Berlin to Dresden, same day trip?
 

How? Any help would be appreciated...

by train it is a two hour trip one way...

direct Trains are leaving every two hours, 36 € one way....

Wow, 36 Euro one way. The DB prices are totally nuts but I've been saying that forever. If you can't get a Schoenes Wochenende Ticket or something similar, renting a car might be cheaper if you are traveling with two adults (you plus partner). If it's you alone take the train.

Doing the Gemaldegalerie, Zwinger and Semperoper in one day is a good bit. Not even sure if you can fit it all within their respective opening hours. That's something you should check. Museums often have night time opening hours, so choosing that day would be good.

I'd say it's do-able if you are under time pressure and ready to take the stress. Otherwise stay overnight.

Is Schönes Wochenende good on IC/ICE trains? IIRC it's not.

You are right, "Schönes Wochenende" is only valid on RB, RE and IRE.

http://www.toytowngermany.com/wiki/S...henende_Ticket

I know it's only for the slow trains. But the distance between Berlin and Dresden is not huge (around 125 miles). This means that the gain in time is not so important. If he was planning on a Berlin-Munich that would be different. It's also why I suggested looking into a rental car or perhaps even a bus connection.

Till

The train journey takes two hours on the (infrequent) direct EC service and between three and four hours on all other services. Non-flexible advance booking tickets are available from EUR 29 one-way

All this information can easily be obtained at www.bahn.de

Why is 36 Euro o/w totally nuts? :confused:

However, there are slightly cheaper fares around (29 Euro o/w). If you want to do the long and painful trip on suburban trains, buy a Sachsen-Ticket and a Berlin-Brandenburg ticket for a total of 54 Euro all in.

Renting a car is nuts. This will take you at least two hours on your way out and probably three on the way back.

in my opinion, the Schönes Wochenende passes are great, as long as you have time you get to see a lot more of the countryside and get a bit more personal with some smaller towns than when you fly through at 200kph on a ICE. I've done a day trip from Hamburg to Berlin on a Schönes Wochenende pass and it was definitely worth it, even though we only got about 8 hours in Berlin out of the deal.