Travel by Train to Neighbouring Countries

Don’t just sit at home; take a trip by train to a border region! Make arrangements with family or friends and take a short trip together. Are you a connoisseur of good food and drink, an athlete, or do you enjoy culture? Would you like to go on a shopping trip and combine it with a pleasant tour of monuments?

It’s all so close!

Trading the discomfort of roads for the comfort of rail at a great price is a good idea.

Dresden – City of Culture, Gardens and Shopping

There are several good reasons to board a train and take a trip to Dresden:

Monuments
In Dresden you should definitely not miss a tour of the renovated Church of Our Lady (Frauenkirche), the Pillnitz Chateau and the baroque Zwinger Palace, where you can visit the Old Masters Picture Gallery, the Porcelain Collection, the Armoury and the historical Mathematics-Physics Salon. And Dresden can offer you much more!

Opera in Dresden
The opera stage of the world-renowned Semper Opera offers 14 new productions for the 2010/2011 season, of which there are three 3 ballets and an additional 3 concert opera premiers. You will experience the debuts of 44 singers and 17 conductors.

State Art Collections
The Dresden State Art Collections, which include a total of 12 museums, are celebrating 450 years since their founding this year. The jubilee celebrations were launched with the opening of the Türckische Cammer exhibition. This collection of Ottoman art, which is among the largest and most famous of its kind, again shows its full beauty for the first time since the 1960s.

Green Dresden
The baroque Great Garden, which was established during the time of August the Strong, is the “green heart” of the city. For those who like something more athletic, Saxon Switzerland is just an hour’s drive away and offers hiking, climbing and pleasant nature walks. To the north there is the Saxon Elbe Region with unique vineyards and the thousand-year-old city of Meissen.

The Elbe
The Neustadt side of the Elbe bank is attractive for long walks. The café in the Rose Garden offers a culinary rest with a view of the river, while three adjacent chateaus in Dresden's Elbe Valley – Lingnerschloss, Albrechtsberg and Eckberg – are a treat for the eyes. On the other side of the river is the popular Elbe cycling path which you can take between Cuxhaven and Bad Schandau.

Complete overview of tickets for border region travel to Germany

Vienna – City of Culture, History, Gastronomy and Sport

There are several good reasons to board a train and take a trip to Vienna:

Monuments
Vienna boasts many architectural jewels and with its 27 chateaus and more than 150 palaces probably holds a world record. Among the “required” stops for avid monument tourists are in particular a tour of the gothic St. Stephen’s Cathedral, the Hofburg imperial residence and the majestic baroque Schönbrunn Palace. Art lovers should visit the baroque Belvedere with collections of Austrian art from the Middle Ages to the present and the Albertina Museum, offering collections of the gems of modern art, but also contemporary architecture in the museum quarter (Museumsquartier).

Ringstrasse
In 1857 the city fortifications were removed and in the following years a broad boulevard emerged surrounding the historic centre featuring representative public buildings, private palaces, squares and parks, monuments and elegant cafés. View the Postsparkasse building by Otto Wagner, the Museum of Applied Art, the municipal park, Hofburg, the Art History Museum and Natural History Museum, the Parliament, the Burgtheater, the University and the Stock Exchange.

ZOO
Vienna’s large zoo (Tiergarten), the oldest in the world, is a great attraction for children and adults alike.

Art History Museum
The Art History Museum was opened in 1891 and has one of the most significant artistic collections in the world. Its picture gallery is the home of numerous pivotal works in West European art history -- for example Raphael’s Madonna of the Meadow, Vermeer’s Atelier, Velázquez’s The infanta Maria Theresa of Spain, and masterpieces by Rubens, Rembrandt, Dürer, Titian and Tintoretto. Here you will also find the largest collection of Brueghel’s works in the world. In the Art Chamber (Kunstkammer), which features collections of statues and artistic crafts, you can find rarities from the former Habsburg art collections and their cabinets of curiosities. Tip: Visit the museums in the New Castle (Neue Burg) as well – the Ephesus Museum, the Collection of Arms and Armour and the Collection of Ancient Musical Instruments.

Leopold Museum
Hundreds of masterpieces from Austrian Modernism collected by passionate art lover Dr Rudolf Leopold are on display at the new Leopold Museum in the Museumsquartier near Hofburg. The museum is a unique jewel of Viennese Secessionism, Viennese artistic crafts workshops and Expressionism. The world’s most significant and largest collection of Egon Schiele paintings is held here, as well as masterpieces by Gustav Klimt.

Gourmet Experiences in Vienna
Get a taste of the sweet life in cafés, wine cellars, trendy bars, clubs, pubs and sausage stands!

The New Face of Wine
Viennese wine has a long tradition but also a young contemporary face connected with the city. A new generation of vintners is following the latest findings, experimenting with exotic grape varieties such as Shiraz, as well as rediscovering the magic of a local traditional specialty, “Gemischter Satz”, produced from various grape varieties growing next to each other in the same vineyard.

Vienna Market Hall
This beautiful market hall offers a typical Viennese shopping experience. The huge Naschmarkt outdoor market is also very popular. Here, Viennese wit mixes with east European charm, an oriental atmosphere and southern temperament. There’s basically nothing you can’t buy at the Viennese markets. From regular offerings of fruits, vegetables and flowers to Persian caviar, from sushi to Indian chicken tandoori, from kebabs to oysters and rolls with meatloaf. Vienna’s markets are open year-round and reflect the city’s charm according to the season.

Music in Vienna
This musical metropolis has many faces: classical, opera, operetta, musicals, as well as contemporary modern sound. Each summer, Rathausplatz is transformed into a pulsating meeting place for lovers of classical music and nightlife. In addition to music, there are also culinary delicacies and film screenings free of charge. This year the festival will commemorate musicians who have a significant jubilee this year: Fryderyk Chopin, Gustav Mahler, Leonard Bernstein and Pierre Boulez. There will also be jazz evenings with legends like Herbie Hancock.

Opera
Opera lovers will be in their element in Vienna. The Vienna State Opera is one of the leading opera stages in the world, where you can sample extensive offerings at the highest level. The programme of this renowned stage changes every day: During its 285-day season it offers some 60 opera and ballet performances.

Sport
If you’d like to combine your cultural activities with a little bit of sport, go for a bike ride. Cyclists will definitely appreciate the dense and well-maintained network of cycling trails covering the strip of land between the Czech-Austrian border and the Vienna agglomeration, including the Greenways Prague–Vienna international cycling trail. With the EURegio offer you can transport your bicycle free of charge.

Gallery discount with a train ticket

You can find more information on monuments in Vienna on www.wien.info/en

Complete overview of tickets for border region travel to Austria

Find the Best Offer for a Trip to a Neighbouring Country

• German Border Regions
• Austrian Border Regions
• Slovak Border Regions
• Polish Border Regions

To ensure your correct selection don’t forget to check:

• how many passengers the selected ticket is valid for (e.g. on one SONE+DB ticket up to two adults and three children may travel to Germany)
• via which cities or border crossings you can travel (i.e. on what routes the selected ticket is valid)
• what kind of train you can take, or rather, in what kinds of trains the selected ticket is valid (e.g. in local trains, fast trains, etc.)