Hi, my husband and I, 76&77, are booked on a RS tour of Tuscany starting in Florence on 10/31/22. We arrive in Prague the evening of October 26, and I need some help planning those few days between Prague and Florence. Ideally, we would stay in Prague 2 nights and travel by train to Florence, stopping for a night or two along the way, perhaps Salzburg? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Posted by
Paris
6901 posts
Hi!
Prague to Florence totals about 15-20 hours of rail travel depending on the route. It is longer than it looks!
I would also spend 3 nights in Prague, because with an evening arrival and 2 nights, you'd just have one day to discover Prague, which does not seem to be quite enough!
If you do not fly, Salzburg would make sense as a city where to break the train journey to Florence. If you get to Salzburg on 29 Oct, you could spend that night there, and have most of 30 Oct to explore Salzburg before taking the overnight train to Florence, arriving in the morning of 31 Oct. But if you are light sleepers, the night train won't be restful.
I would perhaps have a look at Munich too, and just fly from Munich to Florence or Pisa.
Or just look at flight options from Prague to Florence or Pisa.
Posted by
1908 posts
Going by train from Prague to Florence is an odd route, requiring several changes of trains.
I would go by train from Prague to Vienna, which is the best connection to the next big city, stay there and then fly directly to Florence.
Posted by
OP
25 posts
Thanks so much for your input. I knew right away I had made the mistake of not knowing the distance from Prague to Florence, Going to Vienna had been a goal, however, I'm not an enthusiastic flyer. We loved taking trains in Europe (however, never a night train). I guess I imagined the train travel to be beautiful through Austria. I guess I'll keep looking. thanks
Posted by
1908 posts
Every evening at 7:23pm a NightJet train (NJ 40233) departs from Vienna for going directly to Florence, arriving at 6:18am next day.
For more details about the different coach variants, see: https://www.nightjet.com/en/
Posted by
OP
25 posts
Hi, I have looked at the night train from vienna to florence, which was perfect, however they changed the times of that train from departing around 12 noon arriving at 1 am. Can I just wait to see if they change the times back? Thanks for any suggestions you may have.
Posted by
1908 posts
however they changed the times of that train from departing around 12 noon arriving at 1 am.
This is not correct. It would also counteract the tenet of the NightJet system, i.e departure in the evening, arrival in the morning.
I have looked up that train for the days between 10/28 and 10/31, and the train is scheduled as usual.
Check here: https://www.oebb.at/en/ (enable "direct trips only")
Posted by
OP
25 posts
I'm so very thankful for your quick response. I will try again.
Posted by
Paris
6901 posts
Perhaps there is a bug that "translates" the times to your time zone instead of the Central European time zone?