Quick stop at Cesky Krumlov

I am going to get in trouble here. First I will make a suggestion on a trip I have never taken and second I am going to suggest an alternate form of transportation.

Bean Shuttle has a van leaving Salzburg at 0830, arriving at 1130.
They have a second van leaving Cesky Krumlov at 1700 and arriving in Prague at 2000.
That will give you 5 hours in Cesky K. I believe the vans drop and pickup in the old quarter.
The legs of the trip are 30 euro each.

I have been to Cesky Krumlov and if you have the time it is well worth seeing. An overnight would be better though.

We will have rail passes so trains are preferred since we are paying for it. :)

Just out of curiosity I looked at the train schedules. If I am reading the schedule correctly you have three choices.

One - Bean Shuttle for 60 euro
Two - 7 am Train from Salzburg to Cesky (about 4 hours - but I don't do 7am on vacation) then guess another 30 minutes to the historic district by bus or foot. Then Bean Shuttle to Prague at 1700 as I don't see a train connection you can make. But I might have missed something.

Three - Skip Cesky Krumlov and save the 30 to 60 euro per person.

Salzburg to C.K. by train takes about 5 hours plus minus depending on Connection. You change trains in Linz and Ceske Budejovice. Train station in C.k. is a long walk to the center. You can take a taxi which we did. If you already paid for pass then according to James (shuttle takes 3 hours) you would save 2 hours by taking a shuttle. From C.K. to Prague you can go by train. Student Agency bus is slightly faster. The difference in time between train and shuttle is not that big to justify the difference in price.

This is the website for Czech public transport connections. It will go through all of the bus and rail options for you.

Your most likely option would be to depart Salzburg at 07:52 and arrive in Krumlov at 13:04, with changes at Linz and Ceske Budejovice. The train station is 1km (0.6mile) from the upper gate of Cesky Krumlov, so about 15 minutes walk. The last train out of Krumlov leaves at 18:52, transfers at Ceske Budejovice and arrives in Prague at 22:26. This would give you a maximum of five hours in Cesky Krumlov.

Alternatively, it might make more sense for you to go on the Salzburg - Prague route and get off the train for a few hours at Tabor. Tabor is a beautiful medieval town and home to the Hussite Museum (one of the best museums in the Czech Republic). It is well worth a few hours of your time. Also it's a natural stop off on the way to Prague, rather than a diversion, and is one of the quiet and undiscovered jewels of the Czech Republic.

I hope that this helps.

Marcus

Marcus, when I looked at the rail site I couldn't find those later trains. That works much better. This is where being more familiar pays off. I had done CK and Bean, but never the Czech trains. One CK website says the walk is 30 minutes "down hill" to the train station. "Down Hill"? I would at least that the cab back. By the time you get done with cabs you have half the cost of the Shuttle service. Since the shuttle drops in the historic center it will save 1 to 2 hours in travel time to CK and then another hour going up and down the hill. Still, it will amount to 30 to 60 euro more per person and that might be a deal breaker. I do the research and try and stay on top of this stuff because it ties into my business from time to time. Marcus, thanks for the education.

We didn't want to mess with train changes in Czech as the times didn't synch up and we'd have a long wait and train station seemed a bit far away in Cesky Krumlov. We took the train from Salzburg to Linz and then we were picked up by CK Shuttle. It met us in front of the main entrance of the the Linz train station. It cost 1500 czk. Two hours later we were in Cesky Krumlov and they dropped us off at our hostel door. We ended up taking the Student Agency bus back to Prague and it was super cheap but a hike with luggage to the parking lot where it departed. We loved our place to stay in Cesky Krumlov - nothing fancy but great people and inexpensive - Krumlov House - info@krumlovhostel.com