Peggy

OK all you people who have been so helpful... this may be the last time I pester you. The Berlin portion of our trip is complete except for these final questions.
1. I see there is a BVG office in the airport where we will buy a Berlin Card and a 2 day pass. Is it also possible to buy train tickets there to go from Berlin to Dresden or is that a different train company? If not, must we go to the train station or is there anyplace closer to our hotel that sells train tickets?
2. What stop do we get off the airport exp bus for the hotel Melia?
3. What is the best way to get from Melia to the Hbf (other than taxi) when we are leaving Berlin (which I don't think we'll want to do from what I've been reading).
Thanks for all the many questions you've had the patience to answer.
Peggy

Palenque

Which airport, Tegel or Schoenfeld? Schoenfeld has a regular train station i believe that would sell probably the Berlin card as well as train tickets.

I would be there is a DB (German Railways) ticketing office in Tegel but not sure, having never been to that airport.

www.bahn.de the German Railways web site shows all the schedules and you probably can get discounted Berlin to Dresden tickets if you act well in advance and can put up with not being able to change nor refund the tickets. And you have the tickets before leaving home.

treplow

Ticket purchase: You can do this on the day of your departure at the Berlin RR station, in your case most likely Berlin Hauptbhanhof. You can do it also on the computer at an Internet Kaffee or - if your hotel has access -at the hotel.

You can reserve a seat until 2 hours before train departure on trains that have seat reservations (NOT Regio trains). At the station ask if they have a special discounted ticket for your trip. When I am far from a RR station, I have gone to a German Reisebureau (travel agency) to buy my ticket/seat reservation there, paying a reasonable service charge.

Try this website for your "how to get to ??? by public transport" questions: http://www.fahrinfo-berlin.de/Fahrinfo/bin/query.bin/en
That's the Berlin Public Transport's answer to Mapquest.

See you in Berlin at the end of May?

Cowboy1968

1. At Tegel airport you can buy long-distance train tickets from a machine. Not sure if the manned desk will sell them. Nevertheless, you will get a better price if you buy them online, and print the ticket yourself.

2. Take TXL bus from Tegel airport to bus stop "Unter den Linden / Friedrichstr."
Walk North for 5-10 min on Friedrichstraße to get to your hotel.

3. You take any Westbound suburban ("S-Bahn") or regional train from Friedrichstraße station to Hauptbahnhof (the very next stop). It's more or less across the street from your hotel (appr 100 yards). Friedrichstraße station also has several manned desks for regular train tickets, in case you do not want to buy them online or from a machine. You pay €2 or 3 surcharge for buying from a real person

lincasanova

If I am correct, the same bus you came on also stops at the h.bahnhof if you can't do stairs.

Coming from the airport, when you get off that bus, Friedrichstrasse is actually the cross street the bus has stopped at.

Cross the boulevard and keep walking. We had to ask someone which direction as I had no idea if it was "this way or "that way" on Friedrichstrasse.

Peggy

All of these answers helped a lot. How and where to buy tickets, walking directions to the hotel,the map site for transportation. thanks so much to all of you. One more question that came up as I was reading the replies. Reserving seats on the train from Berlin to Dresden was mentioned. Is it wise to do this? Also I've read that it's not worth paying for 1st class. Is that true?
Peggy

yk

I don't think the seat reservation is really necessary. We did reserve seats last fall when we traveled from Berlin to Dresden (and back); but I noticed there were plenty of empty, unreserved seats as well.

Cowboy1968

I wouldn't pay for 1st class, nor get reservations. It's a pretty short ride.
When you check German Rail at bahn.de you will find those connections which usually get a bit packed marked with "reservations recommended". I doubt that any Berlin-Dresden connection will fall into that category, but you can check on the web if you want to be on the safe side.

And if stairs are a problem, you can still use Friedrichstraße station. The platforms can be reached by elevators. Just one thing I forgot to mention: At Friedrichstraße, the suburban trains (S-Bahn) to Hauptbahnhof depart from the upper / elevated platform. There is another S-Bahn line at a lower level/underground which you don't want to take.

Echnaton

Seat reservation is not necessary but it does not cost much and gives some guarantee.

If you want to spend the two-hour ride in the restaurant car (the food is pretty good on German trains and so are the drinks), a first class ticket is useless.

In first class, you have 20% more space and usually it is a bit quieter there (lots of business people playing on their laptops). But second class is absolutely fine and spacious enough and it is a short ride.