Germany in December again
 

HI guys,
I decided to get your advice again since our last trip to Germany was wonderful thanks to all the advice I got from this forum.
So this year we decided to do Berlin in December with our 3 year old daughter. Our flight to Berlin is booked.
We get 9 days so here are my thoughts

Day1 Sunday : arrive tegel at 9:30 am take train to dresden
Day2 Monday : dresden
Day3 Tuesday : dresden with possibly a day trip
Day 4 Wednesday : am train to Berlin
From there we will spend 6 nights total of 6 full days in Berlin which has plenty to offer as I am reading in the topics here, museums,Potsdam,shopping,zoo, Christmas markets etc.

However we wish to get a feel of small towns this time since we loved Nuremberg,Bamberg,Rothenberg last time, and I hope to get some recommendations.

Hotel area recommendations will be appreciated as well since it's my first time in Dresden.

Thanks

Lutherstadt-Wittemberg is one of those smaller towns -right between Dresden and Berlin by train-Luther's town so lots of things linked with him but just a neat regional town.

There are many nice day trips from Berlin -if want to see a Nazi work camp take a suburban train north of Berlin to Sachenhausen-gas chamber remains still visible.

And of course the must -Potsdam and Sans Soucci palace and park-just a short S-Bahn ride away.

For lots on German trains check www.seat61.com (nice info on discounted tickets);www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com.

> Hotel area recommendations will be appreciated as well since it's my first time in Dresden.

I liked very much Hotel Martha. It is across the Elbe river in Dresden Neustadt; to the Frauenkirche it's a five minutes walk only. If I recall it correctly, the hotel is run by a protestant association, but don't fear, apparently the don't try to make proselytes.

http://www.hotel-martha-dresden.de/

> a five minutes walk

.. sorry: should have written 15 min. Five minutes was to the Neustadt station.

Another vote for Hotel Martha. The next Christmas market is only 5 min away - Augustusmarkt on Hauptstrasse pedestrian zone. The main Christmas markets are across the river, as sla019 said it's a 15 minutes walk or a short tram ride.

If you need more recommendations, let us know what price range. And, would you like to be right in the middle of everything? Or not too far but in rather quiet location? Modern/stylish or old world charm? Etc.

As for day trips, the ovious choices are Pirna, Meissen, Bautzen, Görlitz or Freiberg. I don't like the Christmas market in Meissen too much, the one in Pirna wasn't the best in the past but has become better and better in the last couple of years. My favourites of those are Freiberg, Görlitz and Bautzen. The most beautiful (old) town is Görlitz, hands down.

Meissen of course has the famous Meissen ceramics workshop/museum to tour - get a short train ride from Dresden and a nice all around city. Ingo is from Dresden I believe so take her/his recs seriously -has proven to be an inside reliable source for years now.

I see you've gotten pretty good advice from my fellow Fodorites,so I will not add anything, though I think visiting Dresden after you've been to Potsdam can be overkill.


On a side note, please be a responsible traveller and boycott Berlin's Zoo. It's no fun keeping animals captive for the pleasure of tourists.

Thank alot for wonderful suggestions.
Ingo price range is below €80
And I would prefer to be close as we love to walk but sometimes the weather is not helping, with a child we usually find ourselves having to come back to the hotel several times for a short break or if we forget anything. That said I will also consider your hotel suggestion as 15 minutes is not that long if we have other things around the hotel.

Locker thanks for reminding me, I keep telling myself that I should not visit the zoos, my daughter loves animals and loves to see them, any other suggestions for kids activities?

Under 80 Euro per night is a tough call for hotel in the city centre in peak season (2 adults and one little child, right?). I think your only option might be the Cityherberge, which is very centrally located in a quite ugly, but renovated former office block 5 minutes from the main Christmas market. It's officially a hostel, but popular with families (friends of mine age 50+ have stayed there and liked it.) I saw they offer a room with 3 beds for 227.50 for three nights incl. breakfast on the www.dresden.de online booking page.

You can try the Ibis hotels and Hotel am Terrassenufer as well, but I am afraid they are a bit more expensive. Otherwise it's rental apartments (actually a good choice in my opinion), but not *that* centrally located.

Dresden has a floating hotel which I think skips in below the E100 a night mark, great fun and mainly full of cyclists. Be prepared for shared bathroom and sloping floors but really very nice.

Schiffsherberge Pöppelmann

Well I'm looking at options on booking.com
I see some hotels which are about a kilometer from center with reasonable price, I'm looking at Leonardo hotel? Hotel bayerischer dresden? What's wrong with these hotels?
No shared bathrooms or cheap hotels I'd rather stay away from center than stay somewhere uncomfortable.

Bayerischer Hof is across the street from Dresden-Neustadt railway station. A good hotel, but on a VERY noisy road. Room to the back is a *must*. Location is otherwise good, only five minutes from the hotel that was recommended above (Martha).

Leonardo is in quieter location, frequent (every 10 min) and fast (10 min, I'd say) bus service to the old town.

Nothing wrong with those, but not really in walking distance to the Christmas markets.

Trains to/from Berlin I think also stop at Dresden-Neustadt station and a less hectic station than the Hauptbahnhof.