Train advice and ? iPhone: Prague/Vienna/Budapest
 

Hi -

Thanks to all for the amazing threads posted on this site.

I will be arriving in Budapest in 2 weeks and going to Vienna and then to Prague (one-way) over the course of 11 days. I'm looking for advice on buying train tickets. If possible, I would like to stop in Bratislava as well. What is the best way to do this (passes vs individual tickets, websites which are reliable, buying ahead of time, etc)?

Also, anyone with any experience with iPhone reception in these areas, vs renting a phone?

Thank you so very much!

Elizabeth

Hi Elizabeth! We are actually planning to do the same trip for the same number of days. How are you breaking them up (how many nights in each place)?

Thanks,

Clau

Hi Clau,

I've been debating the same question! I think we are going to do 3 days in Budapest, 1 or 2 days road-tripping in Hungary (Danube towns, Holloko, Eger), then 1 day in Vienna, then 2 days in Cesky Krumlov, then 3 days in Prague. Vienna is unfortunately just a short visit, but we hope to go back to Austria in another trip.

I saw one post from someone who was going to evenly divide Vienna, Prague, and Budapest in 4 days each, but my husband and I like little towns too! I still am concerned about only 3 days in Budapest, though, so we might do less road-tripping.

What about you? Still looking for insight on the trains -- any thoughts?

Elizabeth

For those cities I buy train tickets (not passes) when I arrive. Schedules at bahn.de, good train info at seat61.com.

I can't imagine spending only one day in Vienna! I'd skip Vienna on this trip and add the day to Budapest.

I am doing great getting hotels, guides, restaurants, etc... for our Prague and Budapest trip in Nov. but I cannot figure out how to buy a ticket to go from Prague to Budapest overnight on a sleeper. Somehow I have gotten the idea that going through Rail Europe is more expensive than some other ways of buying the ticket. Some of the sites are not in English (of course) and I don't know if I should wait until we get there or not. We are two ocuples traveling together going to Budapest and one couple coming back from Budapest to Prague. I feel "stupid". I know you cannot buy them way ahead of time but ...... I need help!

Go to www.cd.cz. Enter Praha and Budapest and a date in the block at top right. On the next page click on the UK flag and you'll get instructions on how to book online. I haven't read all of them, but I see that it gives a number for an English-speaking call center as well - 420-840-112-113.

I just bought train tickets yesterday in both Budapest and Vienna. It was cheaper to wait and get them at the stations, rather than Rail Europe. (my 3 tickets would have been $210 on raileurope, were $125 at the station) However in Budapest, at Keleti station, it took us almost an hour to buy them. You take a number and wait until your number is called. When we arrived, there were 25 in front of us, I noticed when we left, at 10:30 in the morning, the numbers people were pulling were 45 above what they were serving. My friend had suggested I buy train tickets after dinner, I wish I had listened to her advice, but it just wasn't convenient. But I'm glad I went in the morning, rather than right before our train left at 1:00, we would have missed the train.

Since that was such a hassle, when we arrived in Vienna later that afternoon, we went right to the ticket window to buy the next tickets for a couple days later. This was now 4:00 and it only took 5-10 minutes. There was an employee walking around making sure you were in the right line, much more efficient than Budapest.

This was our first experience buying international train tickets, maybe others have better advice.

Last time I bought train tickets in Budapest I used a travel agency - much quicker than cindyeo's experience. I've never had any difficulty buying at the station in Vienna, though - except when the clerk insisted there was no such place as Hallstat in Austria!

The Eastern European Railpass is also available - valid in all the countries you will be in and unless reservations are required you can just hop on trains - and in first class at least you will always find ample empty seats IME

But the hassles cindy points out i have heard from others as well -more of a language problem here than in western Europe as well it seems and long lines typical so those looking for seemless travel may find the extra money RailEurope charges well worth it. For info on the pass and train travel in general in Eastern Europe and Austria i refer two fine sites: www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com - the latter i recommend for any RailEurope product due to their expertise and personal attention by phone and at times lower fees than RE. Ricksteves sells passes but not point to point tickets thru RailEurope and won't make reservations, which you should make when buying tickets for seemless travel.

Point to point prices in Eastern Europe are generally cheap enough that a Railpass isn't worth the money (but check www.railsaver.com). Language problems can be largely circumvented by simply writing down the destination and time of the train you want. I've never had problems with queues, but as I posted, there are often travel agencies you can use instead of heading for the station.

How did you make out with the iphone and were your charges fair?