We are considering taking the overnight train from Prague to Venice during our trip in June. I can find the current schedule on both trenitalia.com and die bahn but neither one gives prices. I can get a price at RailEurope but I know they tend to be much higher.

Anyone have any pointers on finding the price and/or purchasing online without using RailEurope? Thanks.

When I tried it on trenitalia's website, the journeys with changes did not show prices but the direct overnight train leaving at 17:14 and arriving at 8:45 showed the price. Normal fare for an adult showed 70 euros per person in a 6 couchette cabin and 80 euro per person in a 4 couchette cabin.

I'm guessing, but I think that since the changes are occuring outside of Italy (on foreign rail services) they are unable to price that portion of the journey.

Thanks capkirk! I tried again on trenitalia.com. Although I can see the train through Udine and the direct train there's a "no" in the "Buy" column for each, so no price appears. I must be doing something wrong.

Both the fares you gave me are $295 on the RailEurope site. Pretty heavy markup, no?

Most definately a significant increase. I purchased tickets from RailEurope one time and then figured out how much more they charged and have always just purchased tickets at the train stations since. I hope you can get it to work and have a great trip.

I had to wait until 89 days before the return portion of my rail journey to buy my ticket at bahn.de. There were no prices available until that time. Maybe trenitalia works the same way.

Greytop13, if you are not tied to the idea of taking the train, you might want to look at www.whichbudget.com. There are a couple of budget airlines that fly from Prague to Venice. I picked a random day in June and noticed that Alpieagles had special fares for 19 euros per person on a one way flight from Prague to Venice Marco Polo. Might be worth looking into in order to save some time and money.

Poutine: thanks for the suggestion but even when I try to find the prices for next month, I get that darned "no."

capkirk: Unfortunately, we have to arrive in Venice on a Monday and alpieagles doesn't. Originally, it would have worked out great taking Smartwings but they no longer have service from Prague to Venice. An alternative we looked at was flying into Milan and taking the train from there to Venice. It's cheaper but more complicated. Thanks again.

I realized what I'd been doing wrong at trenitalia.com. I am so used to looking at schedules within Italy that I forgot to hit the international tab before starting the search. I can now get the direct train price through May but only for 2nd class. The details for the train shows it has first class seats and standard class sleepers.

Two questions: Can I reserve 1st class in advance?
Can I buy a 2nd class couchette ticket in advance and upgrade it to first class when I get to Prague?
Thanks for your help.

Hey greytop13, I see your problem regarding using the budget airlines. That is unfortunate about Smartwings dropping the service.

I'm not sure about your questions regarding first class as I only use the website to get prices in budgeting my trips and purchase tickets when I get there. Hopefully someone else will see this and be able to help you. Have a great trip.