I’m starting to plan a Central Europe trip for my daughter and me. Our plan is below
Fly to Prague 4 nights
Vienna 3 nights
Salzburg 3 nights with a day trip to Lake Hallstat
Budapest 4 nights (fly out of back to U.S.)
Is this the correct order to do these places by train? It’s a little bit of backtracking I know but I really would like to see all.
Hi Emily, That looks like it’s sequenced fine. You will be covering the same route from Vienna to Salzburg when going from Salzburg to Budapest, but that is the fastest train route available for the journey.
If you buy your tickets for Prague to Vienna on the Czech National train company’s website ( I think it’s 60 days in advance of your travel date) the tickets can be as little as $14. The website is www.cd.cz/en. For the Vienna to Salzburg leg, Railjet train tickets can be as little as $21 if bought 60 days in advance. www.oebb.at/en sells Railjet tix. The Salzburg to Budapest leg starts around $44 if bought when they first go on sale which is 6 months in advance of the travel date Because the Austrian national train company does not appear to offer tix for the entire Salzburg to Budapest route, you might buy these at www.TheTrainline.com
www.Seat61.com can answer just about every question about train travel in Europe
Have a great trip!
Because the Austrian national train company does not appear to offer tix for the entire Salzburg to Budapest route, you might buy these at www.TheTrainline.com
This is not correct. There is a direct RailJet train every two hours from Salzburg to Budapest. Of course, OeBB (Austrain Railways) offer tickets for the trains they operate.
Buying tickets from resellers, like The Trainline, is discouraged, as already often noted here.
Anyway, I would switch Salzburg and Vienna, i.e., Prague-Salzburg-Vienna-Budapest, to minimize going back and forth. Using this sequence of cities there is only one small part (between Linz and Salzburg) you will travel twice, because the fastest train connection between Prague and Salzburg (5:28 hours) reqires a change in Linz.
Look at flying Prague to Budapest, then train to Salzburg to Vienna.
Good plan except for Hallstadt. There and the CT should really be avoided at all costs now. Just my opinion.
