Which direction???
My husband and I will be traveling from London to Prague,Budapest and Vienna this July. We will spend about five to seven days in each location. We plan to fly into and out of the mainland and take trains from city to city. Does anyone suggest any particular order of city travel? Were thinking - fly into Prague train to Budapest train to Vienna fly to London. Also, do you suggest we purchase individual train trips or buy a train pass? Listening for your advice. Susan
Susan
Derry 11/7/09
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Saving with a train pass depends on how many days of train travel you'll be using, the length of each trip, and how many side trips you'll be taking.
You should start to research this all out using the "Railpasses" link at the top of the page, compare point-to-point tickets with the passes. Check out discounts on purchasing rail tickets in advance direct from the railroads at their respective web sites. Here's a list:
Austrian Railways, ÖBB (in English)
Elvira, Railways of Hungary (English)
For English language rail schedules for all of Europe, the best place to look is bahn.de
My friend Allen at euraide.com can also help by selling you the best priced tickets and/or regional passes for the whole trip direct from their offices in Berlin and Munich. They'll charge you $50 for the service. You can call their US office at 1-781-828-2488. While Rick has the all the Eurail passes (and he is the best place to buy them), he does not sell individual tickets.
You can find cheap airfares from London to Eastern Europe at flycheapo.com, just try different city combinations to find your best route. Lots of discount flights to Prague are available for example from about US$42 on easyJet. skyscanner.net is a great place to check discount carriers fares.
Not sure why you want to do Vienna last, its in between Budapest and Prague. Fly back to London from Hungary, its as low as US$35 on easyJet.
You can train Vienna to Budapest or hydrofoil on the Danube River between the two capitals.
Instead of spending $50 to a company in Germany, why not just go to the top of this page and click on "railpasses." You will get all the information you need on railpasses. You can also download Rick's guide to railpasses.
If that doesn't answer all your questions, call or email the railpass desk at Rick Steves and they'll answer your questions. When you're ready to buy, you can even buy your passes from them. (At one point, Rick sold more railpasses than anyone else in the U.S. Now, he concentrates more on tours.)
However, with your itinerary, I think you'll find point to point tickets will be cheaper than a railpass.
Hi Susan,
Here's an option to think about:
Fly London to Vienna (EasyJet from Gatwick);
Train from Vienna to Budapest;
Fly from Budapest to Prague (Smart Wings Airline)--might be easier and even less expensive than a 7 hour train trip.
Fly from Prague to London.
I used Which Budget to check discount airlines between cities and the dBahn to check travel time on rail routes.
Sounds like a fun trip!
Czech Rail Timetable - English.
http://www.vlak.cz/connform.asp?tt=a&cl=E5&p=CD
Trains and Bus - English
http://www.vlak.cz/JRCis.asp?tt=c&cl=E5
Czech Rail Timetable - English.
http://www.vlak.cz/connform.asp?tt=a&cl=E5&p=CD
Trains and Bus - English
http://www.vlak.cz/JRCis.asp?tt=c&cl=E5
You can also price open-jaw tickets, flying into London and flying out of whichever city you end up in last. There may not be much of a price difference, and it'll probably save you the cost of another plane ride to London, plus hotel room. Most flights back to the US leave in the morning, meaning you'd have to fly back to London the night before.