Travel Information

Getting there

By plane

Berlin (BER) has three airports:

• Tegel (TXL) is used primarily by "established" airlines such as Lufthansa, Air France, BA, etc.,

• Schönefeld (SXF) at the south-eastern edge of Berlin is mainly used by low-cost airlines (but is destined to become the location of Berlin's new single airport, though that will probably still take some years...),

• and Tempelhof (THF), the historical airport in the city centre, is supposed to be closed down soon and nowadays only holds a very small number of commercial flights.

See also http://www.berlin-airport.de/.

Nearly every European airline is offering scheduled flights to Berlin, as do a few Asian and American airlines. There are a number of so-called low-cost carriers serving Berlin, among them Air Berlin, easyJet, Germanwings, Ryanair, TUIFly. You might want to check out http://www.flycheapo.com/ for available routes. Sometimes these days, special offers from the established airlines can be the cheaper option, though.

Many travel agencies these days have online search tools for up-to-date comparison of flight prices. The most comprehensive and reliable one I found so far is http://www.checkfelix.at/ which I can highly recommend. Although they so far gave me a very reliable overview I would prefer to do the final booking directly through the selected carrier's (or in some case third party travel agent's) website. Or you can try the meta search engine at http://www.kayak.com/.

• From Tegel Airport, to get directly to the pkgsrcCon location take bus X9 direction of Zoologischer Garten and exit at Ernst-Reuter-Platz.

• From Schönefeld Airport, the best is to walk about 400m to the local train station (the way is marked and covered against rain). From there you can take either the S-Bahn (running every 10 minutes during the day) or Regionalexpress (RE) or Regionalbahn (RB) train (running every 30 minutes during the day, less so late in the evening) into town. To get to pkgsrcCon, get off at Zoologischer Garten station. The ride takes about 35 min. by train or about 60 min. by S-Bahn. Both train and S-Bahn can be used with a regular Berlin ABC zones ticket (see below) which is sold from vending machines at Schönefeld station.

By train

When arriving at either Berlin Hauptbahnhof, Berlin Spandau or Berlin Ostbahnhof stations, take the S-Bahn (or regional train) to Berlin Zoo station to get to pkgsrcCon. For schedules and connections, including local public transport, see http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/

By car

Effective Jan. 1st 2008, the central districts of Berlin are declared an environment protection zone (Umweltzone) and cars entering must have a special sticker documenting that they meet certain emission standards (Umweltplakette). Also, please note that Hardenbergstraße and the area further south are payment-only parking zones (Mon. through Sat.). Cars can be parked for free for example on Straße des 17. Juni in front of the University's main building.

Public Transportation in Berlin

Berlin has an excellent public transportation system (at least in the city centre) which is running 24h a day. A single ride ticket can be used for U-Bahn (subway), S-Bahn (city railway), bus or tram, and you can change between them at will for your journey.

Berlin's fares are based on a zone system, with zones A and B covering the entire city (which includes Tegel and Tempelhof airports). Schönefeld Airport is located in zone C. Since there are no single zone tickets available, an AB ticket is typically what you will need unless you travel from or to Schönefeld Airport, in which case an ABC ticket is required.

There are now also slightly cheaper packs of four zone AB tickets, but if you plan to do more than three single rides a day it pays off buying a day ticket (Tageskarte). It is typically not worth buying special tourist cards (which include deduction to entrance fees to some museums, etc.). For more information including maps see http://www.bvg.de/ or http://www.s-bahn-berlin.de/.

To get to pkgsrcCon, you can take the U-Bahn to either Ernst-Reuter-Platz or Zoologischer Garten, S-Bahn to Zoologischer Garten or Busses M45 or 245 to either Steinplatz or Ernst-Reuter-Platz stops.

Hotels

There are plenty hotels in Charlottenburg (e.g. Kurfürstendamm vicinity) and adjacent parts of town. I found the following websites to offer very competitive prices. It does not hurt to go through all of them (in the order given):

• http://www.venere.com/ (first time bookers can get a 4% reduction when referred by an existing customer)
• http://www.hrs.com/
• http://www.booking.com/
• http://www.laterooms.com/ (make sure to explicitly choose Euro as the currency; actual booking will later be via a toll-free phone number)

Unlike many other online booking agencies, these typically do not require payment on booking (though credit card details will be inquired to secure the booking), and one can cancel one's booking up to a few days or even hours before the selected date (details tend to vary, of course). You might as well try your luck at http://www.hotels4travelers.com/, which can search various (but by far not all) booking sites for pricing of a given hotel.

Shops

Shops in Berlin are free to open at any time Monday through Saturday, but most choose to do so only between 8 AM and 8 PM, sometimes 10 PM. On Sunday, the vast majority of shops are closed (there is a supermarket next to Zoo station open 11 AM to 10 PM on Sunday).