With Germany gearing up for two days off work this weekend, the ADAC motoring association has warned drivers to prepare for traffic jams from Thursday, April 14 until Easter Monday. Things will be very busy on certain sections of German roads and autobahns. 

German roads will be busy over the Easter weekend

The largest motoring association in Europe, the Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club (ADAC), has said that it is expecting significantly more traffic over the national holidays this Easter weekend than in the previous two years, as people make the most of the receding travel restrictions and get on the roads for a weekend away. 

The ADAC has warned anyone driving in Germany to prepare for longer journeys than usual as well as bottlenecks and congestion on certain routes and intersections as people head to popular weekend destinations like ski resorts in Switzerland, Austria and France, and the North Sea and Baltic coasts. 

Traffic warnings have been issued for the following routes: 

• A1 Bremen - Hamburg and Dortmund - Cologne
• A3 Würzburg - Nuremberg - Passau
• A5 Karlsruhe - Basel
• A6 Mannheim - Heilbronn - Nuremberg
• A7 Hannover - Flensburg and Würzburg - Ulm - Füssen / Reutte
• A8 Stuttgart - Munich - Salzburg
• A9 Nuremberg - Munich
• A61 Mönchengladbach - Koblenz - Ludwigshafen

It’s almost certain to get busy on the roads around major German cities like Cologne, Munich and Berlin as well. The ADAC added that travellers should expect delays on popular routes out of Germany such as the West, Tauern and Brenner autobahns in Austria or the Gotthard Road Tunnel in Switzerland. There may also be delays at border crossings. 

Deutsche Bahn puts on extra trains, but delays still likely

Deutsche Bahn is also mustering itself for a busy Easter period, deploying 50 extra long-distance trains on popular routes between Maundy Thursday and the end of the school holidays on April 24. The company announced in a press release last week that it was advisable to reserve a seat ahead of travelling. 

It’s also worth packing some food and plenty to drink, because the low period over Easter is the prime time for construction work on the railways, which can sometimes mean closures on certain routes. This means that travel times might be longer than usual. Whatever your mode of transport this long weekend, a healthy dose of patience is needed!