More train question? Central Europe
 

To all you train expert out there, I am new at this and I am learning a lot from this forum.
Your suggestion/advise is much appreciated.
our travel plan is:
April 6, 07. Arrive Vienna from Marseille
Train to Budapest on April, 9.
Night train to Prague on the 12th.
Late train to Munich on 16th.
We fly home to Vancouver B.C. Morning of 18th from Munich.
What I have learnt from this forum:
point to point ticket is best (no rail pass), I can buy ticket when I arrive at each city? With a travel agent or at train station.
I have difficulty trying to figured out the different sites such as Bahn.de, Oebb.at for schedule, price information., even tried calling the toll free number on budgeteuropetravel, couldnot get thru from Canada.

I plan to book all my hotel room in all four cites thru Priceline in advance (had excellent experience with them) Because priceline do not allow cancellation, therefore it's critical for me to know that I will get to all these cities on schedule.
So far, I feel very uncomfortable without train reservation and little information.
I am looking for assurance that this should work and you folks have done it a thouand times.
Thank you so much..........

Apparently you are going to be in France before going to Vienna-Budapest-Prague. I would get the tickets and make reservations as soon as I arrived in France.

I use the Deutsche Bahn railsite to find out when trains run between the cities I want. Then I print out the schedules of the ones I want and take them along. It is reassuring to know that there are in fact trains going when I want to go. I can also take it to the window at the train station and get the right tickets. For night trains when you want a sleeper or couchette it is always smart to reserve a few days ahead just to be sure. One tactic is to buy your ticket for leaving a city when you are actually arriving. Then you don't have to worry more about it.

In April advance train reservations are not necessary.

Thankyou for all your quick replies.
Musicteacher, are you saying the French train station will sell me all my tickets?
Kristinelaine, is deutsche bahn same as die bahn, RailEurope? I could not get it to work, there isn't one way enquiry, outward and return journey is needed?
The only schedule I was able to find is in Raileurope's site? I also found prices, Vienna to Bud $154.00, I think that's for two people.
All my questions seem silly, even to me!
Thanks, fmpden.

>Kristinelaine, is deutsche bahn same as die bahn, RailEurope?

Deutsch Bahn is the German rail organisation. "Die Bahn" means simply "the railway" in German. RailEurope is a travel agency that sells overpriced tickets to inexperienced travellers.

>I could not get it to work, there isn't one way enquiry, outward and return journey is needed?

Strange - there are no "return inquiries" at the Deutsche Bahn website, even if you want it.

>The only schedule I was able to find is in Raileurope's site? I also found prices, Vienna to Bud $154.00,

Reduce these by 30-40% and then it is what you would really pay.

Altamiro,
Thanks for your help, I googled "deutsche bahn" or the UK version, once I keyed in the city names, it automatically links me to "Die Bahn" which I could not get any info. What am I doing wrong here.
I guess it's affirmative to asuume RailEurope's schedule and just show up at train station of each city half an hour early for ticket. On we go?
Thanks again, really appreciated.

Deutsche Bahn website is: http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/e This gets you to the English version, I believe. I find it very easy to use.

Kristinelaine, Altamiro and.....,
this is embarrassing, the site that I couldn't get it to work, works fine.
Senior moment!
Thankyou so.......much.

To answer your question: Yes, a French rail station can sell you all the tickets for the entire Vienna-Budapest-Prague-Munich trip, including the sleeper accommodations. I suggest you write it all out before you go to purchase the tickets.

definitely use the german site at this address:
http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en
they are the best.
k.

One more question, on the night train, some has "0" change, other has up to "3" changes. Do we actually have to change train at these changes like airline changing planes?
If that's the case, Bud-Prague we should dep. 19.45 with "0" change.
Thanks.

Yes, you really want a night train with no changes. Or possibly one change if it is either early or late, but please not in the middle of the night.