Depending on the booking situation, the routes taken by one of the Wackenbuses may vary from year to year. That’s why we always publish our exact planning of which bus is going to which departure points towards the end of June, but it only becomes binding on the weekend before departure.

Some departure points are traditionally served by the same bus, while other departure points are served by different buses depending on the number of bookings. As a rule, however, only one Wackenbus stops at the same bus stop. In rare exceptional cases there are two Wackenbuses that stop at different departure times at the same departure point. In these cases we will point this out.

You can usually tell whether you are on the same bus from the beginning/mid-July by the bus number on the respective side of the departure point. Unfortunately, for logistical reasons, our planning can still change in the course of July.

If it is particularly important to you to be on the same bus with friends beforehand, please contact us so that we can try to take this into account in our planning.

However, you can be sure that you will be on the same bus without having to ask if you have placed several tickets for a group under the same name (also in several orders) and have chosen the same departure point.

Since we started Wackenbus.com in 2008, we have gained a lot of experience and learned a lot. In the early years, most of the Wackenbuses took us home at 09:00 in the morning and we were stuck in traffic jams for hours, often even before we reached Hamburg.

At some point, we decided that it was in the interest of everyone on board that the Wackenbuses should drive back before the heavy traffic from the festival starts heading south. Therefore, Wackenbus has the following two return times:

Return journey from 03:30 – Wackenbuses to southern Germany and Switzerland

• All Wackenbuses with a final destination in southern Germany (from about south of Frankfurt/Main), Austria or Switzerland traditionally depart at 03:30.
• Why 03:30? Isn’t that when I want to sleep?
  • The Wacken Open Air 2025 always ends on Saturday night at 03:00 after the last band has played. Since, in our experience, most of our passengers want to enjoy the festival to the full, we offer that all coaches returning at 03:30 am come to the festival bus station on Saturday morning or at noon for so-called pre-loading. You can then take your tent and all your luggage to the bus and only keep everything you need for the day, for example, and then you can enjoy the festival Saturday until the end and simply go to your bus at 03:00, which will be waiting for you at the festival bus station ready for departure.
• When does the bus arrive on Saturday for pre-loading?
  • We will inform you about the times in the info PDF that we will send you on the weekend before departure. Your tour guides will also inform you of the pre-loading time on the coach shortly before arrival. As a rule, the coach will be waiting for you in a time window of at least one hour, and due to the regulations regarding the driving times of the coach driver, which serve the safety of us all, there are rules and laws as to how many breaks the coach driver must take before a longer journey (11 hours before he is allowed to drive again for 9 hours). As the bus driver has to take the bus from his accommodation to the festival bus station and back again, it is unfortunately not possible for the bus to arrive in the afternoon for pre-loading. And besides, you usually want to watch bands in the afternoon!

Return journey from 07:00 – All Wackenbuses Germany West and Center

• All Wacken busses that have as their final destination a city approximately from Frankfurt/Main and further north will return at 07:00 in the morning. We also do this to avoid the traffic jam after the festival. At the time of the Wacken Open Air 2025 sunrise is around 06:00, which is a bit early to set up camp, but it’s better than being stuck in a traffic jam for too long, isn’t it?

Wackenbus.com is a project by Wacken fans for Wacken fans. We do not come from the coach industry, but first came into contact with the industry through the Wacken Open Air. That’s why we don’t have our own coaches, but work together with many different coach companies from whom we charter the coaches.

We have often been working with coach companies for many years with whom we have had good experiences and have developed friendships with many companies and coach drivers over the years.

When selecting coaches, we make special demands on the coach companies. For example, we don’t necessarily need the brand-new bus with leather seats, but the bus must be clean, run reliably, have plenty of luggage space and, for example, a trailer or a ski box and amenities such as a refrigerator and the option of connecting mobile phones to the music system. The air conditioning should also work, as it can usually get very hot when we are travelling to Wacken Open Air 2025!

There is always a toilet on our coaches, but it has a limited capacity and is therefore only intended for “urgent emergencies”. The tour guides therefore endeavour to take sufficient breaks at rest stops with toilet facilities. If in doubt, please ask your tour guide.

We have also been asked whether there are separate toilets on the coach: We are not aware of any coaches that have separate toilets for men and women!

We are happy to allow you to take drinks with you for immediate consumption (e.g. as provisions in your hand luggage). Beer crates, beer can pallets etc. are not permitted. On the festival site and in the town of Wacken there are plenty of shopping facilities (e.g. an EDEKA supermarket or a shopping mile on the festival site) at fair prices.

You can buy (chilled) beer and non-alcoholic drinks on the bus itself during the journey. We always negotiate with the bus companies so that we can offer a fair price for drinks (approx. €1.50 to €2.00 depending on the bus).

There is usually a free choice of seats on the bus.

Only in exceptional cases (disability or similar) can we reserve special seats for you by prior arrangement!

The luggage question is the absolute classic at Wackenbus.com

It may not be too important for you if you travel by plane to germany and join our busses since you may not have too much luggage with you.

By the way: Ask us if you want some hints how to buy tents, sleeping bags or similar equipment in Germany so you don’t need to bring it with you from home. It may often be cheaper to buy equipment here and give it to charity after the festival. 

Before we recommend how much luggage fits in our buses, we would like to point out that you will have to walk from the festival bus stop to the campsite on arrival in Wacken. This can be 200 metres in the best case, but also 2 km, depending on where you want to camp.

Each of our buses has at least one large boot or a ski box, depending on the expected number of people, but usually a trailer. In recent years, most of our buses have had a trailer as we prefer trailers to be able to load quickly and safely at the stops. Unfortunately, we cannot always guarantee a trailer, as sometimes it is not possible for the bus company to provide one for logistical reasons. Unfortunately, the bus is only allowed to travel at 80 km/h with a trailer, which slows the journey down considerably.

However, we ask you to keep your luggage to a minimum. We recommend the following as standard equipment, which we always transport without any problems:

• Sleeping bag
• Tent
• Sleeping mat
• Sports bag or suitcase with clothes
• pavilion for several passengers together if necessary
• Backpack as hand luggage on the bus at the pitch

We will only transport the following items after prior notification and only with our written permission:

• Hand truck for luggage
• Wheelchairs for the disabled (of course we always allow them, but we need to know in advance that one will be with us)
• large, bulky items

Please send an email to contact@wackenbus.com or via our contact form to request authorisation for these items.

We expressly refuse the following items

• Beer crates and canned beer pallets (chilled beer is offered on the bus at fair prices and there is plenty of cheap beer to buy in Wacken!)
• All equipment containing oils, flammable liquids, etc. (aggregates, etc.)
• Canisters of any kind Dangerous or prohibited objects (e.g. weapons, knives, etc.)

IMPORTANT RULES:

Please only take as much luggage with you as you or your group can carry and transport to the campsite without having to walk several times.