Jopudding

Hi, when exactly will the tickets be open for sale? I have searched several sites but they have yet to sell the tickets for dec. I am thinking of booking the tickets in advance as i am afraid the tickets will be sold out. For short trips like Prague to Vienna, or Venice to Milan, MIlan to Zurich, is it also advisable to prebook? Or we could get the tickets at the station. Worried abt the availability of tics but yet do not want to be bounded by the train schedules. We be travelling from dec 18 to jan 3. Any good sites to recommend to book the train and bus tics?

J62

I recommend using the websites for the national rail co's of each country.

www.oebb.at for Austria
www.bahn.de for Germany
www.trenitalia.com for Italy
www.rail.ch for Switzerland

Trains on most of these routes run hourly or every 2 hrs, so I would not be at all concerned with tickets selling out. IN fact, except for in Italy there are no required seat reservations, and trains can't sell out.

If winter schedules aren't posted yet they should be by mid November. The advantage of booking in advance is that you can get some good discounts, but it sounds like you're more concerned about a) availability and b) flexibility. In your case a multi country rail pass may be a better option.

I'm not a railpass expert but there are several who lurk here on fodors and hopefully will chime in.

Jopudding

Besides Eurolines, any other buses to take from Vienna to Venice? We are looking at overnight bus to save 1 night of transportation. What ate the available sites where we can purchase the tics.

hadiwi56a

Here is another bus company

http://www.studentagencybus.com/

The new timetables for all train administration should be available around Oct 18th, according to some recent discussion threads. There are several overnight trains operating between Vienna and Venice, check it at www.oebb.at

kybourbon

For any trains departing from Italy, you can book on Trenitalia. Their winter schedules change mid-Dec. and they are usually slow about uploading the schedules. The Milan/Zurich route usually has some advance purchase discounts for 19€.
http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/inde...003f16f90aRCRD

You usually need to purchase any tickets between countries from the departure country website.

>>>Besides Eurolines, any other buses to take from Vienna to Venice? <<<

You should also look at budget airlines which can often be cheaper/faster.

www.whichbudget.com
www.skyscanner.net

Jopudding

As we will only be leaving Vienna on the 26 dec, budget airlines to Venice are very expensive. Greater than 200 euros. Thus we are looking at coach or train overnight. Any recommendations pls. Thanks slot.

J62

There are several overnight trains operating between Vienna and Venice, check it at www.oebb.at

kybourbon

The overnight train I see from Vienna arrives Venice at 3 am. What do you plan to do then?

PalenQ

for travel in four countries be sure to also consider the various railpasses - especially good deals if wanting first class travel which my decades of European train travel makes me exhort the average first-time or so tourist on the trip of a lifetime to go - a much much more relaxed experience - seats are bigger - many empty seats usually, more room to easily store luggage and you can often just show up and hop on any train anytime (except in Italy on your route where you must make a seat reservation) - anyway for lots on European trains, passes and even buses (which are not a viable option IMO in many ways due to their limited schedules and service rantge) - check out www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.ricksteves.com; www.seat61.com

PalenQ

a natural pass to investigate would the the Eurail Select Saverpass good for 4 countries - austira, czech rep, switzerland and italy - the only pass it seems you should even consider unless you will be in Switzerland several days then the Swiss Pass along could make sense and just buy regular tickets in other countries.

PalenQ

The overnight train I see from Vienna arrives Venice at 3 am. What do you plan to do then?>

EN overnight train 237 leaves Vienna daily at 20:40 and arrives in Venice Santa Lucia next morning at 8:34am, according to www.bahn.de.

kybourbon

I used the Austrian website.

PalenQ

I always use www.bahn.de, the German Railways web site which has schedules for all of Europe for just that reason - always seems to have the best most accurate info - in this case even better than the Austrian Railways site - and the easiest I have seen to use.

november_moon

I like dbahn too.

PalenQ

www.bahn.de - the German Railways web site has schedules for all of Europe but only pricing and opp to buy online for trains involving Germamny - so use the national railway sites for pricing but the Wunderbar www.bahn.de site for schedules that can indeed be more dependable than from the national railway site itself it seems, weird as that may be!