Graciecatt

I will need to go from Tegel to Schoneberg as quickly as possible in November. I read an archived thread with lots of choices from 2007 and honestly, it was all Greek to me!

Can someone please explain to me like I'm five with no German knowledge or Germany experience what is the easiest/fastest way to go from Tegel to Schoneberg? No abbreviations, please, I have never been to Europe. If all goes well, we will be landing at 1400 and our next flight out of Schoneberg is at 1800.

We will have just landed after an overnight flight from Boston and will be tired, hungry and cranky. That will all change when we see our daughter at Schoneberg for our flight to Paris!

Thank you!

irfan23

Sure. Get a taxi. Texel is tiny. You'll be out pretty quickly and will see a cabstand.

Alternatively, if negotiating a German taxidriver seems intimidating, consider a prepaid cab/limo service. I used Cabforce in June. Made the reservation online Statesside, the driver met me inside the terminal, and I got where I needed to be quickly. You pay a premium of course but it might be worth the convenience.

Graciecatt

You're right - that might be best rather than trying to use public transportation. It doesn't look like they're too far apart so hopefully it won't take too long mid-afternoon mid-week.

I didn't even think about the negotiating part - do taxis take credit cards or should I bring a stash of euros?

FLYGVA

Well, Schöneberg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sch%C3%B6neberg) is a part of Berlin, the airport is Schönefeld (close to the new airport with the code BER). Located in the former Eastern part of our capital.

SInce I assume you mean Schönefeld, I have edited the title of this thread. If you want to go to Schöneberg to meet your daugther and fly later out of Schönefeld, please sent me a PM or post it, so that I could edit the title (again).

And I consider four hours to go from Tegel (TXL) to Schönefled (SXF) as rather short especially as you will hit rush hour (if it is a weekday). I assume you take EasyJet from there to Paris Orly, but otherwise I was unable to track a flight ouf of Boston into Berlin Tegel in November arriving at 14:00. A bit of clarification and additional information (which day (weekend / weekday) you are arriving and direct flight or with a connection, checked luggage, etc) would be helpful.

Thank you

FLYGVA
CO-Moderator Germany forum

spankytoes

It sounds difficult, but it’s really very simple…

First, you need to find the TXL bus. (TXL = Tegel) There are signs posted in the airport to help guide you. This site will give you a little more info on that: http://insidersberlin.com/152/tegel-...s-city-center/

You can buy your ticket from the driver and it’s good for 2 hours with unlimited changes on your ride. It will set you back about $3.00.

Then you will ride the TXL bus to Alexanderplatz. This will take you about 45 minutes or so. The TXL bus drops you off right at Alexanderplatz. Now you have to find the S-Bahn station. (Note, S-bahn station with the green circle and a white “S”. Not the U-bahn with the blue sign!) It’s right by the World Clock and looks like an enlarged phone booth. In other words, you can’t miss it. It’s right off Karl Marx Allee.

Here is a photo of what it looks like: http://www.flickr.com/photos/berlin-...in/5568432988/

Take the lift down and pick from an abundance of trains:

S3 towards Erkner
S7 towards Ahrensfelde
S75 towards Wartenberg
S5 towards Strausberg Nord

Whichever one you choose, you will ride it for 4 stops and get off at Ostkreuz

At the Ostkreuz station, you will take the S9 to Schönefeld. (AKA Flughafen Schönefeld) This will be 9 stops. The issue with this is that service runs every 20 minutes. So it may take a little longer to catch your train. From Alexanderplatz, it will take you roughly 45 minutes to get to Schönefeld. With the TXL bus, walking and waiting for trains, you are looking at approx. 2 hours to transfer from one airport to another. Not sure if you live in Boston or are using it as a connecting gate, but if you can navigate the metro in Boston, then you’ll have absolutely no problem in Berlin.

A cab will take you about 45 minutes to get from point A to point B. As someone else said, TXL is very tiny. Once you walk out the front door, you will see the cab stand. Go to the first car in the stand or brave the wrath of angry German cabbies. Expect to pay about 60 Euros including tip.

There are positives and negatives to either. Since you said that you will be coming in from Boston, I assume that you will have a lot of luggage. It would probably be worth the extra $70.00 or so to “set it and forget it” with a cab.

Graciecatt

Thanks to both of you. We will be having carryon luggage only.

Yes - FLYGVA - I mean the airport and we are taking EasyJet to Orly. We are arriving at 1250 on a KLM flight from Amsterdam. I always add some time because planes are never on time. Our EasyJet flight leaves at 1830. We're landing on Thursday November 8th.

does that help?

Flying Lawyer

So you are connecting in Berlin to travel from Amsterdam to Paris? That's an adventure. Train from Amsterdam to Paris would have been quicker and easier.

However: Easiest journey: Take the TXL Bus in front of the main terminal building. The bus stop will be between 30 and 150 meters from your gate, is clearly signposted and can't be missed. Don't bother buying a ticket from the machines, but buy it from the driver. Ask for Ticket "ABC". This is good for the entire journey. Get of the bus at the Central Railway Station (called Hauptbahnhof) and go to track 12. From there take Regional Train Number 7 (-45 past the hour) or 14 (-10 past the hour) calling at Schönefeld Airport (5th stop). Total travel time is about an hour. If you miss one train, worst case 1.30.

Graciecatt

No - sorry for the confusion.

We are flying Boston - Amsterdam (connecting flight) - Berlin (Tegel) Wed Nov 7th landing Berlin Thurs Nov 8. Then we are meeting our daughter and flying EasyJet from Berlin Schonefeld - Paris just for the weekend then back to Berlin and (by bus) on down to Dresden where she is spending her semester abroad.

I need to get from Tegel to Schonefeld. We'll be exhausted zombies!

And FlyingLawyer - I totally understood that this time around! The archived thread I read from 2007 had you and some other people debating the best way and it was confusing to me. Not this time.

Graciecatt

So the bus is actually marked "TXL"? This is what I meant when I said explain it to me like I'm five. Will the driver understand if I speak English asking for ticket ABC? Does the bus take credit cards or just euros? Do you know how much it is so I'm prepared?

FLYGVA

Indeed. On the one hand, this means you could leave the airport at 14:00 and your plane does not land at 14:00.

The easiest option if you use public transportation is to take the
bus "TXL" from the airport to Berlin "Hauptbahnhof" and change there into a train towads "Schönefeld HBF"

E.g.

Bus "TXL" to "S+U Alexanderplatz via Hauptbahnhof"
leaving the airport at 14:12
arriving at "Hauptbahnhof" at 14:32

(the bus TXL leaves app. every 6 - 8 minutes

Change to

RegionalBahn RB 7 to "Wünsdorf-Waldstadt, Bahnhof"
leaving Hauptbahnhof at 14:45 on track 12
arriving "Flughafen Schönefeld" at 15:05

(alternative departures RB14 at 15:10, RE7 at 15:45, RB14 at 16:10, RE7 at 16:45 [RE = RegionalExpress])

For more information http://www.bvg.de/index.php/en/index.html

They have a journey planner on the right hand side. Enter "Tegel" in field From and "Schönefeld" in field "To"and the time. Click on Search. You will most likely now see all entries matching "Tegel" and "Schönefeld". Select "Flughafen Tegel (Airport)" and "S FLughafen Berlin Schönefeld" from the drop down boxes and click on search connection and al available journeys are shown. There is no direct line, you have to change at least once from bus to train / S-Bahn.

It is easy and convenient, but I am used to public transportation. If you prefer a direct service, a limousine as suggested here, might be a better idea. But given that you have the full four hours, you should be fine.

The bus stop is in front of the terminal and clearly marked by signs in the terminal. There is a ticket vending machine and usually someone from BVG (=Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe, the local public transportaion network) is assisting passengers.

FLYGVA

The bus is indeed marked "TXL". Like in the US, busses have either numbers or other signs in addition to the final destination.

It is "TXL" on the left side and "S+U Alexanderplatz via Hauptbahnhof" on the right side (sometimes the "via Hauptbahanhof" is missing or running with other en route stops below the "S+U Alexanderplatz")

FLYGVA

It would have indeed be much easier to take the train from Amsterdam to Paris and vice versa as there is a high speed railway network. A stopover in Amsterdam, taking the train to Paris and then continuing to Berlin (or Dresden) would have been the better way (as suggest by FlyingLawyer).

But I understand, that plans might change once a ticket is booked and therefore the easiest way is not always possible anymore. Made this experience myself as well

Graciecatt

Aah - now I understand why this was suggested! Yes - I booked our tickets using miles not knowing our plans once we arrived in Germany. We only have the weekend with our daughter since otherwise she is in class. She wanted to travel with us rather than stay the entire weekend in Dresden (so she gets to go somewhere on *our* dime ). We didn't care where we went because a) we've never been to Europe so anywhere was new to us and b) we'll be with her which is the whole point of the trip.

We looked at EasyJet's schedules and although Madrid was her first choice, we couldn't make it work in the allotted time we had, taking into consideration getting from Berlin to Dresden at the end of the weekend. It had to be Berlin since EasyJet only has one destination from Dresden.

So that's how we ended up with Paris!

Editing to add - after returning with her to Dresden Sunday night, we are thinking of going to Munich for a few days until Thursday when she is out of class for the week. Then we will either head to Berlin Thursday night or Friday morning with her. She is flying to England with friends from Berlin Friday night and we are leaving for home the next morning.

Is a train the best way from Dresden to Munich and back?

spankytoes

One point of order, make sure it's FLUGHAFEN Tegel and not just "Tegel" as the station "Tegel" is not really near the airport.

And definately heed the advice of transfering to the S9 at Hauptbahnhof. I forgot that the S9 line goes there. For whatever reason, I thought you had to take the S3, 7, 75 or 5 towards Osterkreuz to link up.

If you are just taking carry-ons, better to save the $ and take the public transport. In some ways, it may even be faster to do that as you will be entering Mitte when traffic starts to pickup.

red star

Your plan includes quite a lot of travel. BOS-AMS-TXL/SXF-ORY in a row. 3 nights there and back to Berlin, then train to Dresden. Next day 6 hours by train to Munich, back after 2-3 nights to Dresden and immediately on to Berlin and next day TXL-AMS-BOS.
It's up to you but I would strongly suggest to stay in Dresden for the time in between. Much to do and to see. If you are tired of Dresden the river Elbe valley is nice (even in November), take a day trip to the Elbsandsteingebirge (very scenic mountains, 30 min) or Prague (2:18 by train).