I need to travel from Vienna to Budapest (in July) and went to the bahn.de site and found the schedule but when I went to the "buy tickets" section it said a special ticket was required for travel outside of Austria that could not be purchased on line. I'm pretty sure people have talked about buy discount tickets ahead of time on line but I can't find where to do it. Can anyone help? Thanks

If travelling by train internationally you should use the website of the train company of the starting country, in this case www.oebb.at

Thanks for that site altamiro. The only problem is that when you get to the screen to actually buy the tickets it reverts to German (which I can't read). Do you know if I really need to buy tickets more than a few days ahead of time. I'll be there four days before I need them. But if it's going to save me a lot of money I'd rather do it online, if I can just figure out how.

Another question, I was researching a day trip to Melk and Krems and found schedules from Vienna to Melk but not to Krems. Anyone know why that would be, the guide books all say there are frequent trains. Thanks

Just buy those tickets upon arrival in Vienna - trains about every two hours - no problem getting on IME

As for Melk - Krems - i suppose you are taking the boat from Melk to Krems thru the gorgeous Waschau Valley

If so from Durnstein there is a train to nearby Krems and Krems has very frequent service to Vienna's Franz Joseph Bahnhof i believe. Definitely a lot of trains - i took one but not sure of the station they go to today - Nord perhaps is the terminus.

A wonderful wonderful day trip - train to melk, see famous abbey and this cute Baroque village - boat thru the vineyard-clad Wachau Valley - stopping at Durnstein or other celebrated wine towns (Richard the Lion-Hearted was gaoled in the ruioned castle that still stands above Durnstein) and Krems - can take boat to Krems or train or do a lovely few-mile stroll thru the vineyards.

I am surprise bahn.de does not have Krems-Vienna schedules

Just checked bahn.de - lots of Krems a. d. Danau to Vienna Franz Joseph Bahnhof throughout the day - try again

type in Krems in destination station and then on drop down menu select the first one listed - Krems a.d. Danau if i remember right

No need to buy your ticket Vienna - Budapest before your visit in Vienna.

You can just gom to the train station in sufficient time to do this. Frequent train service so no need to worry. Trip takes about 3 hours.
Note that Vienna has severasl train stations - your train is probably from the Westbahnhof - just check the schedule it will show this .

Vienna - Krems - trains about 1 each hour
Schedule should appear on the following website-

www.oebb.at

just insert Krems as departure and Naturally Vienna as destination-
you may need to choose from various Krems addresses - select Krems Bahnhof


but check for the Kombi ticket of train
Vienna - Melk- entrance ticket to the Abbey- boat trip down the Danube from Melk to Krems and then back to Vienna by train.

www.ddsg-blue-danube.at

There is also Vienna-Budapest Hydrofoil service via the Danube, at least in summer

If you book now by phoning the Austrian Rail Call Center, you may be able to get a SparSchiene fare of 19€. Dial your international access code + 43 (country code for Austria) + (0)5-1717. Omit the zero in parentheses. It is only used for calls originating in Austria.