Getting there

The 39th Chaos Communication Congress takes place in the Congress Center Hamburg, Germany.

The Congress Center Hamburg is just a couple of minutes walk from Hamburg Dammtor station, which is Hamburg’s third-largest railway station. The railway station is served by international, national and regional trains and by the suburban rail (S‑Bahn, lines S2 and S5 – note that the S‑Bahn network was restructured in December 2023, destinations and line numbers changed). The “Stephansplatz” station of the Hamburg underground/subway (U‑Bahn, line U1) is a 5-minute walk away. Dammtor and Stephansplatz are also served by various bus lines.

Close to the CCH are districts such as Schanzenviertel, Alster, Reeperbahn, Jungfernstieg and lots of other interesting places where you can hang out or party. For food, you probably want to have a look around the area of Hamburg University’s campus (north of CCH), around streets such as Grindelallee or from Dammtor to Gänsemarkt.

Address

CCH Congress Center Hamburg
Congressplatz 1
20355 Hamburg
53°33′41.7″N 9°59′10.3″E
(Open Street Map, Google Maps)

Opening Times

Congress starts with the opening ceremony on 27 December (day 1), typically before noon, and ends with the closing ceremony on 30 December (day 4), typically in the early evening. In between, doors are open 24/4. Details can be found in the schedule as soon as it's available (typically a few weeks before the opening).

Buildup starts about one week before the opening, teardown starts immediately after the closing ceremony and is completed in the first days of the new year. If you would like to help during buildup or teardown, consider becoming an angel.

Accessibility

The path from Hamburg Dammtor to CCH is fully paved and wheelchair acessible. You can also use this list of accessible shuttle services by Hamburg Travel.

Long Distance Travel

If you can, please travel by train. That is the most environmentally friendly option unless you are able to walk or take a bike. You can find further information on getting there on the CCH website.

Special Railway Fares by Deutsche Bahn

Note: This information is entirely provided on a best-effort basis, fares might change at any time. Please make sure to double-check ticket offers and conditions when ordering.

Veranstaltungsticket / Event Ticket

The event ticket is based on an arrangement between CCC and Deutsche Bahn. This is a slightly discounted ticket tied to the respective event: it can be booked for journeys from 2 days before to 2 days after. You will need to show both the train ticket and the admission ticket to the event. You can book it through the link on your ticket order confirmation page.

Event tickets are only sold for connections within Germany. For international journeys, see the section on the “Saver Europe fare”.

The discount for the event ticket does combine with the Super Sparpreis and Sparpreis discounts (see next section), but not every combination is offered for every connection. By using the website above you can see which offers are available, and if a regular Super Sparpreis will “beat” e.g. a Sparpreis with the event discount (Sparpreis Event), the results will include this, so you will see the cheapest offer in any case. BahnCard discounts (mostly 25%) can be applied to all these combinations, too.

Sparpreis

Deutsche Bahn offers discounted tickets if you buy them early and commit to a specific train connection and departure time. These are called “Sparpreis” and “Super Sparpreis” (Saver and Supersaver fare). The more expensive “Flexpreis” is valid for any connection on a given day. The main difference between the Saver options is that a “Super Sparpreis” cannot be cancelled or exchanged, while a “Sparpreis” can be cancelled for a fee before the day of the journey (but the refund is not given as a payout, only as a voucher for subsequent ticket purchases). Deutsche Bahn has an English webpage with details on all these options: Saver and flexible fares. The international variant is the “Sparpreis Europa” (see next section).

Especially if you are prepared to choose a connection outside peak hours/days, it may be possible to find very cheap tickets. You can search for connections and offers on the Deutsche Bahn website (but note the section on event tickets above, which has a different link).

External search tools include: 1. bahn.guru (a search engine that searches for the cheapest tickets and forwards you to Deutsche Bahn for the actual booking; due to changes in the Bahn’s API it was unavailable the last time the editors checked [mid-October 2025]), 2. bahn.expert (focuses on operational data including departure/arrival boards and past delays; there is a routing feature that allows for more flexible connection searching, but to see prices users have to find the same connection on the official website).

International rail discounts

For international connections, you can try Deutsche Bahn for a “(Super) Saver Europe” fare or combine a ticket to the German border with a domestic offer, possibly an event ticket. One catch with such “broken” journeys is that you will not be able to use your passenger rights if e.g. your journey into Germany is delayed and you miss a connection at the point where your German ticket starts.

BahnCard

These “loyalty cards” by Deutsche Bahn entitle the holder to fixed-percentage discounts. One paradox is that the BahnCard 50, despite its name, will only give you a 25% discount on (super) saver tickets. BahnCards are offered in various variants, depending on the desired discount level (25/50/100), the period of vaildity (one year or a three-month “trial” [German: Probe]), the age of the customer and more. Deutsche Bahn has an English page about the various BahnCard types. Almost every BahnCard will “magically“ turn into an annual subscription unless it is cancelled at least six weeks before it expires, but it can be cancelled directly after purchase.

To receive your BahnCard discount when searching bahn.de or the event tickets site for connections, specify in the “Passengers, BahnCards” search parameter how many passengers have which type of BahnCard.

Deutschlandticket

The Deutschlandticket costs 58 € per month, this will rise to 63 € from January 2026. It allows you to take (nearly) all regional trains (2nd class only) and local transports in Germany, including in Hamburg. Note that the Deutschlandticket is a monthly subscription. Make sure to cancel it no later than the 10th day of the month if you no longer intend to use it the next month. If you buy after the 10th, you will probably have the subscription for at least two months. Conditions vary with providers, though: There is a German list with information supplied by the community with a focus on data minimisation, and at least one provider listed there offers more flexibility with one-day cancellation and a pause feature.

Passenger Rights on Railway Journeys

If things go awry on a railway journey, passengers are entitled to certain remedies. In the most simple cases, a ticket that was bound to a certain connection will automatically be accepted on other trains, including those of a “higher-value” variety or on a different route. You may be required to buy a ticket for these and claim a refund later. This option does not apply if you are using a ticket that is already “significantly reduced“, such as the Deutschlandticket.

Other options include overnight accomodation or the option to not start your journey or even return to the start, and claim a full refund. If you reach your destination with a delay of 60/120 minutes, you can claim a refund of 25%/50% (other formulas apply to subscription tickets such as the Deutschlandticket). Details are presented in English here.

“Broken” Passenger rights

There is a potential problem if you buy tickets in separate purchasing processes for individual sections of your journey, e.g. you use a discount that is only available within Germany and buy a separate ticket for an international section: Your tickets for these sections will be regarded as separate transport contracts. Passenger rights will then not apply if one of these sections produces a delay that prevents you from starting the next section.

”Courtesy” remedies

If you find yourself entangled in the details of passenger rights rules and it turns out that a certain right will not apply to you after all, you might still be given remedies such as using a different train or transport as a courtesy (German: Kulanz) of the transport provider. Try to speak to a conductor or staff at the station, describe your situation and engage in friendly negotiation. Try to clarify this as soon as possible and ask for some kind of written confirmation of whatever solution is granted to you, so that you can prove this to conductors on your onward journey.

Bus

Car

Ridesharing

Local/Regional Transport

For transport stops at the Congress venue, see the top of this page.

In the city (and state) of Hamburg and its surroundings, regional trains, the S‑Bahn, U‑Bahn, buses and some Hamburg port ferries are incorporated in the Hamburg transport association, Hamburger Verkehrsverbund (HVV). All these transports operate under a unified fare system. Ticket prices depend only on time and start/end of a journey, not on the transports taken (surcharges apply for the 1st class on trains). Long-distance trains (IC, EC, ICE) are not included. The Deutschlandticket is valid on all HVV transports.

English information and fares and connections can be found on the HVV website. One offer that might be of interest for Congress participants is the 24/7 weekly season ticket that includes the whole HVV network for 38 € (as of 2025). Depending on where and how long you will be staying in Hamburg, you might get along cheaper with single or day tickets. For journeys within Hamburg and some surrounding places (Hamburg A/B rings – see network maps below), a single ticket costs 3.90 € and a day ticket (expires at 6:00 the following morning) is 7.80 €. If you have a shorter distance to travel within Hamburg, the cheaper “short“ or “local” fares might apply. Be aware, though, that you can’t buy tickets with cash in buses anymore (details in German). A prepaid card can be bought and charged at various places (details in German). It stores tickets for single journeys, no personal data is required and there is no upfront charge for the card. If you are okay with supplying personal data and paying by credit card, the HVV online shop will sell you all tickets at a 7% discount. You can receive online tickets as a PNG file that you can show on your phone if you ask the online shop for a confirmation e-mail, or as a PDF file that you need to print out on paper.

Network maps can be found on this HVV page, where U/S/A/R refers to the various rail services and the “fare zone plan districts A–H” seems to be the only geographical map showing the HVV fare area.

For single journeys from/to the neighbouring states (Länder) of Niedersachsen and Schleswig-Holstein, there are blanket fares (Ländertickets) that include all HVV transports in the city/state of Hamburg (zones A and B), while in the originating states only trains (2nd class) are included. The Niedersachsenticket also covers a few neighbouring places in North Rhine–Westphalia and the Schleswig-Holstein-Ticket (details in German) fully includes the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Baggage/Delivery

There is no simple way for visitors to receive baggage or packages at Congress — please check the section “getting things to Congress” for details.