train from krakow to prague
 

We want to take the night train from Krakow to Prague. It appears that we could take Czech transport or polish rail, however there is a 150 Euro price difference between the two. Does anyone know anything about these 2 options and why there might be this price difference? Thanks for your help.

How did you come up with the price difference of E150? Neither country uses the Euro. Did you convert from PLN and CZK into Euros?

I checked with the Polrail site and a one way, second class ticket is 358PLN ($120USD). A double sleeper is 447PLN ($150USD).

When I tried to buy the same ticket from the Czech site I got an error that said that tickets from outside the Czech Republic could not be purchased. Where did you see a fare that is $195 more expensive than the Polish site?

It's not possible to have a fare difference of E150 unless there is something you haven't stated above.

I see about six daily trains, ranging from 248PLN to 356PLN
The Czech site asks to contact them for pricing of trains outside Czech territory. I'd book with Polrail since the trains originate there.

Those fares (from Polrail's site) do not include any night-train accommodations. Is that maybe where a discrepancy came from? Did you really compare quotes of the same train in the same class with the same service level? And how did you arrive at Euro amounts?

I just bought tickets for this on polrail.com about a week ago. A two person sleeper cost me $277. We are picking up our tickets when we get to Krakow.

I've read on trip advisor that it's less expensive to get the tickets on Prague but that obviously wouldn't work for us since we won't be in Prague until after we take the train.

I got the 1644 PLN (384 euros) fare from polrail and converted it to euros (current rate). The train I chose was the 22:01pm train arriving at 7:36am. It is a 2nd class 4 couchette fare. When I go to the czechtransport website I can follow the links for train tickets from Krakow - Prague. What appears to be the same level of service (4 couchette- 2nd class) is 244 Euros. I have not tried to order the tickets - just wanted to compare the pricing to see which one to buy from. I do not understand the price difference and figure there is something that I am missing?

lashfamily, there's more info on this on tripadvisor.com Poland and Czech Republic forums. I know I read there that it is less expensive to get tickets for this route in CR than in Poland. The Czech tickets may work for you, but if I am remembering correctly, the issue of getting the tickets delivered is problematic and/or costly. However, I was busy and distracted so admittedly did not research this fully.

In terms of the six daily trains - there is only 1 night train where you don't have to change trains during the trip.

When I looked at prices I choose the 22:01 train leaving Krakow.

The price I'm getting for that train and 4 person couchette is 411PLN which is about $140USD or E96.

I'm sure the sleeper or couchette charges are included as the ticket only price is cheaper than either the couchette or sleeper.

I looked at several dates and got the same price each time so the travel dates don't matter.

In my notes for the CR train site is the following: "if you want the overnight sleeper or a 1st class ticket you'll need to buy at the station." I'm not sure where I read that information. Anyway, I was not able to get a price from the CR site but it could not be E150 less than E96.

I'd be interested in learning the outcome of this.

A well-known oddity is that this train costs more booked from the Polish end, than from the Czech end.

So from Prague to Krakow you can book at the cheaper price online at Czech railways www.cd.cz/eshop but in the other direction, Krakow to Prague has to be booked at the station (as Polish Railways don't sell international trains online) or via reliable local Polish agency www.polrail.com.

Having said that, if agency Czech Transport are willing to send you the tickets, and their various fees for doing this are offset by the cheaper price they can get using the Czech railways system to book Krakow to Prague, then by all means try them.