I want to travel from Vienna to Strasbourg, France with my 15 year old. I am trying to look at train ticket prices online. I have found schedules, but the fares will not display. I was told by a friend to simply buy them in Europe- easy and lots cheaper. Is this true? Shoule I be concerned about arriving without the train ticket in hand?

It seems that people have troubles trying to buy international tickets on line. You might call BETS in Ann Arbor. Do a search for budgeteuropetravel in the box above to get contact info.

When are you planning to travel? Got a date? 1st class or 2nd? Have you thought about night trains?

If I don't have a rail pass I always buy my tickets in Europe.

We are traveling to Austria with my daughter's youth orchestra. The group flies home from Vienna on July 17 and we are staying on our own. I want to travel by train from Vienna to Strasbourg on July 17 and from Strasbourg to Paris on July 22. Thanks for any help.

You are having this difficulty because most European rail websites only offer tickets for trips entirely within a country or with one terminus in their country.
Go to the German Rail (DB) query page at http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en and input Wien (Vienna) and Strasbourg. You will see that there is a connection with train changes in Nürnberg and Stuttgart. Using the same times for the Wien to Strasbourg connection, try Wien to Nuernberg and you should get fares. Same with Nuernberg to Strasbourg.

Thank you so much for the information. I am experimenting with different routes to determine the best schedule and fare. Does it work well to pay online? Is this the best fare? I notice that they are standard fares...

When we were in Germany we noticed there were special fares for families. I don't know if you qualify for any special fare deals. Maybe someone else will give you the information that you need to determine whether it is more cost effective to buy online or wait until you are in Austria.

Hi mom,

You can buy your Vienna/Strasbourg tickets online at www.voyages-sncf.com and have them delivered to your hotel in Vienna.

Same site for Strasbourg/Paris.

IMO unless you KNOW, for certain, that you will save a significant amoutn of money by buying your tickets on-line ahead of time, I would wait until I got to Europe.

You will definitely pay more if you get them through an outside agency here in the US, usually in shipping and handling fees or ticket mark-ups or both, unless you can find an agency that absolutelyt doesn't charge anything for their services.

I am not sure how much, if any, money you will save buying tickets on-line and also whether or not, as mentioned above, you might qualify for some sort of special low-priced ticket.

Since you will undoubtedly be in Europe for some days prior to your travel dates you can certainly wait to get the tickets if you want to.

I know Ira is well-meaning but I would not hassle the voyages-sncf site unless I knew exactly how to navigate it nor would I have tickets sent to a hotel unless there is a major savings involved.

First, in most cases, SNCF won't sell you tickets online for the legs of the trip entirely outside of France. You can get Stuttgart or Munich to Strasbourg from them, but not the rest. Plus, with DB you can probably print your tickets online, or they will mail them over here.

I agree with Dukey, that you will probably pay more for tickets if you buy them over here from North America based sellers. On the other hand, you should be able to save quite a bit by taking advantage of online offers from Europe.

According to DB, the standard (walkup) fare from Vienna to Strasbourg can be anywhere from about €126 to over €160 per person. As I said earlier, to get fares from the Bahn website, you have to break the trip up into Vienna to Germany and Germany to Strasbourg. If you use Nürnberg as the midpoint, full fare from Vienna (leaving 10:30) to Nürnberg is about €80 per person, with your 15 yo probably paying as an adult. For Nürnberg to Strasbourg, if you don't suppress ICE, it will show you connections including TGV from Stuttgart to Strasbourg for €84 per person. Even without the TGV, the fare will include ICE and be €160 pP.

If you choose "without ICE" for means of transport, you will get connections only a little slower using IC/EC for €61 pP. So, your walk-up price from Vienna to Strasbourg, via Nürnberg, will be about €140 pP. With that fare you will get into Strasbourg at about 9 PM.

You could choose to go through Salzburg and Munich. The Austrian Euro-City leaves Vienna at 11:30 and connects through Salzburg at about 14:30. That fare, per ÖBB, is €43,40 pP. I don't think there is a lower fare for the 15 yo. The fare from Salzburg via Munich to Strasbourg is €82,20 (no 15yo discount). So, the walkup fare from Vienna to Strasbourg via Salzburg is €126 pP.

But, if you are willing to commit to promotion priced tickets, with limited refunds, there are less expensive options.

German Rail traditionally runs seasonal promotions, Winter-Spezial, for example. These promotion start on first of the month following a season change and run for 1-1/2 month. They have just deviated from that pattern and are offering a "Dauer-Spezial". Dauer means duration, and the special will last for the duration of the year, until Dec 8. Fares start at €29 and included all trains (ICE/IC/EC) from any station in Germany to any other station in Germany. Stations outside of Germany are not included in the fare.

For Passau, the first stop in Germany to Kehl, the last stop before Strasbourg, I was only able to find one €29 fare for each train I looked at. There were €69 fares available for the connection getting into Strasbourg at 9 PM, but that wouldn't save much. There were also €59 fares for earlier trains, but you would have to leave Vienna very early to catch them.

I did find two (at least) €29 fares on the 3 PM EC connection from of Salzburg to Kehl. I would suggest you get them NOW, if they are still available. These tickets are really HOT, and the lower level tickets keep selling out.

I couldn't find promotional fares for Vienna to Salzburg. Full (walkup) fare for the 11:30 ÖEC out of Vienna should be €43,40 per person. If you stay on the EC from Kehl to Strasbourg, you will need a ticket for that stretch on that train. That will cost you €8,20 each. Or, you could get off the train, wait a few minutes, and take a regional train across the river for €3,50 each. Even if you stay on the EC, you are only looking at €80,60 per person, Vienna to Strasbourg.

I would never have train tickets delivered to a hotel myself, but others are less cautious than I am.

However, as Larry say, I don't think you can buy Vienna-Strasbourg tickets on SNCF except for a very few number of trains that are French and direct. They aren't going to allow you to buy Austrian/German train tickets on there, which will be the majority of your reasonable possibilities as almost all will involve transfers somewhere, like Frankfurt or Salzburg.

Try going to www.bahn.de and see the vast number of options you have other than what you can buy on SNCF.

I did find 2 €29 fares available on the 12:21 connection out of Nürnberg. That connection includes a regional train to Munich and an EC from there to Kehl. ÖBB shows a fare from Vienna (8:30) to Passau (11:18) for €37 pP.

The above connection would cost about €74, a savings of about €6, but take 3 hours longer. I think the Salzburg Munich connection is best.

There is a night train from Vienna to Strasbourg. I think I saw it listed on SNCF. Not sure now what the accommodation options or fares were.

The EN from Vienna to Strasbourg doesn't show up on Nachtzugreise, but there is a CityNightLine (www.citynightline.ch) train, the Donau Kurier, that leaves Vienna at 8:30 PM and stops in Mannheim at 5:15 the next morning. There were no more SparNight fares available, but if you buy a standard fare ticket, your son gets a youth (up to 17) fare. Both of you in a private double compartment would be €189. That's in the range of other discount fares and you are saving a night's accommodation in Strasbourg. In Mannheim you can buy a Baden-Württemberg-Ticket, which will get you to Kehl via regional trains (about 2:40) and single trip ticket from Kehl to Strasbourg for €7.

Hi mom,

When I said, "You can buy your Vienna/Strasbourg tickets online at www.voyages-sncf.com and have them delivered to your hotel in Vienna.

Same site for Strasbourg/Paris".

It was because I looked it up.

As for having tickets delivered to your hotel in Vienna; let them know that you will be doing this and they will hold them for you.

This is something that I have done many times, with no ill results. It is no less safe than having them mailed to your home.

I should think that if one can't trust one's hotel to hold the mail, that one couldn't trust them with one's valuables while out of the room.

Ira, what exactly did you find when you looked it up? I "looked" it up yesterday and found only the night train, but I was looking for day train connections. I did post that there was a night train, but I could not find booking on Nachtzugreise.

Today, SNCF briefly showed me a daytime connection with fares, from Vienna to Strasbourg, using multiple trains outside of France, taking over 14 hours, and using the TGF from either Karlsruhe or Stuttgart. Seems to me a ticket was about €140, far more than what I have been finding. Now I doesn't appear, but it wasn't really useful.

I can still find the night train offered on SNCF. It costs €315 for one adult, one youth, in a double compartment. That's €126 more than the €189 for a double on the CNL train through Mannheim. Regional tickets from Mannheim to Strasbourg add another €34 to that. Even if you spring for €76 for ICE tickets to Offenburg, you still save money.

Thanks to everyone!
I also only see the night train on SNF.
Larry, how did you find the special rates online? On the German site, I only see full fare. Is there another site I can check or a way to see the reduced fares?
Thanks again!

Well, the description of the Dauer-Spezial is on the German language side of Bahn.de, but if you put in destinations (like Passau to Kehl Bahnhof) and a date 3 days in advance (your date is almost a month in advance), they should show up as Savings fares. Don't you see them? You will have to register with Bahn.de to buy them. It's not difficult. Just go to Bahn.de, click on "Internat. guests", then "first time registration" and follow the instructions. You should be able to print out these tickets at home.

Note, you can also buy them over there at a ticket window for a "small" additional fee, but I doubt that you will find what you want still available when you get there.

Oh, you have to put in two German stations to get the fares. If you put in Wien (Vienna) you won't see them. You can use Passau or Salzburg as starting points and Kehl, which is right across the river from Strasbourg, as a destination.

I know, Salzburg is in Austria, but it is just across the border and German and Austrian Rail share the station, and it is a "border" station for fares like this.

If you still can't find the fares, email me at larryincolorado at www . hotmail . com

Larry...Thank you, thank you, merci!
I was able to purchase and print tickets for Salzburg to Kehl for 58E for both of us! It looks like the train we are on continues on to Strasbourg for 6E, but I haven't found a way to book it yet. the price is too small for Diebahn online. Maybe we can buy it onboard! The segment from Vienna to Salzburg is on the Austrian site all in German with some specials I can't read. I am going to ask a German speaking friend to interpret for me. I'm getting there. You have been such a great help!