Planning on using the train from Prague to Berlin on a Friday. Would appreciate any perspective/tips/suggestions. I have not yet checked rail web sites but assume Rail Europe should be applicable. Thanks in advance.

Unless you are traveling over a holiday or other "peak" period I doubt you would need to make any sort of reservations for these trains.

There are usually several each day, direct via dresden. Sit on the right hand side (facing forward) for the river views.

You can buy tickets a few days ahead.

Unless things have changed I expect the services probably leave from Holesovice station.

Check schedules at www.bahn.de and use the "International Guests" feature.

Input Prague as Praha.

You may very well pay a marked up price plus definitely S+H fees if you use outside agencies such as RailEurope and if you decide to get seat reservations those will definitely be at marked-up prices.

Just buy this ticket once in Prague - for reasons Dukey aptly points out - you'll save a bundle and have no problem getting seats on these trains that run rather frequently. do it as early as possibe but the worst thing you'd have to do is go first class, which i would advise anyway - rather dirt cheap if bought in Prague.

RailEurope would charge about twice as much for fare, then $11 for each seat reservation, then $18 handling fee and another $15-18 mailing fee - in Prague you'll only pay for the actual ticket at about half the RE price and perhaps a nominal seat reservation fee.

Thank you for the great advice. Much appreciated.

hi, check a few sites first. like some of the affiliates of the rail, e.g directferries, www.cheap4ferries.com,.... or some other affilates, sometimes they are able to provide much better prices for your train travel as their affiliate rates may be reduced. check direct with the operators also.
hope this is of help,
fm

There are no "affiliates" with the rail travel. You can either buy from the source at the nominal price (which is the lowest) or buy through an intermediate like RailEurope who has to charge extra to remain profitable.
German Rail: www.bahn.de
Czech Rail: www.cd.cz

The late revered Fodorite Ben Haines often advocated for saving money by buying two tickets if travelling between countries. Don't know how well that strategy would work for your journey, but it may be worth a little research. You'd buy a ticket from Prague to the border and another from the German border to Berlin.

On this route you may pay more. Several previous posts says it's cheaper to buy Prague-Berlin tickets in Prague than it's to buy Berlin-Prague tickets in Berlin so i'd buy the whole route - plus having to get off the train at the border and wait a few hours for the next train would defeat any price savings, which in this case could cost you more and not less