Dresden · Backpacking

Görlitzer Straße 34 in the Äußere Neustadt. Dorm beds from €18.50 and doubles from €24 per person, plus themed private rooms. Full guest kitchen, free tea and coffee, near-daily communal dinners and karaoke on Tuesdays; about 20 minutes on foot from the baroque old town.

Louisenstraße 77, right in the Neustadt bar streets. Ten-bed dorms from around €15 to €16, privates from €44 and family rooms from €75, with linen included and breakfast €12. Twenty-four hour reception, guest kitchen, secure bike storage and rentals at €8 to €13 a day.

The Fürstenzug tile mural on Augustusstraße, the Zwinger courtyard and the Brühlsche Terrasse above the Elbe all cost nothing. The Frauenkirche is open to visitors 10:00 to 11:30 and 13:00 to 17:30 with free entry to the nave — only the dome viewing platform is ticketed.

The national park starts about 30 minutes upriver from Dresden on the S-Bahn. There is no entry fee: 1,200 km of marked trails, the Bastei rock bridge and the sandstone towers are all free to walk, so a full day out costs you the train fare and lunch. Go early; the Bastei is jammed by 11:00 in summer.

A dorm bed runs €15 to €18.50 in the Neustadt. The Deutsches Hygiene-Museum is €12, €6 reduced and free under 17. The Verkehrsmuseum drops to €5, or €3 reduced, in its 17:00 to 18:00 happy hour Tuesday to Sunday. Frauenkirche nave, Fürstenzug and the Elbe meadows are free. Hostel breakfast is around €12, or use the guest kitchen and spend it on the Green Vault instead.