that you optimize its use. All those wasted train tickets...