We are going to Prague in October, and want to travel by train to Vienna. I am having a hard time figuring out how much this costs, how to book the tickets, how to read schedules, etc. Does anyone have any tips on how to book this train travel along this route? Should we do it now, from the states, or wait until we get there? Thanks!
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This issue, including fare quotes, departure times, ticketing etc. has been discussed countless times before.
Try to look few pages back in the Czech Rep. forum and I%26#39;m sure you will find it.
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book and pay for the train in prague. it will be much cheaper than doing this in the states. You can either buy train tickets at the station or at the city centre offices of czech railways which is next to the Marriott hotel in v celnici street. buying tickets one day in advance should be sufficient.
for the train times, go to www.idos.cz click on the union jack at the bottom right hand corner of the page and click %26quot;prague%26quot; and %26quot;Vienna%26quot; for the dates you want and you get the train times.
cost is about 40 euros each way second class
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train schedules (for all of Europe) also at www.oebb.at (english pages)
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Since your location indicates that you are in the US, you might want to look at the following website:
raileurope.com/us/…index.htm
I agree with some of the other advice, that generally, you can just show up at the station and get a ticket, but if you want to go in the first-class car, or just want to be assured that you have a train and are nervous about traveling to Europe without knowing whether you have a train or not (which is usually the case with me) you can order the tickets from this site online, and they will be mailed to you at your US address. There is a limit regarding the ability to purchase and reserve in advance - I think it%26#39;s something like 60 days, but the site will tell you that. Yes, it is a little more expensive to do it this way, but well worth the peace of mind that comes with having the tickets and reservations in hand when you leave home.
We booked 1st class reservations (from Prague to Vienna) for a trip last month, and it cost about $100 per person. The %26quot;extra%26quot; fee for the service was about $10 per ticket. As it turned out, however, the train we were reserved on was coming to Prague from Germany, and there was a rail strike in Germany at the time, so they had to substitute a Czech train at the last minute, which didn%26#39;t have a real first class section. We ended up riding in economy seats, while paying for 1st class, but all-in-all, it was a good experience, and we got to Vienna on time. The one advantage we had, as a result of our 1st class reservation, was that since we were in a car which was designated as 1st class, even though it was economy seating, they didn%26#39;t allow people to stand/sit/lie in the aisles of that car. During busy periods, the trains can be quite crowded, and they sell more tickets than they have seats, so if you are sitting in economy, even with a reserved seat, you may spend the whole trip with other people standing/sitting and lying about all around you. If you don%26#39;t have a reservation, you may BE one of the people doing the standing/sitting/lying on the floor.
I%26#39;ve taken the trains in Germany, Switzerland and Czech Republic, using both advance reservations and %26quot;just showing up%26quot;, and while I%26#39;ve never had a problem getting on a train, the added comfort and assurance that comes with an advance, 1st class reservation is usually well worth the extra cost, and let%26#39;s face it, compared to the overall cost of flying to Europe, staying in hotels and eating in restaurants, the price difference is really not very significant.
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tickets bought by raileurope are generally significantly more than the ticket price bought locally. plus a number of people have posted that raileurope%26#39;s timetables are incorrect. better to use the local national rail websites which for the czech republic is www.idos.cz and for austria is www.oebb.at. both have english pages.
i would not turn up on the day to buy a ticket - the tickets are generally not sold out, but the ticket office can be slow. by buying the ticket in advance, you can find out where the platforms are and understand the layout of the station, especially, as when most people travel, they are carrying luggage.
The fast modern pendolino trains (those taking 4 hours and 2 minutes and beginning with the prefix %26quot;SC%26quot; on the idos site) only do the prague to vienna run - they go no further and to go on them you need a seat reservation which means you have no worries about all the seats being filled up by people traveling from further afield than prague. on the modern pendolino trains, 2nd class is so swish that you don%26#39;t really need the 1st class supplement
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Well, all I know is from personal experience. I have used the site twice, and both times it worked %26quot;smooth as silk.%26quot; And yes, the prices are higher. Someone above quoted 40 Euro one-way for 2nd class. I just checked RailEurope and their price was 76 US dollars one-way. So, at current exchange rates, that makes the 40 Euro price equivalent to 55 dollars. So assuming that the 40 Euro quote is correct, that means that you pay an extra USD 21 per ticket. I suppose that%26#39;s %26quot;significant%26quot; when expressed as a percentage of the overall ticket price, but in terms of absolute cost, and expressed as a percentage of the total cost of a trip to Europe, it%26#39;s nothing. And certainly some folks know things I don%26#39;t about European rail travel, but I had the same problem that JRApples seems to be having, in that the various rail system websites were not very user-friendly and were, in fact, counterintuitive, at least to my (admittedly sometimes strange) mind. Also, like I mentioned, I just always felt better knowing that I had a reservation and ticket in hand when I left home, and so far have found none of the rail company sites which would deliver my tickets to me, by mail, at a US mailing address, so again, the extra charges from RailEurope were well worth the extra money to me.
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I have nothing against people wanting safety if they book a ticket in advance abroad and know they have it. All I am giving is local advice that apart from christmas, easter and on 22nd and 23rd August this year, it is extremely rare for rail tickets to be sold out completely and that train tickets can be bought more cheaply over here one or two days in advance from english speaking ticket clerks for a cheaper price than by buying the tickets in advance from an international webiste.
some people may wish to spend the additional money for safety, but for many other people posting on this forum, they are unfortunately not privileged enough not to be thinking that 21 dollars is small change and where they can save the cost, they will.
technology is not one of my skillsets and therefore if by clicking on the union jack at the bottom right hand corner of the idos website, I am able to navigate the idos site, the lowest common denominator rule says that most people should also be able to. you cannot buy tickets on that site, but it is straightforward to find the train times there.
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I%26#39;m sorry but 76 USD one-way in 2nd class for Prague-Vienna is a plain rip-off considering the fact that you might be paying somewhere between 1/3 to 2/3 of the price depeding whether you are able to get seats for the %26quot;WIEN SCspezial%26quot; discount or not and most of all if you buy the ticket locally - a day or two in advance if you want to be super safe.
And if you take the Pendolino SC train, its 2nd class is good enough so paying for 1st is a waste of money you are guaranteed seat.
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Thanks for the info. JRApples may have completely lost interest in this thread by now, but this information is helpful to me, so I%26#39;m going to post at least one more time. One thing that I have learned, by following the links you both suggested is that at some of the rail company sites, you can now order e-tickets on advance reservations, deliverable by e-mail. I had never found that option before, so that is helpful. I will say that both sites, www.oebb.at and www.idos.cz do have English-language menus at least on their main pages, but once you navigate to the pages where you must go in order to make an actual reservation, they tend to be in the local language only. Of course, with at least a rudimentary knowledge of the local language, or if you want to use one of the many on-line translators, you can work your way through these. In short, while it%26#39;s still a bit of a chore, you can make an on-line (or in the case of the Czech system, by telephone - effective 1 August 2007) reservation and get an e-ticket. I expect the same is true on many other national rail sites, but the last few times I%26#39;ve looked for such options in Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Spain, they either were not available, or I couldn%26#39;t find them - again, part of the problem may have been limited number of English menus and my limited knowledge of the local language.
And don%26#39;t get me wrong, I also appreciate your comments about pricing. While some folks can afford to pay more, I understand that a lot of people cannot, or choose not to. I don%26#39;t like paying any more than I have to, but am sometimes willing to pay a little more for the certainty and safety of an advance, ticketed reservation. I sort of believe in the old rule that if anything can go wrong, it probably will, so when I%26#39;m spending a lot of money on a trip to Europe, I don%26#39;t want the trip to be soiled by train transport problems. I like to have a train ticket in hand before I go, just so I have something to show to the rail station agent (with whom I may not be able to communicate very well) when I arrive, to prove that I belong on that train. Besides, the fact is that a lot of folks travel during high-demand periods, when trains may be crowded or overbooked, and unless you are a local, you may not know when those busy periods occur, i.e., national holidays, big football matches, etc., that the average tourist may not be aware of.
In summary, I appreciate the information, and expect I will make use of it in the future, but I%26#39;m not sure that it is quite fair to simply %26quot;write off%26quot; the RailEurope site as a viable option for those who are willing to pay more for the easiest option, when traveling from the US. So far, I have not found any site which is more user-friendly (at least for Americans, with limited language skills) and which offers all the same ticket delivery options. It certainly won%26#39;t be the best option for everyone, but it is an option, and that is what TripAdvisor is about -- letting people know what their options are, so they can make the choice that is best for them.
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in the czech republic, you are much more likely to have a mistake happening by booking something on a local language website or a foreign website and then having the sigh, shake of the head and the frightening words of %26#39;to je problem%26#39; muttered by a czech ticket clerk when you have the wrong ticket, than by doing the good old fashioned thing of going to the station a day or so in advance and buying your ticket directly (where they speak english). even in the summer, the prague - vienna trains are not full.
If you really want to use a local agency to buy tickets in advance www.cedok.cz will be much cheaper than raileurope
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