Trains/Booking Question

Try this site: https://www.seat61.com/trains-and-routes/vienna-to-budapest-by-train.htm

Have you looked at seat61.com? This is the go-to website for train travel. There is also rome2rio.com, which is more general travel.

I'm a little confused as to why your mom wants all the trains done in advance. Is it cost, or simple reassurance? We did most of our train reservations 1-2 days in advance, and it worked pretty well. We could possibly have saved money, but we did have the flexibility.

Here is one warning: We made a reservation for a train in a provincial town. The agent seemed to be following, but the reservation was made for the wrong day, and we lost money to correct it. So, I suggest that dates be written not spoken, and written in the European manner - YYYY-MM-DD

And as to a rail pass, most people don't see those as cost-effective these days

Vienna to Salzburg does not go into Germany, so it is not in Deutsche Bahn's purview, although they can sell some tickets. There are 2 companies that do this run, OEBB, the Austrian national railroad, and Westbahn, a private operator. For OEBB, go to www.oebb,at/en. They can sell advance nonrefundable discount tickets. For Westbahn, they mostly sell one low anytime price. You can actually just board the train and pay the conductor when he comes around. But you can buy advance tickets up to 6 weeks out.
www.westbahn.at/en

Hi,

Which rides do you want to take in 1st class? At Salzburg Hbf there is a Deutsche Bahn ticket machine.

Don't fly from Berlin to Munich, the fastest trains takes you to Munich in less than 4 hours. I.e. door to door about the same time as flying. And the train is cheaper and a lot more comfortable.

do we need a seat reservation (especially if some of our trains may be 1st class tickets).

At least for Deutsche Bahn, 1st class comes with a seat reservation. 2nd class, you can buy a seat reservation for 4.50 EUR per person per itinerary. Regional trains generally don't have seat reservations.
OEBB you have to pay for seat reservations at 3 EUR per person.
Westbahn has reservations available for extra cost.

Whether to buy or not? Again Deutsche Bahn will show the expected loading on a given train starting 30 days before departure on their website. If you want to be sure to sit together on busy routes, could be a good idea.

Hi,

Seeing your questions already answered by other I'd give you some advice for a better itinerary.

The flights between Budapest - Prague and Berlin - Munich can be easily avoided. (It was already mentioned that Berlin - Munich is around 4 hours by high-speed ICE train).

After arriving to Vienna airport I'd go straight to Budapest. Direct buses or shuttles from the airport to Budapest taking around 2 hours.

Starting in Budapest, you can put Vienna between Budapest and Prague, reducing your travel times by train(Budapest - Vienna 2:30 hours, Vienna - Prague 4 hours and avoid the Budapest - Prague flight. Or in case you haven't got your long-haul flights yet, see if you can fly in to Budapest.

Add Salzburg as a daytrip from München(Munich) as it is slightly closer than Vienna.

If you want to keep your original itinerary but avoid the Budapest-Prague flight, I'd recommend the overnight train from Budapest to Prague. Since you'll be sleeping most of the trip it will save time. And at €46 for a sleeper it is a lot cheaper than flying + a hotel room.

"If you want to keep your original itinerary but avoid the Budapest-Prague flight, I'd recommend the overnight train from Budapest to Prague. Since you'll be sleeping most of the trip it will save time. And at €46 for a sleeper it is a lot cheaper than flying + a hotel room."

The night train saves time, but whether you manage to sleep for most of the trip is questionable. Night trains are not for everyone. Many people don't sleep well on trains. I would recommend it only in case they already travelled by night train and liked the experience.

The sleeper ticket starts FROM 49€, but those fares sell out quickly and it is for a sleeper compartment with 3 beds, which you share with another passanger of the same gender. A double sleeper for only you and your mum starts from 59€/person.

https://www.seat61.com/trains-and-routes/prague-to-budapest-by-train.htm

The OEBB Austrian trains are generally bookable starting 3 months out (a pretty typical time frame, though some countries still use 2 months), versus the DB German trains go on sale 6 months out (one of very few railways booking that far ahead). Booking ahead (for a discount) and reserving assigned seats are optional on these routes (Sam's list gets more specific), with no deadline to purchase and no risk of a train selling out (only getting crowded, which is different). The main way that a rail pass would pay off would be if you didn't want to book trains in advance.

Agree with sargan8 that a day trip to Salzburg from Munich is a better idea than from Vienna. It is 1 3/4 hours from Munich on the Meridian regional train and you can use a Bayern ticket for 2 people costing 32 EUR (round trip included) and no need to purchase in advance. Do it on a weekend and you can leave anytime. On a week day, leave after 9 am.

From Vienna it is 2 1/2 hours. You would have to buy far in advance and for 2 people, the best you could do is 76 EUR for round trip. With Westbahn, the best you can do is 56 EUR round trip for 2, and tickets are limited, so you would need to buy as soon as they go on sale 6 weeks out. Both of these are nonrefundable.

I'm like your mom in that I like to have my trains booked in advance.

This site is very user friendly - just be sure to pay in Euros. For some train lines, loco2 will let you set up a reminder to let you know when tickets for a certain date are available for purchase.

https://loco2.com/

Hi,

If you want to stretch out the traveling time, I would suggest the night train from Budapest to Prague. Taking the flying option wastes time in all aspects. The good thing about Budapest is that it's a major night train hub in central and east central Europe, going to Munich, Berlin, Prague, Lviv, Krakow, etc...all very convenient when choosing that option.

In your situation, I would take the night train but then I travel solo, don't need to take into consideration others' sensitivities on taking a night train..

If you do decide on getting a Pass, (for me that depends), the Global Pass covers this BP to Prague route.

Thank you all so much! What a wonderful forum with so many people willing to help :) I'll look into those schedule/tips/booking websites, and will definitely consider the train from Berlin to Munich. I'd love to think the overnight Budapest-Prague train would work but I don't think we'd sleep too well on the train.

Whenever a train is available take it and avoid flying. Trains are so much more relaxing and take you directly to the city center. If you fly to Munich you’re still going to have to buy a train ticket from the airport to the main station in downtown Munich...so why bother flying?

Any reason for why you don't think you'd sleep well on the train?

I always sleep well on a night train sitting in my seat. I seeing the other passengers doing the same or even snoring away

"So, I suggest that dates be written not spoken, and written in the European manner - YYYY-MM-DD"

This is not the usual European manner, which is DD-MM-YYYY. The order starting with the year is useful for keeping a chronological sequence of dates, but I (a Englishman aged 81) have never seen it used to indicate a date for the present purposes.
And an important detail that Americans need to be aware of is that we never put dates, as you do, in the order MM-DD, but the reverse. Please forgive this example, but it speaks volumes: 9/11 reads as the 9th of November in England and on the continent of Europe! (And while we're at it, the US second floor of a house is the first floor in the old world too. For your first floor, we say "ground floor". The many other examples of our differences would be off-subject...)

For anyone wanting full details of train times, I highly recommend the European Rail Timetable, a 650-page book packed with almost every train schedule in Europe and much other interesting information. A digital edition is also available, more convenient to obtain if you live outside Europe.
See https://www.europeanrailtimetable.eu for further information.

On writing dates: I find it easiest to spell out the month name, as in 2 May 2019.

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San Francisco
04/25/19 10:31 PM
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On writing dates: I find it easiest to spell out the month name, as in 2 May 2019.*

That's a great idea, Laura B., but you also need to interpret correctly what other people have written.

Above I said: This is not the usual European manner, which is DD-MM-YYYY. ... I have never seen it used to indicate a date for the present purposes.

I now need to contradict that, having just seen MM-DD-YYYY on an Italian camping website. So I guess the watchword is, Be careful!.

If a date comes up twice (arrival and departure days, for example) the figure representing the month will be obvious.