Hi everyone,
We're planning a trip at the end of July to Prague from the US using airline award miles. We will have to fly home from Prague also but wanted to visit Vienna during the trip. I'm assuming taking the train there and back is the best way and I see there are several rail options online. How far ahead do we need to buy tickets and any recommendation on which company to use?
Thanks!
We took the train from Vienna to Prague in 2023. It was a direct train, I believe the company was Railjet. We booked a couple months early because I was under the impression that would get us a cheaper ‘saver’ fare (I’m not a train expert). This worked for us because our schedule was set. I believe the travel time was under 4 hours. We initially looked at the Bahn website to find the route and train company. And we found a Railjet route and went to the Railjet website to book direct. The only strange thing was that the Railjet website ticket link sent us to something called Rail Ninja, which is a third party seller that I later learned has a questionable reputation. But it worked fine and we had no issues with our tickets working or anything like that, luckily. It was an easy journey.
You should be able to avoid backtracking to Prague and return home directly from Vienna if that is preferable - all depending on what availability of freq flyer seats the airline has made available. Have you checked on this or is there some other restriction that the airline has imposed on using your miles?
Our miles are through Delta and it looks like they do not fly to Vienna. I get „no results“ when trying to add Vienna to the booking. It would be easier to fly back from there but i don’t think possible.
Even if Delta doesn't fly to Vienna, their Skyteam partners incl Air France do. Hence, you are likely to get a connecting flight through Paris or elsewhere - unless you were only considering non-stop flights.
Using the Czech train site (cd.cz) just quickly this morning, it looks like you can take direct, round-trip trains for a little under $100 per person. The nice thing about the Czech system is that seat reservations are free. I highly suggest the reservations as we have seen quite the musical chairs game being played when unreserved passengers have to move when sitting in a reserved seat. A pain when you have a bit of luggage with you!
OK, I am talking to Delta now and might use the miles for one way and pay with the partner airline to come back from Vienna. More expensive overall but much more convenient and we would possibly need an extra night at the hotel in Prague plus the train fare if we backtracked. Also would gain us an extra day of actually touring.
PS -- could not use miles for partner airlines on date we need. So shopping all airlines for fast and cost-effective flights for our one-way back home rather than sticking with Delta.
A one way ticket on the return could be fairly pricey. Hence, you may be stuck returning from Prague or some other city such as Budapest which I believe is closer to Vienna. Or checkout if you can get a ticket on a low cost carrier from Vienna to Prague and then connect to Delta. If you try to do this please give yourself plenty of time since you will be on two separate tickets
highly suggest the reservations
Agree 100%. My Vienna to Prague train was full and people were sitting in the aisles.
Thanks for the replies! Can we make our train reservation a few weeks ahead or should we do it now (a little more than a month ahead)?
---Can we make our train reservation a few weeks ahead or should we do it now (a little more than a month ahead)?
You can purchase the tickets now. To reserve specific seats, once you have selected the train/time you want, scroll down the page to "Reservation" and select "Change." Then choose "Select Seat from Seating Map." This will allow you to pick the car and seats you want. Otherwise the system will pick the seats for you.
We were in Prague/Czech Republic for the month of May. We took trains back and forth to other destinations out of the main station at least 6 times. So much less stressful and less expensive than renting a car.
When we last traveled from Vienna to Prague we traveled by bus. Very comfortable, although it's a 4-hour trip. We've heard from others that the bus is usually a more pleasant trip than the train for this itinerary.
Take a look at DayTrip.com and see if their transportation with stops interests you; maybe just in one direction.
Ok, thanks — daytrip.com looks interesting and we could see another city on the way. Have you used this service and how was it?
Also will look into bus, thanks.
If you're thinking about a stop along the way, you might want to look at CK Suttle - door to door van service with a stop in Cesky Krumlov:
https://www.ckshuttle.cz/booking/?from=1&to=3&adults=2&children=0&date=2024-06-26&step2=1#step2
We used them for transportation from Prague to Cesky Krumlov, stayed two nights, then used them again to take us to our hotel in Vienna. Excellent service and a very personable driver.
However, for a four hour direct transfer, I'd prefer the train or a bus.
Ok, we have decided and got a driver from daytrip.com and we will stop on the way at Mikulov for lunch. We will be seeing more of the country and being picked up door to door, so happy about that.
Do your own research for the stop. The DayTrip.com driver may not have a clue. Give him where you want to stop when you start off. I just used them for the first time about a week ago. The stop was in Gyor. 1 hour for lunch. The guy was lost and didnt speak or want to understand Hungarian so we finally told him to pull over and we would walk. Not bad, great walk through the Gyor Old Town, but still a tad disapointing. They make it sound like a tour in their marketing, but its really just the transpaortation with a stop. Beyond that its up to you. Despite this, was still a good choice for us.
Ok, thanks — I kind of thought it might be like that. I made a reservation for lunch at a restaurant in Mikulov, so he would just have to drop us there. Did you get the impression they are flexible with the timing at all? It might take us longer than exactly 60 minutes to eat.
Mine didn't much care.
Just wanted to update our experience with daytrip.com. It was great! Our driver was fine with us staying more than an hour in Mikulov. He took us on a walking tour of the area and showed us the castle, which we actually had no idea was there much less how to walk to it. He was very happy to chat with us as much as we wanted so he could practice his English, which was excellent. He knew where he was going and seemed to have made the drive from Prague to Vienna often. It was definitely the right choice for us, as we didn't have to deal with luggage or the hassle of the train and it was an extra day of sightseeing. There were 4 of us so it was not extremely more expensive than the train.
