I'm 20 years old and heading to Europe on July 11th.
I'll be on a mission's trip for a week, then spending some extra time in a few countries in the East.
My friend and I are trying to figure out cheap and fast ways to get around so we don't miss out on a thing!
We are going to start from Poland since that is where we will be at the end of our mission trip (Krakow is where we will want to leave from)
Travel to Prague on July 22nd/23rd on the night train if we can find one
Prague to Vienna on July 24th
Vienna, Austria to Salzburg, Austria on July 26th
Austria to London- July 28th (we're flying RyanAir)
We are trying to stay on a small budget and we love being outdoors.

Neither of us have found a good price for the sleeper train. And we haven't gotten a real hold on the Eurail, definately not a tight enough hold to pay $255 for a Select pass we don't understand yet
So our main problem is that we don't have our train tickets because they are just too expensive on the Eurail and RailEurope websites. Is this the only option? Because Poland is not included in the Select Pass for bordering countries...
Any thoughts or suggestions on traveling on the train for cheap? (besides buying the tickets when we get there) or how to book the sleeper train at all?!
Also, we need a place (hostel, hotel, anything with a bed) in some of these places... anyone stay somewhere nice lately?

Thanks so much!!!

For Austria, look up ticket prices on oebb.at

For Vienna, the Wombat's hostel is quite popular, just 2 blocks from Westbahnhof. I recently stayed in an apt nearby and it's very convenient. It's not right in the center of town, but public transport can zip you into the heart of things in just 6 minutes on the U Bahn.

You could likely buy your ticket right on the spot at the train station in Krakow. Or earlier in the week.

It's hard, surprisingly so, to buy train tickets in Poland except at the station. You can google though, "buy train tickets in Poland" or "Polish train travel" and you're earlier enough in the process that you should be able to buy a ticket from their online agency. But honestly, I'm not sure it's as cheap as getting it directly at the station.

It's kind of unnerving waiting but there should be room -- travel is down in Poland -- and if you really want to be sure you have a ticket, a sleeper especially, then do google and find the online agency. It's in Polish but you can click the icon to get it in English too. Good luck!

(No idea where to stay... my budget was different, ah, but in Krakow, I'm remembering a funny hostel, something like Goodbye Lenin. You should be able to google and find that too.)

For loads of info on trains and tickets see seat61.com. For whether a pass is a good deal see railsaver.com. For hostels see hostels.com. For cheap hotels see www.eurocheapo.com and venere.com. I recommend spending some time in a bookshop or at your library reading guidebooks - try Let's Go, Lonely Planet and Rough Guide.

thanks! i'll be looking at all of these things soon.
I talked it over with my traveling friend and we are feeling more at ease with buying our tickets there at the station than we did before, so we will most likely be doing that. Is 100 US dollars about right for the night train krakow to prague?