My wife and daughter are traveling from Lux city to Prague with a group middle of Nov2003. My daughter is a student with a eurail pass that is not good for Czech rep. travel. I see that Czech rail offers a pass for travel to and from Prague via adjoing countries. Please give best adice on route and quickest route. Or should they take a bus? Time involved and cost? The Prague pass is $35 US.
Thanks in advance.

Visit the www.bahn.de site (German Railways) which gives schedules for not only Germany but all of europe. Just put in the date and Luxembourg and Prague and schedules will pop up. Prices are not given on international trains but are on German ones. The Prague Excursion pass you mention gives rail transport from any border point to any other Czech border point within a seven-day period. It approximates the fare you would pay for point-point tickets so it saves no money but is for convenience. Rather have you daughter take her Eurailpass up to the ticket window in Luxembourg and exolain she's going to Prague and buy a supplemental ticket from the German border to Prague. Similarly in Prague she buys a ticket to the Czech border. She could buy it on the train but often at a surcharged price. thus her railpass takes her to the border and then her point-point ticket kicks in. Don't know if Prague Excursion pass is sold in Europe but they may market something similar. To figure the fare, put in Trier, Germany to the German border town nearest to the Czech border and get the fare in euros for the German portion. then add on $20 for border to Prague and $10 for Luxembourgh-Trier for an estimate. (bahn site only gives fares for travel inside Germany, not international fares.)

Amrdia,

Bob gave you a pretty good cost estimate. It also depends on whether you travel during the day or night. It is a long trip no matter which one you choose. During the day you will spend 11+ hours on at least three trains. If you travel at night, I would go through Frankfurt. That will min. the number of changes you will need to make and get you into Frankfurt at a reasonable time of the morning. Get a T3 sleeper and enjoy the trip.

Greg

Thank you for your detailed explanations fellow fodorites. Is the trai the best way or would you take the bus or rent a car?
Once again thanks in advance.

amrdia,

I would recommend the following: train to Bon or Cologne/Köln (about 3.5 hours), shuttle bus to the Köln/Bonn airport and cheap flight (about EUR 35 each way INCLUDING taxes & fees!) to Prague on Germanwings. Much faster than your other options and still affordable if you get a cheap fare (book early).

For train info:
http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

For airport info:
http://www.koeln-bonn-airport.de/index.php?lang=2

To book the flights:
www.germanwings.com

Hope this helps,
Andre

Andre
Thanks for the info. We missed all of the cheapflights. They were 79/each way.
But I appreciate the great info.