I need help with trains
 

I have a 2 weeks school vacation to travel (4/7 to 4/23) & will be visiting Barcelona, Prague, Dresden & Vienna with several side trips including Montserrat & Terezin. My trip starts in Barcelona, but I am in school in France. I'll need either train or bus tickets for all the travel between these cities, except from Barcelona to Prague. I know approximately when I'll be in each city but not when I'll take each side trip.
Should make a definite itinerary now & buy point to point train tickets or get a eurail or some other kind of pass? (I will be traveling on both side of Easter, so I realize I may also need to make reservations.) If I buy each ticket, what is the best way to do it - now at a French train station, or from a web site (written in either English or French)? What web sites work the best? Thanks for all the help I know I'll be getting.

If you are a student (are you?) you get major discounts by buying the 2nd class tickets. All over 26 have to pay first class.

Go to railconnection.com. There is a link that allows you punch in cities, dates, times, whatever. It then tells you which is the best type of eurail pass to purchase. You can then purchase it from that site...or any of the other eurail sites.

Railconnection is a subsidiary of eurail...for N. American based travellers. For prague, you will get the Czech excursion pass (45 bucks I believe). The site will help you.

BTW....other than your long trip from Barcelona to the next city (I hope you are doing Barcelona either on the front or back end of the trip...because it is VERY FAR from the others), the Dresden to Prague, Prague to Vienna trip, etc....are pretty short.

Barcelona to whereever you go next may be best served by a flight on one of the cheap carriers...or if you do train (which personally, I would do) go on an overnighter....not sleeper car (not worth the bucks) but the couchette car. I think the trip to Germany and or Prague from Barcelona is 16 hours.

Hi Sk,

Unless you absolutely must take trains, check www.whichbudget.com for cheap airfares.

((I))

Thanks, I'll check out that site. I am a student & I will start in Barcelona & fly to Prague. I had trouble finding a train between the 2 ciies. All I could find was a train with lots of connections that took 34 hours, so I'm flying. Is the pass the least expensive way to go?

Since you will be flying from Barcelona to Prague, point-to-point tickets for the rest of your trips by train will probably be cheaper than a railpass. However, visit www.railsaver.com, enter some possible itineraries, regarding a pass choose the option "only if it will save me money," and the program will give you figures to compare.

YES...no questions asked. I second whichbudget.com.

Here is the DIRECT link to the option I mentioned (punching in where you are going and they shoot out what type of pass is the cheapest.)

http://www.railconnection.com/ticket...ver.asp?AFF=RC


Definately broaden the search on that site by checking out "point to point" which is listed on the left side of the main page. Of course...also check out flights b/w the cities, but that will end up costing more, even on the cheap flights, IMHO. Plus, there is no better way to explore Europe as a youngin then by train.

Train travel is easy with pass. You also should bring some food and drink with you as young travellers often hang out and share stories and food together. On my trip from Prague to Amsterdam (by way of an overnighter to Frankfurt) I shared a couchette cabin with a young couple from Frankfurt. We ate cheese, bread, sausages and drank wine and beer before finally crashing. The stories I still remember to this day. If it werent for the food, we might never had started talking.

If I do point to point, and that does seem to be the best way for me, what site should I use to buy them? Isn't rail pass more expensive than buying other ways? Thanks to everyone for all the tips.

They all make commissions because they are buying the seats off of eurail...though railconnection specializes in college/post-college age travel. Give them a call...they will help you.

Hi Sk,

You can buy tickets for Prague to Dresden and Dresden to Vienna at www.bahn.de.

For local trips, just buy your tickets at the station the day before.

((I))

Advance booking on the national rail site of the country in which each trip begins could get you a discounted ticket. However, for the trips you'll be taking and with your travel dates not that far off, any discounted tickets may already be gone. But there is no harm in checking. Otherwise buy your tickets at the stations as you go. But first go to www.bahn.de, the German national rail site, that has timetables for most of Europe. It's viewable in English. Enter your routes and you'll be given very detailed information, including whether or not a reservation is required. (Look for a red exclamation mark.) If it is, you can simply make the reservation when you buy your ticket, usually up to about an hour before departure.

Also look into tickets from Ryanair at Paris Beauvais to Barcelona. Its actually about an hour outside of Paris, but the inconvience is made up for in the cheap prices. You can usually get one way tickets for around 30-40 euros (although the prices go the closer you get to departure and over weekends). Also remember that the bus trip to the airport cost 13 euros and figure that into your cost.

On the other end, RyanAir flies into Girona, which is an 11 EUR, 1 hr 10 min bus trip to Barcelona. The bus leaves Girona 30 min after the flight lands. The bus to Beauvais leaves downtown Paris 3 hours before flight time, so to the 1 1/2 hr flight time, you have to add 4 hr 40 min, making the trip over 6 hours plus 24 EUR airport transportation.

That doesn't mean don't fly Ryan, but understand all the factors before you commit.

I really don't know what you do about your flight from Barcelona. I did a little checking and it seems that no one flies direct. With Air Berlin you have to connect in Palma and it takes over 4 hours flying time, more like 7-8 hours city to city. You get into Dresden close to midnight. The only airline I found that flies to Prague is SmartWings, and not until summer.

So, I don't know what you will find for airfare, but since the Dresden to Vienna train goes through Prague any way, I would suggest you fly into Dresden or Vienna.

As for tickets, I can't see buying anything on that Dresden/Prague/Vienna route from stateside ticket sellers. It is a lot less expensive either from DB (Dresden-Prague) or just tickets over these. It looks like Prague to Vienna is less than €20 over there.

pmgoosed,
where do you find that RailConnections is a subsidiary of Eurail??? The Eurail website doesn't day that. In fact Eurail lists only four direct sellers or their products in North America, and RailConnections is not one of them. From RailConnection's webpage, I get the impression that they are, rather, an affiliate of Rail Pass.

The other thing, the part of RailConnections that is supposed to tell one whether to buy a rail pass or point to point tickets is connected with RailSaver, which I have found to be completely inaccurate and often recommends rail passes when they are not warranted!

I'm all set with my plane tickets. I only need help with buying the train ticket from Prague to Vienna. None of the sites will let me buy it online. I am now in Paris, not in the US. Larryincolorado where did you see a ticket for 20 euro -- the cheapest I saw was throught Rail Europe, but I can't buy through them because I am in Paris & can't have the ticket mailed to me- not enough time. I don't want to wait until I get to the country because it's over Easter break & that's a very busy time. HELP!

Hi S,

Have you tried the Austrian rail site http://www.oebb.at/vip8/oebb/en/index.jsp

You can buy tickets on line and get an email confirmation, but you will have to have some facility with German.

You can use http://ets.freetranslation.com/

Hope this helps.

((I))

SKIDDY....WORD OF ADVICE.....Don't fret buddy...you will only regret getting stressed. Start laughing...it helps. Now, go into any youth hostel...and they should help you get in the number of an agency that can help.

ALL YOU NEED IS A POINT TO POINT TICKET..

Actually...and I dont know this (but I can check for you tonight...I have the train schedule in my bedroom, but just go into the Prague station (there are two...go to the MAIN STATION)...and buy your ticket direct. The hostel should help you as well.

One piece of advice...if you have a question in that train station...GO RIGHT TO THE POLICE...the ONES WITH THE BLUE JUMPSUITS AND BIG GUNS!!! They are very helpful...even if they dont speak English they will take you to the right person.

There are two sets of windows...ONE SET HAS ENGLISH SPEAKING Customer SERVICE PEOPLE. Trust me...you will be fine...I was a bit of a mess in prague (trying to get out of there) and not only did I make it after some annoying conversations and bad info...but I had a blast with this German couple on the train.

ENJOY YOUR TIME...let me know if you want me to check the train schedule.




Larry...in my pre-legal years, the rather HUGE company I worked for owned railconnection...and rail pass. A very good friend of mine owns both (the wonderful reason my train travel cost 400 instead of 750 last year).

The company, is actually owned (parentally) by a French conglomerate that owns a huge chunk of Eurail.

And no, they dont tell you to buy passes you dont need...in fact, before I made the call to my friend...I researched it thoroughly...just to make sure he gave me my friend deal.

Ok....Skiddy...at your rescue buddy.

HERE YA GO (DIRECT FROM MY RAILCONNECTION BUDDY):

"PETE...good to hear from you buddy. Tell the neophyte to stop sweating and find himself a good bottle of wine, some cheese, bread, and a gorgeous Czech woman...The trains out of Prague connect to Vienna 5x a day and is about 38 bucks each way. It should take him 6 hours. HOW BAD DO YOU WISH YOU CAN TRAVEL LIKE THAT? Talk to you soon...Oh and tell him just to go to the ticket window at the station. He can buy it in advance so if he is nervous....tell him to go there on his arrival. REMEMBER...tell him the main station...you know...the one with all those sketchy people the Police love to harrass. Later buddy..."

SKIDDY...there ya go....enjoy it buddy...

tt for our stressed friend!