Hi. We shall travelling in October.
Entry point Budapest....then Bratislava ....Prague and finally flying out of Vienna.
I've been reading that advance train reservations are not required. Is that correct. At all these locations, can we purchase tickets one day prior to the travel and be reasonably assured of seats.
Also I gather none of the above mentioned distances are too large....few hours at max. Any particular train recommendations during these journeys.
Will also be helpful if people could suggest appropriate stations at each of the cities for onward train journeys.
Thanks in advance .
Posted by
Portland, Oregon
5687 posts
You can check the actual travel times on the German train site www.bahn.com (has train schedules for most of Europe).
I assume you realize you are backtracking by several hours by going from Bratislava to Prague and back to Vienna? It would save you several hours of train travel time to go from Bratislava to Vienna to Prague and fly out of Prague instead. This is a case where, if I had to fly out of Vienna and could not fly out of Prague, I might skip the train trip from Budapest and just fly from there to Prague, then train back to Bratislava and then Vienna.
Some of these cities do have multiple train stations. Choose the station based partly on your lodging - though some convenient trains stop only at certain stations anyway.
Posted by
OP
64 posts
Thanks for the reply Andrew... i did realise the roundabout trip....but was getting very good direct flight tickets out of Vienna...and similarly inbound tickets to Budapest....so these 2 automatically became my final and first stops respectively.
Posted by
172 posts
seat61.com
The best website for train travel anywhere in the world.
Posted by
OP
64 posts
What about bookings ? Need they be done in advance or can they be done at the respective cities ?
Posted by
Washington DC
27092 posts
In Europe you can usually save substantial money by buying non-refundable/non-changeable tickets well in advance for the express trains if your schedule is firm. Those tickets get snapped up eventually, leaving only full-priced tickers on the more popular trains for those who buy later. The price difference really adds up over the course of a trip.
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
To see if a particular train route has discounts for advance purchase, look at prices for tomorrow and compare them with prices for several months out. Also, be sure you understand the restrictions on any discount tickets (they're usually non-refundable, and often non-exchangeable as well).
Posted by
Magyarország / Rep of Texas
17891 posts
The last time I heard there huge savings by booking in advance i looked into a Budapest to Vienna and it was 10 euro. The trip from Budapest to Bratislava is a couple of hours, the entire trip, Budapest to Prague is 5 hours.
Posted by
Magyarország / Rep of Texas
17891 posts
Sorry, 6:26
5,980 forints on line for tomorrows train.
(personally, i would skip Bratislava and fly on CSA for about $110)
And the Budapest station is Nyugati (designed by Eiffel). You can reach it on the Metro 3 line or on the 4/6 Tram line.