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[Tycoh]

Dear all,
maybe interesting for those who will arrive by car:
After booking the room and requesting the Estrel about reservation for a parking space, here the reply:

"The basement parking is a public parking garage, therefore a reservation is not possible. There are two parking decks with 450 spots. The entrance ramp is not very steep (maybe interesting for lower cars). Costs for one parking spot per 24h are about 18,00 EUR."

[Rush_Lion]

Thanks Tycoh, that's useful information. Still in doubt whether to go by car, train, or airplane, and paying 100 euros to have my car parked for the duration of the con could certainly be a factor.

[synthfox]

Are there some better and favourable options around the hotel?

[Ragear]

not really. parking along the streets around (it's a bit of industrial zone around) and a small shopping center. But there's a train station just 100m away, so parking away and returning by public transport should be fine.
I think there's a 1hr free parking in the hotel? Should suffice for loading/ room claiming.

Ragear

[Klaatu]

@Rush_Lion:

I would recommend travelling by plane, but this also depends on the costs you will have to pay for a flight from the Netherlands to Eastern Germany. For me, travelling by plane is much cheaper than driving by car (from Cologne to Berlin ~ 600km), because the costs for fuel (for ~1200km) plus the costs for parking would easily reach an amount of around 150 to 200€ (or even more when parking at the Estrel for 18€/6 nights). So I looked for flights and found very nice offerings, therefore I booked my flights with "Air Berlin"-airline for around 97€ (price for both flights together!). Also the flying times are very nice and relaxing, so I won't have any stress and instead of an 6-7 hour-drive, I'll arrive in Berlin very early and rested.^^

So for me personally it's kinda perfect, because I save a lot of money and won't have an annoyingly long car trip.

But I don't know how much flights from the Netherlands to Berlin will cost, you will probably not have the possibility to fly with a rather cheap airline like "Air Berlin", so you have to look that up and then calculate what will be more expensive for you, either travelling by plane, or travelling by car, train, ...

A car drive from the Netherlands to Berlin might of course take a very long time, so some people also pay much more money to have a way faster trip by plane. So even when it would be more expensive to travel by plane, I would definitely recommend it.
But that's of course your decision.

AND...very important...you can't bring very much stuff to EF when going by plane, so when you plan to have a lot of luggage and stuff for EF, you might have to drive to EF by car, but when you have bad luck, you'll have to pay a lot for parking. :3

[Drift]

@ Klaatu: on the downside, you increase your CO2 emission by approx. 150% when taking the plane instead of the car (and even more when comparing to a train).
For that reason, in order to cover small distances as @ 600km, I reccomend taking the the train (especially inside Germany) or organising a car sharing - I am quite sure there will be some more people (furries and non furries) driving from Cologne to Berlin that day

[Ragear]

Klaatu: watchout. I'm flying to CFz (also die to time reasons) The flight ticket is 40€, taxes 100€ and because I'll have my suit with me who takes up some space it'll be an extra 75-100€ PER LEG of the trip (another 200€!) for the second suitcase I'll need. So travelling by car, especially if you find compaions to travel with is quite an option. Aside from the fact that I hate it to be treated like scum and a potential terrorist at the airport ...

Ragear

[Klaatu]

@ Klaatu: on the downside, you increase your CO2 emission by approx. 150% when taking the plane instead of the car (and even more when comparing to a train).

Wait....what?! xD The plane will also fly when I'm not inside. xD It's not my personal private jet. *g* So that really makes no big difference.

Klaatu: watchout. I'm flying to CFz (also die to time reasons) The flight ticket is 40€, taxes 100€ and because I'll have my suit with me who takes up some space it'll be an extra 75-100€ PER LEG of the trip (another 200€!) for the second suitcase I'll need. So travelling by car, especially if you find compaions to travel with is quite an option. Aside from the fact that I hate it to be treated like scum and a potential terrorist at the airport ...

I know that "problem", I will also fly to ConFuzzled AND Eurofurence, but fortunately my fursuit is only a partial-suit and it's fits perfectly into my normal (free) luggage-case (a really robust one that I bought extra for my fursuit transportation). All the rest will fit into my handluggage, so that I won't have any extra costs.

Of course it's a problem when you have a fullsuit (a big one), but of course not everyone here has a fursuit and some might also only have a partial suit like I do, so I was just talking in general.
So the point with the high extra costs relates not to everyone and I don't even know if Rush_Lion owns a fursuit.

So for ConFuzzled I personally pay only about 155€ for both flights together.
But generally you are definitely right, for some people (like you) it might be way more expensive than driving by car. Totally understand that problem. :/

And yes, that airport security cheks will be really annoying, but I don't have to hide something so I hope that I will go through that pretty fast and easily.

[Wawik]

Also, this thread is getting -somewhat- off-topic. Ahem.

[Klaatu]

Well....yes. Back to topic.

Are there some better and favourable options around the hotel?

I only know one. But it's kinda far away. There is a possibility to buy a weekly ticket for a parking space in the "Neukölln Arcaden" for 20€/week.
Information: http://www.apcoa.de/en/parking-in/berlin/neukoelln-arcaden.html

"Enter and leave the car park at will within a defined period of time. The ideal alternative to a long-term rental contract if you want to park regularly in the same car park for less than 3 months."

It's called "Season Ticket" and you can (or you have to) directly book it on the webpage (see link above).

BUT: The "Neukölln Arcaden" are 2,3 km away from the Estrel, here ist the map: Google Map

So you will have to find a good way to reach the hotel after parking, cause otherwise it would be a 30-minutes footway.
But remember that you only pay 20€ for the full week, so that's approximately 80€ cheaper than parking at the Estrel, so even calling a taxi for that 2 km might be cheaper then parking at the Estrel for a full week.


And as Ragear already said, there's a train station not far away from the hotel, so you can also try to find a cheap parking spot elsewhere in Berlin (close to another train station) and then reach the Estrel by train.

[KyuubiSaoirse]

Well....yes. Back to topic.

Are there some better and favourable options around the hotel?

I only know one. But it's kinda far away. There is a possibility to buy a weekly ticket for a parking space in the "Neukölln Arcaden" for 20€/week.
Information: http://www.apcoa.de/en/parking-in/berlin/neukoelln-arcaden.html

"Enter and leave the car park at will within a defined period of time. The ideal alternative to a long-term rental contract if you want to park regularly in the same car park for less than 3 months."

It's called "Season Ticket" and you can (or you have to) directly book it on the webpage (see link above).

BUT: The "Neukölln Arcaden" are 2,3 km away from the Estrel, here ist the map: Google Map

So you will have to find a good way to reach the hotel after parking, cause otherwise it would be a 30-minutes footway.
But remember that you only pay 20€ for the full week, so that's approximately 80€ cheaper than parking at the Estrel, so even calling a taxi for that 2 km might be cheaper then parking at the Estrel for a full week.


And as Ragear already said, there's a train station not far away from the hotel, so you can also try to find a cheap parking spot elsewhere in Berlin (close to another train station) and then reach the Estrel by train.

Perhaps not a too big problem, still. There's a bus(M41) going to Ziegrastrasse(where the Estrel is) from just around the corner of the parking house linked here, a 15 minutes trip according to google maps, including the small walking distance (8 minutes bus trip), so yeah

Even though I'm going there by train since the bus company couldn't guarantee me space for an extra suitcase for my fursuit head, so yeah, I'm not going to use this(I've got the berlin welcomecard to get around the town), I still thought it might be good to mention the bus for people considering this parking option.