swandav2000

Hi again,

Yes, I think that's a good plan for the Swiss portion. Please note the spelling -- Lavaux Express & Chillon.

Here's one proposal for the one day in Montreux --

Walk to Chillon along the flowered lakeside promenade (45 minutes, about the best thing about Montreux imo), see Chillon. Take the ferry from Chillon to Lutry, explore Lutry, walk in some vineyards (2h to Cully or 3h to Rivaz). Take the train from the vineyards to Vevey, explore Vevey. Then bus back to Montreux (or just walk to your hotel in Vevey).

Have fun as you plan!

s

swandav2000

Oops, forgot to note about Fast Baggage.

Here's the link:

http://www.sbb.ch/en/station-service...t-baggage.html

They say that if you check your bags before 09.00, you can pick them up in Wengen after 18.00.

Have fun!

s

PalenQ

golden round trip to Mt Pilatus, walk around in Luzern>

Lucerne is smallish and not that many things to actually see and do except strolling around so you could have time to take a boat ride on what I think at least is Switzerland's loveliest lake - Lake Lucerne - it can easily be combined with a visit to Mt Pilatus (which however often during my many sojourns in Lucerne has had its famous visage in the clouds - I'd leave this day in flux if it is clouded in not worth it IMO - but you can take a boat to Alpnachstad and catch the thrilling train to Pilatus' summit from there or if clouded in just do the most popular boat outing - the William Tell route to Fluelen at the end of the lake and then take a train back - perhaps stopping at some nice lakeside town like Brunnen, etc.

nikidi

Thnx again! Any tips on how I could check on the train departure times from every city so that I could pre plan which train I could take.

Any Austria / Prague experts??

nikidi

Thnx again!
Pln q, that was the initial plan, one day for my Pilatus and the other for William tell route cruise on the lake. But as I ran out of days for Prague I had to cut one day down here but if both can be done on one day that will be perfect!

Any tips on how I could check on the train departure times from every city so that I could pre plan which trains we could take.

Any Austria / Prague experts??

PalenQ

Thnx again! Any tips on how I could check on the train departure times from every city so that I could pre plan which train I could take.

Any Austria / Prague experts??>

go to the home page of www. budgeteuropetravel.com and click on the link "Berst Online European Train Schedule" or some such wording and this brings you to the English page of the Wunderbar German Railways online pan-European ttrain schedules - that is the easiest and best I and many others have found to use (www.bahn.de) - I mention this home page link because they also give you several useful tips to fully using that amazing schedule site that may not be apparent at first glance.
But generally in Switzerland everything moves at least hourly or much more frequent between any two cities. The Swiss site is www.sbb.ch - though I find the German site very reliable for any country and easier to use than most.

PalenQ

Pln q, that was the initial plan, one day for my Pilatus and the other for William tell route cruise on the lake.>

I'd have to look at schedules to see which routes boats took from Alpnahcstadt - whether they continue up the fjord-like arm of Lake Lucerne - to Fluelen or whether they only go back to Interlaken - I assume they go on at least on some services

In which case you could take a city trolley bus from central Lucerne to Krens (sp?) in suburban Lucerne and catch the awesome aerial cable way to Pilatus' summit - do your thing there for a while - not all that much there to spend time there though IME - and then take the absolutely thrilling mountain train from the summit down to the lake at Alpnachstad and catch a boat to do a leisurely tour of the lake for a few hours - if ending in Brunnen (nice nice lakeside town) or Fluelen you can then easily take the train back to Lucerne.

If you have a Swiss Pass all would be covered in full except the ascent and descent of Pilatus - that would be 50% off - but boats covered in full (except the official William Tell boat which since it includes a full meal on board I believe charges a $30 or so supplement to cover that - but regular boats take the same exact route and these are fully covered by a railpass valid in Switzerland.

nikidi

thnx so much ..AGAIN

PalenQ

http://www.lakeluzern.ch/en/page.cfm...ehr/Schiff/SGV

the Lake Lucerne boat cruising schedule!

PalenQ

Naw it doesn't seem possible to include Alpnachstad and Fluelen easily by boat - both services leave from Lucerne but do not crisscross each other. So do Pilatus (if not cloudy) and go back to Lucerne and then leisurely cruise to the end of the lake (Mt Rigi is a nice alternative to Mt Pilatus if Pilatus, as always seems to be the case when I'm in Lucerne, is in the clouds.

Woyzeck

-------------------
morning train to PRAGUE. or car/bus to Cesky Krumlov??

3N/3 days Prague
Would like to visit Cesky krumlov from Prague or enroute from Vienna to Prague as a stop over.what the best way to do it?
-------------------

I would strongly suggest doing Cesky Krumlov on the way from Vienna (or Wachau Region) rather than as a day trip from Prague. You're better off spending at least 1 night there and it's more or less on the way between Vienna and Prague.

We used a shuttle service between C. Krumlov and Vienna and were able to include a stopover in the Wachau Valley for lunch and wine tasting in Dürnstein. There are several shuttle services to and from C. Krumlov which fill a niche, since the town is rather inconvenient to reach by rail, particularly from Germany. We used ckshuttle.cz, which we found extremely professional and reliable. There are certainly a handful of others that you will find written about around here.

One thing to keep in mind is that Cesky Krumlov can actually be reached in 3 hrs by shuttle from either Salzburg or Vienna. Depending on your itinerary, you may find it more convenient to go to Salzburg, shuttle to Cesky Krumlov, shuttle to Vienna, and then take the EuroCity train from Vienna to Prague. If you end up flying out of Vienna, you could reasonably do Salzburg - C. Krumlov - Prague - Vienna as well.

The Wachau region is reachable approx. 2 hrs by shuttle from Cesky Krumlov, so it may make sense to include it on the way, as well.

nikidi

Thnx palenQ and Woyzeck!

Wow, I didn't realize this. We would actually save about $1000 on our total flight cost if we fly out of Vienna instead of Prague!!!

Any one else got views on this? How come none of the trip reports/ question threads I read took this route, they all seem to fly out of Prague? Seems a fantastic idea! ...

Woyzeck

Just me again. If you can save $1,000, then I see nothing wrong with a schedule like this:

Salzburg -> Cesky Krumlov (3h shuttle)
C. Krumlov -> Prague (3h bus or shuttle)
Prague -> Vienna (4h 45m train, EC)

If you're still trying to fit the Wachau region in, one way to do it might be:

Salzburg -> Melk (2h 20m train)
Melk -> Cesky Krumlov (2h shuttle)
C. Krumlov -> Prague (3h bus or shuttle)
Prague -> Vienna (4h 45m train, EC)

You could put your flight savings towards convenient private shuttles and still come out ahead. I think it is often assumed that because Cesky Krumlov is in the Czech Republic, that it is best as a day trip to Prague, when it is actually quite a bit closer to many popular locations in Germany and Austria (Passau, Linz, Melk, Krems, etc) and basically equidistant from Salzburg, Vienna, Hallstatt, and Prague. I mean, Linz is barely 1 hr away from Cesky Krumlov and is a convenient rail hub. If you can get to Linz, Cesky Krumlov is a very quick shuttle or bus ride. Once you are in Cesky Krumlov, Prague isn't too hard by bus, shuttle, and not even too too bad by train.

PalenQ

I think the lovely Wachau Valley should be a day trip from Vienna - Melk only being a short train ride from there - take the boat to Durnstein and return to Vienna by train (or bus from Durnstein to Krems for trains to Vienna.

This way you have no issues with where to store luggage as in a recent thread a local said do not depend on having available locker sin Melk or Durnstein or anywhere. so unless you just take the boat Melk to Durnstein luggage would be a hassle and everyone wants to see the Melk Abbey and Durnstein and its ruined castle where Richard-the-Lion-Hearted was held for ransom after being kidnapped returning from or going to some Crusade.

nikidi

sounds good. want to take the Danube cruise in Wachau region so best to do it from vienna I think.But just wondering whether with the floods what the situation will be.for river cuises?

but still thinking if we could may be take the bus from Salzburg to to Cesky Krumlov for 1 night, 3 nights Prague and then train it to Vienna as the last stop.

Was quoted $360 from Vienna to CK to by Prague.. need to check for Salzburg option. will post back after a little more research!

Woyzeck

I think we paid about $50 per person on the shuttle from C. Krumlov to Vienna, including the 2.5 hr stop for lunch/sightseeing in Durnstein.

Check from Salzburg, but another option might be to take the train from Salzburg to Linz and hire a shuttle for the remaining 1 hr drive to Cesky Krumlov. That might end up being the lowest price, if you can manage the intermediate step of taking the train to Linz (which is a nice city on the Danube in its own right).

nikidi

Finally back to planning the trip and trying to work out the day travelling from Montreux to Wengen via Gruyere/broc as suggested!!

WE have currently only 2 nights/1 day in Luzern and if we want to add one more, we need to do the above trip on a day which requires us to get to Broc for a 10AM kids workshop as later ones are fully booked.
is this practical and to visit Gruyere afterwards and continue onwards to wengen thereafter.

Can some one tell me the practicality of the above vs an extra day in Luzern.
swandav2000?
TIA !!

swandav2000

Hi again,

Yes, it's quite easy to do enroute and on your own.

First, send your bags from Montreux to Wengen using Fast Baggage service; it costs 22 chf per bag, I think. If you check your bag before 09.00, you can pick it up after 18.00 the same day. There is no luggage storage in Gruyeres or Broc, so this is something you really need.

Then, take the train from Montreux to Broc Fabrique; to do this, you'll need to leave Montreux at 07.44, change at Montbovon, then arrive at Broc Fabrique at 09.24. The next connection will be an hour later, so it'll be too late for you. You'll be on the Golden Pass route from Montreux to Montbovon.

When you're done at the Cailler factory, take the train from Broc Fabrique to Gruyeres; see the village and the cheese demonstration, and have lunch here.

Then take the train from Gruyeres to Wengen (you can go via Montbovon, where you'll pick up the Golden Pass routing again). This part of the trip will take 4h or 5h and will have 4 or 5 changes.

Have fun!

s

nikidi

Do we get the golden pass scenic train from montbovon or take a regular train on the same route?... Would really like to get the scenic / panaromic train.
Sorry fr the never ending questions ..

nikidi

Found it!, so you joing the golden pass lie at montbovon