In a few weeks my wife and I are spending three nights in Berlin, then a night in Dresden, then three in Prague. I know I'm overthinking this, but I'm seeing lots of options in terms of train travel from Berlin to Dresden and Dresden to Prague. Should I just book these tickets through Rail Europe and be done with it? (Perhaps the other companies/lines I'm seeing are really just third parties or resellers, but the company is just Rail Europe? We live in the Chicago area, so the regional trains are Amtrak, full stop - no confusing options.) And I'm buying each leg separately, correct? I appreciate the help!
Posted by
Uppsala, Sweden
7304 posts
No, you should avoid Rail Europe, it's a third party that resells you train tickets at an inflated price. Buy the tickets from DB, the national German rail company instead, www.bahn.de. The Dresden to Prague section can also be bought from ČD, the Czech national rail company www.cd.cz.
Posted by
Green Bay
21892 posts
So when you buy your Amtrak tickets, do you buy them direct from Amtrak or do you use a travel agent? Rail Europe is a travel agent.
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23755 posts
....buying each leg separately,..... It depends. If traveling A to E on one day, you buy a ticket from A to E and may require train changes but it is all one ticket. However, if travel A to E but you wan to get off at C for a few hours, then you buy A to C and C to E to met your time schedule. On most trains you can buy a seat reservation or take you changes finding an open seat.
Posted by
Connecticut
728 posts
Purchasing directly and avoiding the middleman eliminates a layer of complexity. I’ve used the sites for Deutsche Bahn (DB) and České dráhy (ČD) successfully.
Posted by
Chicago
1393 posts
This article is about Berlin - Prague trains. Man in Seat 61 is highly regarded. The article includes a discussion of stopover in Dresden under "How to Buy Tickets". https://www.seat61.com/trains-and-routes/berlin-to-prague-by-train.htm
I will be booking a similar journey a bit later this year. I plan on using the DB site as I have done successfully in past years. https://int.bahn.de/en/ (Same website as Badger linked above, but direct to English language.) edit - I just noted that the article I linked says the Czech site may be cheaper - I think I will compare!
I suggest downloading the DB app as well and set up an account before buying the tickets.
DB, in my experience, works better for booking cross-border trains than some other national railway websites. (Caveat - no experience with Czech railway sites.)
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19380 posts
There are direct EC trains just about every two hours from Berlin to Prague with a stop halfway in Dresden, and there are ICs in between from Berlin to Dresden (so, almost hourly).
Posted by
Citizen of the World
2555 posts
Deutsche Bahn allows you to buy a Berlin-to- Prague train ticket and make an intermediary stopover of several hours in Dresden. You simply indicate that you want to do this at the time you buy the ticket and there’s no extra charge. www.bahn.de/en is the website.
Ceske Drahy, or “CD,” is the Czech national train company and has some of the best bargains on train tickets with Berlin to Prague train tix running about $36. Senior discounts for those 65 and over cut the price even more.
To get the best deals, you have to buy the tickets on the CD website. www.cd.cz/en is the English version of the site.