Border Crossings
 

What should I expect at border crossings between Germany and Czech Republic and Czech Republic and Poland?

Show your valid passport.

And make sure you don't need a visa! I was travelling with a group of Americans and never even considered that I, as a Canadian, would need a visa and they wouldn't. Someone mentioned it about a week before we left and I got it in time, but if you've ever wanted to see a Canadian panic then you should have been here.

If you're taking the night train, expect to be woken up at least twice. Once for german immigration and the other for czech.<BR><BR>May be more times if customs get on board. <BR><BR>-brownie

In October we crossed the Poland and Czech Republic border via a day train. Border agents and police requested to see our passports and train tickets. They were polite and it went smoothly.

Linda:<BR><BR>Why as a Canadian did you need a visa and the Americans didn't?

Sorry, I was not very specific in my question. We will be driving in June and I thought I heard of posibilities of long back-ups at border crossings. Has anyone found this to be true?

There will be long backups of trucks (we saw at least a 3 kilometers line) You can go by the trucks and we did not have a very long wait. It really depends on what day and the time of day that you cross. We cossed on a Monday at about 11:00 AM.<BR>

because he was a French-Canadian....

Barb: <BR><BR>My understanding of why I needed a visa and not my American husband and son, is that several years ago the Canadian government imposed that requirement on Czech citizens entering Canada and now it's become a diplomatic tit-for-tat. It never occurred to me that I would need one since we're stationed here with the American military and my friends (American) go all the time. Thank goodness I learned about it in time. With postage and the visa fee it cost me about $75. I loved visiting there but will not rush to go back just because of the hassle involved in getting the visa. You have to send away your passport for about five days, and if I suddenly needed to return to the States or Canada I'd be out of luck.

This is my original post from March 1999 when a poster asked a similar question (by the way, you are smart to plan ahead of time):<BR><BR>My husband &amp; I did a similar trip in May 1997. We drove from Munich to the German border and stayed overnight. We thought about a bus tour and even went to a German travel agency. After considering the time we had and the cost, we decided to take the rental car. We had made arrangements at the car rental agency to take the car into Eastern Europe just in case (they give you a special document to show at the border that authorizes you to take the car across). We drove from Munich to a border town called Furthibald (or Furth i Wald). We took our time because our plan was to cross the border VERY EARLY the next morning. The reason is the number of commercial cargo trucks and tour buses crossing over; in the mornings they hurried private cars while they excrutinize trucks and tour buses. The whole crossing took us like three minutes (we were not even ask to get out of the car; this may not be the norm, but it's exactly how it happen). Tour buses take more like two hours, because everybody needs to get out of the bus and the documents are more scrutinized. In the town of Furthibald we stayed at the Hotel Hobenbogen on the main street. It was a very good hotel with an excellent restaurant. Once in Prague, we parked the car at the parking lot at the Hilton (reasonable daily rates) and used the subway (very cheap!). We stayed at the Hotel Opera, across the street from the Hilton and considerably cheaper. I would stay closer to the Old Town (Mala Strana).<BR><BR>By all means, DO NOT MISS Prague!!! It is a wonderful city with so much to offer. &quot;