As a regular user of Stansted Airport - I used to live at the bottom of the runway! - and a reluctant Ryanair user, I have to agree that you should take the train.

Stansted can take a long time to process, and you cannot remain airside. You will have to go through border control - horrendous lines (queues) of late - baggage reclaim and then finally recheck in again. Even if you have checked in online you still have to queue to drop off your luggage, then queue to go through outward security - often very long delays here! - and then do the equivalent of a marathon to get to the Ryanair wing of the terminal ...... how they can say that these gates (40-59) are only 12 minutes walk from the duty free are beats me!! Ryanair staff at Stansted are unfortunately well-known for their sticking to the rules and are incapable of thinking for themselves. They can also be most unpleasant.

Finally Ryanair is a 'point to point' airline which does not guarantee any connections even with their own flights. And they tend to accumulate delays throughout the day ........ with only 25 mins turnaround and the demand for slots, one delay early on can upset all the flights using that particular aircraft for the rest of the day.

GO BY TRAIN - even if it means dropping your tickets and accepting the loss of the money involved. Put it down to experience.

 

OK, checking a couple of minutes ago, if you goto www.Bahn.de, you can book on the 09:35 train Berlin to Wroclaw arriving at 15:34 for �19, plsu �2 if you want to reserve your seat.

You can even print out your own ticket instantly

Hope you have a great time however you get there

 

Since you've already booked, I'm not going to beat the dead horse as to why a train may have been a better idea. If you decide to stick with your flights, this is what you need to know:

As an American, you will have to go through the non-EU immigration line. This can mean a considerable delay: for example, at another UK airport I was in line for a good two hours one night. There was only one immigration officer for non-EU passengers, and an ex-Africa flight arrived right before mine...each passenger on that flight was taking a good 10 minutes or longer to clear.

Other times it's taken all of 5-10 minutes to get through. It just depends on the day...and it's not something that can be predicted in advance. Most of the time, I'd say 2 hours is the extreme exception to the rule, but it seems STN has its own issues...

*IF* your incoming flight is on time, by the time you deplane you'll technically have about 2 hours to clear immigration, exit, and make it to the check in counter. If you don't make it there at least 40 minutes before your flight, they can (and almost certainly will) deny you boarding. Then you still have to clear security again and make it to your gate within the remaining time, which may be its own nightmare. Sometimes immigration/security will let you cut in line if you have a connection to make, but it isn't something I would bank on.

If everything is on time, I think you can make it. But everything will have to run perfectly. And we're talking Ryanair here...so expect it not to. If your flight out of Berlin is delayed...which as others have posted happens A LOT, you may not catch the 1:25 flight and RyanAir is NOT going to help you out. And if you book the later flight you're out more money. You're flight out of Berlin is pretty early in the day, so that is a plus assuming there are no weather delays.

So that's the reality. Before you spend another £9 booking the later flight, you may want to take AbFab's advice and put it towards the train ticket. The train AbFab posted is going to take you around 6 hours...Berlin-Stansted-Wroclaw is going to take you at least 12 hours between checking in, flight times, and the three hours in Stansted. Saving half a day and not having to stress may be worth whatever money you will lose by changing your plans now, IMHO.

Oh, and just as an FYI...Berlin Schonefeld is about 25 km from central Berlin. Which is fine if you have people there who can drive you, not so good if you have to get public transport, which is going to add to the cost of your trip.

 

Well, this has been very educational. Thanks to all for the advice!! I am glad I didn't go with my preconceived idea that I would have *plenty of time* as I never would have even thought there could be so much trouble!

I will probably come out on top if I go with a train ticket and just count those ryanair tickets as a loss. Traveling is always a learning experience but thank god for forums like these to at least help prevent some serious heartache! :-: I will still be flying to Berlin and from Wroclaw with ryanair so I only hope that those 2 flights will be without mishap!

Great! Now I'm nervous!!! I need to give myself like 2 to 3hours at the airport I assume?

 

It's usually a very good idea ^

It's not so much that you will always need 2 to 3 hours, its more that you need to allow plenty of time for unexpected delays or in case something goes wrong.

This is especially true when you are flying a LCC like Ryanair who will offer you absolutely no help whatsoever, and will leave you stranded and alone faced with buying a very very expensive replacement ticket and possibly a night sleeping on an airport floor!

 

One way flights are pretty straight forward so there is no need to stress...it was the connection time that was throwing everything into peril before. Plan reliable transportation that gets you to the airport 90 minutes-two hours before your flight time and you'll be fine. I don't think Ryanair even opens its check-in until 2 hours before the flight, so there's no reason to arrive much earlier.

Assuming you booked the airport check-in at the same time, you're only out around $30...less if you factor in a few $4 bottles of Ryanair water vs. carrying your own much cheaper beverages on the train

Have a great time on your trip!

 

Personally as earlier posters have said I would just take Deutsche Bahn (Far more civillised than Ryanair ) The website has already been posted. If you are travelling about Europe unless you are hoping between the mainland and islands or from one end of the continent to another surface travel is as cheap and a lot more convenient. You rarely save much time if you have to factor in getting to the airport, security and check in etc whilst traveling in Western or Central Europe.

Other options would be to take a budget bus such as Berlin Linien Bus (http://www.berlinlinienbus.de) or Eurolines (http://www.touring.de/). Eurolines also do a Eurolines unlimted pass for between 15 and 30 days.

Check out a website that advises about rail travel such as "The Man In Seat 61" (http://www.seat61.com). See the countryside of Europe pass by your window rather than sitting in some departure lounge.

 

Hi MissM

I recently flew Ryanair to Norway on 2 flights via Stansted. It was a bit of a hassle but, I only left myself 90 mins between flights and all went well. They have checkin desks for each flight so it's not like you have to queue behind other people who are going elsewhere - if you get in the line you'll get on the flight.

All you do is go through immigration, customs 'blue lane' and head to your right and you're at the check-in desks. They have lots of security stations there and it went very quickly for me.

Hope it goes well for you!

 

As Norway is NOT in the EC, you cannot use the Blue Customs lane, but the GREEN one. I wouldn't rely on 90 mins being enough for a STN connection though, especially if either of the airlines involved is Ryanair.

 

Correct, however the OP is traveling from Berlin.

 

Even though the train is clearly the far better option, I think that people are painting an unnecessary negative picture here of the transfer at STN. If the OP only has hand luggage (note the strictly enforced low limits on hand luggage with Ryanair, though), she can check-in online and would not have to queue at a desk. Huge delays with Ryanair are not that common. And in the unlikely even of things looking very, very bad in Berlin, the OP could always abandon her plans at that stage, retun into town and buy a train ticket then.
I would have thought that 3 hours would be enough and I would have no qualms booking such a connection. Even if the OP is not an EU national, the overwhelming majority of people who fly to/from STN are. STN is no Heathrow in that respect.

correction: just realised that, of course, the OP cannot check-in online if she is not an EU/EEA national.