Plan to spend two full days exploring Dresden, then take a couple of daytrips. Initial list is as follows: Saxon Switzerland NP, Moritzburg Castle, Meissen, Leipzig or Radebeul. Looking for feedback on these and other options, plus any good to know info. Plus, is that enough time for Dresden? Will be using public transportation. Will have come from Berlin and will continue on to Nuremburg. thanks!

Two days would be enough for Dresden though one could always spend longer but the day trips are great too- esp Saxon Switzerland - In addition to clifftop fortresses like the Basteii consider Bad Schandau where there is an antique tramway that goes into a wooded area. Boats in season aree a great way to explore Saxon Switzerland - trains hugs the valley the whole way. Could even dip into the Czech Republic near Bad Schandau.

Meissen was great too both city and ceramics works/museum - nice castle area on a hill in middle of town.

Moritzburg Castle is awesome - maybe could twin with Meissen.

for lots on trains check of course www.bahn.de/en - German Railways site; www.seat61.com; BETS-European Rail Experts and www.ricksteves.com. Use the bargain regional pass sold at stations - no need to pre-book that allows you to unlimited use of regional trains and buses (not sure about boats) and city transports for a full day for about 30-35 total for two people.

Leipzig is nice but IMO not awesome - some historic churches and Bach (?) things but could do as a few-hour stop en route to Nurnberrg - put bags in station lockers.

Thanks PalenQ - lots to think about. May need to stay longer in the area this summer.

I thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Meissen (lovely old town, Albrechtsburg castle + porcelain museum ticket), Saxon Switzerland NP, the fortress Koenigstein, Moritzburg, Pillnitz, really nice interesting area. We were based in Chemnitz for family reasons, so a bit of extra daily travelling for us.

Two days in Dresden is enough if you don't plan to dig deep or are not much into museums. You could spend two days alone easily in the most popular museums of the State Art Collections in the old town (Royal Palace, Zwinger, Albertinum). Add the churches (Frauenkirche, Hofkirche), a stroll through the Neustadt district (two very different districts, btw - inner and outer Neustadt), the upscale 19th century residential areas Blasewitz, Loschwitz etc. with Blue Wonder bridge, funicular, suspension railway. Then the three castles above the Elbe river with nice park, Dresden's largest park (Grosser Garten with small palace, mini railway, zoo), two more excellent museums - Hygiene Museum and Military History Museum, a paddle steamboat trip to Pillnitz palace and gardens ...

As for day trips -

Meissen deserves a full day if you want to tour the porcelain manufacture, see the castle and cathedral plus explore the old town.

Combine Radebeul and castle Moritzburg. First small castle Hofloessnitz (viticulture museum) and then narrow-gauge steam train to Moritzburg. See the castle, then walk (or horse-drawn carriage ride) to tiny Pheasants castle. Walk back, bus back to Dresden.

Better spend two days in the NP Saxon Switzerland. First the "frontier" part with Bastei, Rathen, fortress Königstein. Then the "rear" part with Bad Schandau, Kirnitzsch valley tram/Kuhstall hike, if possible extend the hike towards Schrammsteine massif. Maybe check out Pirna, beautiful old town with stunning church and lots of nice restaurants.

Saxon Switzerland has so so many neat places like ingo, a local resident, outlines. Yet relatively few folks seem to go there other than to take train from Dresden to Prague where they get fleeting views. Maybe this lack of attention for a really astounding area is because i slumbered as abackwater under communist rule? Anyway yes staying there for a few days would be sweet/

Thanks Ingo, maybe two days is not enough. Those museums do look interesting, and I didnt know there were that many castles.

A summarised version of that trip is on this photo album if you are interested

https://flic.kr/s/aHskc9zUas

There are even more castles in the surroundings of Dresden. If you plan to visit a few of them check out the Schlösserland Card for the state owned castles, palaces and gardens - more info here: www.schloesserland-sachsen.de (English version available.) I recommend two more of them highly:



Castle Stolpen



Castle Weesenstein

Adelaidean

thanks for the info, nice photos!

Ingo - thanks for the castle info.

Ingo, thanks for posting info on Saxon schlosser. Which ones have the nicest park/garden/forests surrounding them? I love the idea of visiting the main attraction and then unwinding in a beautiful natural space afterward.

Leipzig!!! I think I liked it better than Dresden. Just a really nice small city, and one of the best train stations ever. That sounds silly, but it just struck me how nice their train station is and I think it's the biggest one in the world and they also have some historic trains in there.

But I'm very interested in classical music, if you have no interest in that, you probably wouldn't have found it as fascinating as I did (with all the composer homes like Bach, Mendelssohn, Schumann, etc, as well as the famous concert hall). But even aside from that, they have great museums (like the coffee museum) and a well-preserved old center and Rauthaus, I just loved Leipzig, actually.

I did visit it as a day trip from Dresden, easy to do. I just walked everywhere from the train station.

Christina got in about Leipzig just before me. We had a tremendous experience with some German friends who took us to the Thomaskirche [which you will know was the church where Bach was the organist for many years] and we were able to join in the service and sing a chorale in the Saturday afternoon concert given by the boys' choir. Very special. They also took us to a cabaret in one of the back streets in the evening which was hysterically funny. So as you can tell I am a Leipzig fan.

Another place which is not on the normal tourist route is Halle where Handel was born. There is a museum at the house where he was born as well as a tourist trail. Also the Franckesche Stiftung [a religious foundation which is open to the public and is very interesting to visit with a museum, library, school, etc] and the new Court building which has a wonderful double spiral staircase. Plus botanical gardens and a zoo! Highly recommended.

one of the best train stations ever> Leipzig Hauptbahnhof is often called one of Europe's largest and biggest train sheds. But Leipzig has another noteworthy train station - a small old train station in the center that is one of the oldest continually active train stations in Europe.

It was a while ago I was in Leipzig and obviously did not give it a good enough look as christina and annhig are usually IME spot on about these things.

robincal - the nicest park is in Pillnitz plus you can do walks in the neighbouring vineyards/along the hillsides. Very beautiful is also the setting of Schloss Moritzburg, the main castle on an artificial island in a small lake, surrounded by a large forest that was once the Royal family's favourite hunting ground. You would walk through this forest to get to the tiny Pheasant's castle. More little lakes there plus a lighthouse.

Castle Weesenstein has a beautiful (relatively small) Baroque garden and is located in a beautiful valley at the foot of the Ore mountains - lots of hiking trails in the surroundings.

Fortress Königstein sits on a flat-top mountain in Saxon Switzerland, overlooking the bend of the Elbe river and with panoramic 360° views. On top is a nice little forest with paths, highly recommended is the walk along the walls (about a mile, I think). And if that is not enough, then there are about 1,000 km hiking trails in the surroundings ;-)

A bit farther away from Dresden (but still in day trip distance) are places like Schloss Lichtenwalde (near Chemnitz) with very beautiful Baroque park, monastery Altzella (Nossen, mostly ruins in a very nice 19th century park), Schloss Rammenau with very nice park.