We will be taking a train from Vienna to Prague in April and I am looking at the raileurope website and it listed 2 different stations?? (Praha Holesovice vs Hlavni Nadr)in Prague even with the same train # at the same time, which one should I choose? We will stay in the downtown area for both cities. Also, is it necessary to book ahead or will it be pretty easy to buy the tickets once we are in Vienna? Does Raileurope charge more than oebb site?
Thank you very much for all the help!!

I was just on that train ride in Oct. Praha Holesovice is the main station located near downtown. It has a metro station if you need to use that. Try using http://www.ricksteves.com/ there is information about the trail schedules and a link to a german web site. I used it when i was there. In April you should have no problem getting a ticket while you are there.
Hope that helps.

dmelo

There are 5 direct trains a day. The first three stops in Holesovice; the last two (including the night train) uses Hlavni Nadr.

Each train stops at either, <b>but not both</b>.

Be mindful of this advice from Ben Haines, regarding Prague Hlavni:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34479151

Best wishes,

Rex

Thank you all for the replies, that really helped. I would like to book ahead so that I don't have to worry about try to figure out how to buy the ticket at the station on the day but the raileurope website lists US$66 per adult for second class one way which is double the price I read on Frommer's travel info page, is that right? I don't mind paying a little more for buying ahead but not double the price. How much did you pay in Oct, dmelo1? Thank you again for the info.

It probably is double, and it probably is NOT seasonal (i.e., cost about the same in Apr 2006 as in Oct 2005). Buy it when you arrive in Vienna.

Please ignore the previous responses about stations in Praha. &quot;Hlavni&quot; means &quot;main&quot; as in the German &quot;Hauptbahnhof&quot; where &quot;haupt&quot; means &quot;main&quot;. In Praha, the Hlavni station is right in the city centre, whereas Holesovice station is a dreary place to the north of the city, reached by metro or taxi. Whether you might need to book will depend on what time and day of the week you're travelling but, unless have to catch a train at the busiest time of the week, I can't imagine you'd have a problem.

I used RailEurope to book r/t Vienna-Prague tickets for my parents 2 years ago. At that time it makes more sense because you can also buy seat reservations on the trains, which is not possible now.

The base price (US$66) was about the same, and I remember seeing that the cost printed on it wasn't too far. Certainly not double. But of course, one got hit with the service and postage fees.

Oh, I looked up some webpages, and the Vienna-Prague ticket should be about US$50 (depending on USD/EUR exchange rate). So, RailEurope does charge a markup, but not quite double - though it could be after all the fees it charges.

For Rail Europe, don't forget the shipping charge. What is it? $20?

Shipping charge is now $15, regardless of how many tickets you're buying. So, if two people traveling roundtrip, you're &quot;only&quot; paying about $70 per tickets, which is a 40% mark up from ~$50; not quite double.

But again, if you can't get advanced seat reservations, then I don't see the point of getting the ticket in advance.

I think I will go ahead to book the tickets since we are buying 4 tickets and raileurope has free shipping right now. The tickets should include advance seating so they should worth the extra charge for just have the tickets in hand. Thanks all for the replies, you guys are the best!