PhillyFan

Hi all. I will be in Munich, Dresden and Berlin and relying on the trains and busses to get around (except i will fly between Munich and Dresden).

In each city, should I get a transportation pass?

Ive been using the DB app to figure out trains in Europe - any others you like? Thanks!

outwest

We’ve been to all three places and the only city we got a transit pass was Berlin. It depends on what you want to do, of course, but we easily walked everywhere in Dresden (including the new town across the river) and only bought the occasional ticket for Munich (for Dachau, for example).

PalenQ

Ive been using the DB app to figure out trains in Europe - any others you like?>

The Man in Seat Sixty-One - the train travel guide... has great info on everything especially booking your own discounted tickets for long distance travels. General info I like BETS-European Rail Experts and www.ricksteves.com. Munich-Dresden 4 h 40 min by train - just as quick almost as flying and a lot easier city center to city center usually no delays or pre-boarding time needed. Consider the train.

Fodorite018

When we were in Munich this past fall for 5 nights, we just walked everywhere. One day we rented bikes and rode all over the English Garden and past it, which was fantastic, but for everything else we just walked. We did do a day trip to Dachau and the BMW Museum, but just bought tickets for that the day of. Otherwise everything else that was in Munich it was very easy to just walk.

greg

Your question is usage model dependent. There is no one simple answer many people look for.
Dresden is too small to get around inside the city except by foot.
Munich and Berlin are both spread out. But again, whether you need a local pass or not depends on what you are doing, the missing info.

Between Munich, Dresden, and Berlin, if these are indeed the only places to visit, you don't need a pass. You can easily buy discount point to point tickets online. However, if you care to visit places in between, a German pass of some kind might be useful because you don't have commit to a particular train. Some interesting large cities you can easily stop and store your luggage at the station between Munich and Dresden, if you instead decide to take a train, are Nürnberg, Erfurt, and Leipzig. If you get a DB pass, the DB operated S-Bahn are included to make short day trips out of Munich, Dresden, or Berlin. There are other cheaper regional passes with different restrictions such as no express trains, no trips before 9 am, no 1st class, etc. Once you describe how and when you plan to travel, others can chime in with more relevant recommendations.

Total travel time difference between Munich and Dresden by train vs. airplane is perhaps about one hour. If, for example, if I am staying in a Munich hotel that does not include breakfast, I might head to the Munich station early, grab pastries and coffee at the station, and eat breakfast on the train from Munich heading north further reducing the travel time difference.

Melnq8

Depends on what you want to do. In Dresden we walked pretty much everywhere and used the tram/train for a handful of slightly longer excursions (Outer Neustadt, Meissen). We just paid as we went along, which actually worked out cheaper for us than buying day passes (we bought one for Dresden the first day, but didn't need it). In Munich we usually buy day passes, depending on which zone we plan to visit and Bayern tickets for longer journeys, such as Augsburg, Garmisch, etc.

elberko

City transit passes sometimes come in various day/week amounts. I would check a website for each city to see what's offered and how it fits with my plans and the number of days I will be visiting.

quokka

Depends how much you know about these cities and how well you do your research. Dresden, for example, has quite a number of attractions outside the city centre, but most visitors happily ignore these.