Need train ticket help for Prague
 

Thinking about visiting Salzburg or Wien while in Prague; want to get my train ticket in advance. Tried to buy on official Czech train website http://www.cd.cz/eshop but can't seem to accomplish it. Any advice?

when are you travelling ,usually you can only buy tickets up to 90 days in advance

As trains originate in Austria also check Austrian rail's web site - no direct trains from Salzburg -change at Lienz and maybe on some one other place. Vienna has direct trains and buses to Prague.

check www.seat61.com for info on that discounted ticket (if full fare you can always buy in Austria)- other sites for general info on trains - www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

But yes when are you going?

rome2rio.com will link you with trains as well.

I've bought tickets on that website with no problem, just last year. So hard to know what your problem is, but it is do-able and wasn't hard in any way, and I have an American credit card. So it's not that. I also wonder if it's just not available for the date yo u want, you can't buy things a year in advance, for example, on any national rail site. If it isn't that, have no idea.

http://www.oebb.at/en/

Austrian Railways official site -compare prices on both it and Czech one.

Just circling back to say I got our tickets! AND I'm really glad I did now, because there are 7 of us traveling and we wanted two tables, so we were able to grab two adjacent tables for 4 each (we paid for an extra ticket so we could have all seats at both tables). The travel agent who I'm sure was working with a ticket reseller had quoted a price that was nearly three times what I paid on the official (Czech) train website. We'll be traveling in August and there were already many, many seats taken (already reserved) on the train I wanted so I'm so glad we didn't just show up up to buy tickets at the station on our day of travel. As it is, we were too late to get first class tickets, as there weren't 7 left, much less left together. But second class should be fine, especially since we're together. And the price is great!

(we paid for an extra ticket so we could have all seats at both tables).>

If the train is full someone could sit in that seat as it would be considered a no-show by the conductor

Generally on European trains conductors consider no-shows after so many minutes from where they were supposed to board. Condcutor can give it to someone - especially if train were full - unlikely I think but possible even if you paid for it - hopefully when conductor comes around there will be other empty seats.

"Generally on European trains conductors consider no-shows after so many minutes from where they were supposed to board."

Perhaps once upon a time, and on certain lines, but what you describe doesn't happen on the Vienna-Prague route. It's more "Lord of the Flies" when it comes to finding unreserved seats, with no conductor in sight.

The second class seats are fine. You may want to bring food (and wine, if that speaks to you) on board; the onboard offers are meh.