Lianne

I am planning a 3 week trip around a conference in Vienna in March-April. My husband and I are flying into Munich and out of Vienna. We hope to do 3-4 days of skiing/snowboarding in the Austrian alps, and see Salzburg, Prague(maybe)and Budapest, finishing in Vienna at the conference.<BR><BR>Because of the nature of the trip, we will need touring clothes, ski clothes (no equipment though) and business clothes. We are not light packers at the best of times. We will probably need two sizeable suitcases.<BR><BR>Would we have enough room on trains to travel comfortably with our bags? Would first class be better for that reason? Can bags ever be checked for train travel? Or would driving be easier with the bags?<BR><BR>I will post separate questions on ski resorts and itinerary, so please refrain from commenting on those here.<BR><BR>Thanks

kjulie

I have been told that if you can't carry your own luggage up and down a flight of stairs over your head then you are bringing too much for train travel. After taking the trains in France and Germany with luggage, I try my hardest to follow the rule.<BR><BR>Maybe porters are available to hire, but I wouldn't depend on it. Also, realize that now with the great luggage wheels you do not appreciate how heavy your luggage actually is.<BR><BR>If you can not reduce the amount of luggage and you have no problem driving in foreign countries, I would consider driving.. But now you have the issue of driving through all those borders. If you consider driving, post a question about the problems of going through border control at these countries.

stephen

Take the Euro star not the other trains and book a seat in advance and there is plenty of room, a little smaller than airline overhead compartments.The Euro star is the only way, dont take the others, they suck. Ask for non smoking if you dont smoke (since you will feel like you smoke anyway since everyone smokes all around you,even during dinner.)

schuss away

Hello again! I forgot to mention, all the major ski resorts in Europe have great rental of SKIs, you will have to check on snowboards. I strongly recommend that you bring no more than one roller bag and one backpack each. You can Fedex your ski clothes to your ski hotel ahead of time and have them sent back home through the mail also. I would limit ski clothes to one jacket, one pair of ski pants, one sweater, two pairs of sox and your underwear, hat, gloves. You can have your extra set of ski underwear cleaned at the hotel. Anything you really need, you can buy on sale in late March at whichever ski resort you choose. I do think first class train travel would be easier but you will suffer big time if you have more luggage than this, because you still end up hauling it alot yourself. I would rent a car and still bring a very minimum of luggage. I would wear a full length winter coat and bring a long leather skirt, boots, a pair of jeans and a few sweaters, one dressy, and maybe a pair of black dress pants and that is IT. Plus a nightgown. You won't need anything but this. Even though Europeans dress up a bit for dinner, even at ski resorts, you will be fine with this wardrobe. For your husband, a top coat, a sports coat, a nice pair of wool trousers, stout winter walking boots and jeans and sweaters would be enough. All nice hotels have hairdryers and bath products these days so all you need is your sunblock, chapstick, few cosmetic items and use disposal cameras. As I mentioned prior, you will find that all ski resorts want to book you for a 7 day package, or at least you will pay as much for 3-4 days as for 7, so you might as well do 7 days. Prague is very far from where you are going to be unless you are planning to fly, it is a long, boring train trip in winter. I would save that for another time and do Vienna and Budapest along with Salzburg and your ski trip. Since you are flying into Munich, you might want to visit the Ludwig castles if you have never been to this part of the world before, Neuschwanstein is gorgeous in the snow. Again, this trip is doable by train but you are going to be moving around alot, a car would be better. You will have to see if you can take a rental car to Hungary, though, there are some restrictions. If not, you could train it from Vienna, or take a hydrofoil (if operating in winter). I think the clothes I suggested would be okay for the business conference if you brought a blazer to team up with the leather skirt or black dress pants, and your husband brought two dress shirts and maybe 3 neckties. This would work for all but the most formal of financial market conferences. He would also need a pair of dress shoes. I would resist dragging a regular business suit all that way unless it was absolutely mandatory in your industry. Europeans often wear the same outfit day after day, even classy executives in Paris! Avoid bringing briefcases, worst case bring canvas ones that you can lay in the bottom of your suitcase until needed. I think you will have a terrific time.

Patrick

I travel by train a lot in Europe, and since my trips are long, covering a lot of climate change, I can't pack so light either. Two of us travel together and each take a very large rolling duffel sort of suitcase -- yep, pretty heavy to lift. And we each carry a regular sized back-pack as well. Since the pack leaves both hands free, we have no real problem with the trains, although if they are the really steep or high steps into the train sometimes we grab one duffle from each end, lift it up, then the other one, then back to rolling them on the train or placing them in the often provided big bins at the end of the car (we also travel with a couple of combination bicycle locks, so we can lock the suitcases to a post in the compartment). My main suggestion is simpley that whatever you take, it rolls easily as it is the long walk within train stations and on the platforms that is likely to get to you. I can't imagine surviving with a heavy suitcase that had to be carried.<BR><BR>To be honest, we travel a lot by car too, and I find rolling the luggage and sometimes having to lift it onto trains really isn't much worse than lifting in or out of a car trunk for that matter.

CharlieB

Lianne - don't waste your time looking for &quot;Euro-star&quot; trains where you will be going - as there aren't any. I agree with schuss - that Prague is alittle out of your way and it might help to spend 1 or 2 days in say Salzburg for a laundry stop. As you will be going through Vienna to get to Budapest you could check one of your suitcases in the train station or at your intended Vienna hotel. Enjoy!

Bill

We had 3 suitcases in Germany last June. Never had a problem. But we have been told that there are some trains that do get very crowded at holidays and other special events, then it might be.