That's a tough call for Altstadt AND at that time - peak season. Why not staying a bit farther from the old town, in a nice 19th century residential area? Tram/bus connections are excellent.

A bit above your budget, but really nice (breakfast optional, about 9 Euro in a cafe downstairs): www.pension-zwinger.de

Not exactly charming, but good price-value relation are the Ibis Hotels, try under www.accorhotels.com

We stayed in Apartments an der Frauenkirche:

http://www.booking.com/hotel/de/apartmentsanderfrauenkirche.en.html

It was a really good location for sightseeing, and not at all noisy at night. And turned out to be inexpensive. Best of all you can do laundry here or cook yourself something. I would return again any day.

Lavandula

Thanks for the replies. Actually, the price I mentioned is not at all firm. It's more of a starting point. I have never been to Dresden before, so I don't know about prices there.

I checked out the links, and they look good. How cheap I am depends on whether I have a travel companion. If I'm alone, I tend to be more extravagant. If I'm with someone else, I have to take their budget into accounting.

I've stayed in an Ibis in the past. The one in Paris was tiny, but we had fun with it. I also stayed one night at the Regensburg Ibis when I was driving to Austria. As Ingo says, not long on charm, but comfortable enough.

I have seen ads for the Dresden Hilton, which seems unrealistically cheap. Anyone know what's with that?

We found prices in Dresden to be much cheaper than comparable digs in Prague and Vienna ... not sure if you can necessarily attribute the Hilton's pricing to that. Generally we find the east a bit cheaper to other locations in Germany too.

Lavandula

oops, 'cheaper THAN'!

Ingo suggested that I find a hotel in a 19th century residential area. Any suggestions?

I saw this place for $68 a night, Azimut Hotel Dresden. It's supposed to be a 4* property and the price is sure right. It is about 4 miles or so outside the altstadt, but it is next to a trolley stop. Here are the tripadvisor reviews also:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187399-d604422-Reviews-AZIMUT_Hotel_Dresden-Dresden_Saxony.html

http://www.expedia.com/Dresden-Hotels-Azimut-Hotel-Dresden.h10638.Hotel-Information?chkin=05%2F29%2F2013&chkout=06%2F03%2F2013&rm1=a2&hwrqCacheKey=38465f7d-875e-4522-b16f-b0803cbb1430HWRQ1358816893920&c=eca599da-7528-4508-9ea9-f182c8996946&&hashTag=default&rfrr=-30461

We stayed out of town a little ways because we had a car, plus things to do outside of Dresden. So we parked our car and trammed into city center, figuring it would take just about as long to find parking. It was a 20 min SBahn ride.

Hotel Prinz Eugen was a nice little hotel. You are very familiar with what you'll get in your price range. Breakfast was good. Plus, (this was 2008) but there was a little restaurant about 2 blocks away on the river that served the best goulash I've ever eaten in my life. "Montag est Goulash Tag" are words that still echo in our minds.

We stayed out of town a little ways because we had a car, plus things to do outside of Dresden. So we parked our car and trammed into city center, figuring it would take just about as long to find parking. It was a 20 min SBahn ride.

Hotel Prinz Eugen was a nice little hotel. You are very familiar with what you'll get in your price range. Breakfast was good. Plus, (this was 2008) but there was a little restaurant about 2 blocks away on the river that served the best goulash I've ever eaten in my life. "Montag est Goulash Tag" are words that still echo in our minds.

I saw this place for $68 a night, Azimut Hotel Dresden. It's supposed to be a 4* property and the price is sure right. It is about 4 miles or so outside the altstadt, but it is next to a trolley stop. Here are the tripadvisor reviews also:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187399-d604422-Reviews-AZIMUT_Hotel_Dresden-Dresden_Saxony.html

http://www.expedia.com/Dresden-Hotels-Azimut-Hotel-Dresden.h10638.Hotel-Information?chkin=05%2F29%2F2013&chkout=06%2F03%2F2013&rm1=a2&hwrqCacheKey=38465f7d-875e-4522-b16f-b0803cbb1430HWRQ1358816893920&c=eca599da-7528-4508-9ea9-f182c8996946&&hashTag=default&rfrr=-30461

If you're not on a too tight budget, I can highly recommend Hotel Martha. It's in a lovely location just across the river in the Neustadt (which is basically from the Baroque era). Charming hotel, close to the train station Dresden-Neustadt and tram stops, very friendly and helpful staff.
http://www.hotel-martha-dresden.de/

Another favourite of mine, located in a 19th century residential area in the Dresden-Neustadt district, is Hotel Privat: http://www.das-nichtraucher-hotel.de/
Quiet location, about 5 minutes to a tram stop, the first non-smoking hotel in Dresden. Good restaurant, too.

Close to Schillerplatz and the Blue Wonder Bridge in Dresden-Blasewitz (upscale residential area) is Hotel am Blauen Wunder: www.habw.de
Modern, A/C (!), tram stop nearby

For more B&Bs and rental apartments see this website:
http://www.dresden-pensionen.de/indexdden.php

For example, these are nice:
www.pension-dresden-striesen.de
www.pension-blueher.de
www.villa-am-waldschloesschen.de
www.pensionandreas.de (and a hotel next door)

Thanks for the replies, everyone. Some of these places look really good.

I'm still in the process of figuring out where I'll go, when I'll go, so I won't make reservations yet--except my flight from Seattle to Frankfurt.

I had planned on attending a Goethe Institute and taking weekend trips, but I decided I'd rather just spend the time seeing interesting places.

I'll start out in Berlin for four days, then I think I'll spend a couple of days in Weimar and environs, followed by a couple more in Leipzig before spending some time in Dresden, with trips to small towns which have been recommended by Ingo, Quokka and Cowboy.

It's all very fluid right now.