Train from Nuremberg to Prague?

If you keep clicking on "Later" at the bottom of the list of options, you'll eventually uncover trains, but they seem to involve very long layovers at the border and take over 10 hours, vs. 3 to 4 hours for the bus. Looks like bus is the way to go. European buses are usually quite comfortable, and I love being able to roll my suitcase right up to the luggage bay rather than having to wrestle it onto, and through, a rail car.

It's a double-decker bus with bathroom on board and service of hot drinks and sandwiches. It's run by Deutsche Bahn.

The direct rail connection between Nuremberg and Plzen over Furth im Wald is mainly used by freight trains and local commuter trains, so an EC train service would be awfully slow. Nothing you would pay for the EC fare. That's why DB favors the (DB owned) bus.

In addition, if you really want to use the train, you can check "local trains only" and get the train connections. But be aware they take longer than the DB bus and there's a short local bus ride included because of construction work between Furth im Wald and Domazlice.

I don't know of any direct, long distance trains (ICE/IC/EC) from Nürnberg to Prague. About the closest you get is the ALX train that you change to from an RE at Schwandorf. It is designated as an EC from the border to Prague, but it is really a regional train.

The reason the Bahn website shows only the buses is that it tries to show the fastest connections, and the buses make the trips about an hour faster (3h38min vs 4h39min, at best) than the trains. The rail routes through Cheb or Furth are all by regional trains. The only true express route would be to take an RE from Nürnberg to Dresden and catch the EC that goes from Berlin to Prague, but that would be round-about and take longer. If you select "Local transport only" the Bahn site will show you the quickest regional rail routes.

Although the trains take a little longer, tickets can be less restrictive and less expensive. You can get from Nürnberg to Pilsen with a Bayern-Böhmen-Ticket (31,60€ for two people) then use a Czech Rail ticket to Prague for 120 Kc (4,44€/P). The Bayern-Böhmen-Ticket can be purchased at any time up to travel time for the same price and is valid for any trains all day long.

The bus fare is 54,10€/P full fare. There are SparPreis tickets for as little as 14€/P, but you are committed to a specific bus (date and time) and the lowest prices are for advance purchase; as you approach travel time the cost will go up.

Thank you all for your responses and suggestions. This will be the first time that we take a train while traveling through Germany. We have been reading through various other posts relating to train travel and have visited the DB site a number of times to get a handle on how to use it. The bus may be our best choice so we will look further into using that. The date will be sometime in the November 26 - December 2 period of this year.

Not sure if you have used this site, but Man in Seat 61 is a great train resource: http://www.seat61.com

Doing the trip from Nürnberg to Prague by DB bus is not a bad option at all as pointed out above. Unless you are determined not to take a bus, then you'll have to go to Dresden to take the train to Prague, which is fine if you're going to Dresden anyway. If not, your choice is the DB bus. Whether from Nürnberg or Munich, DB now uses the bus to go to Prague.

I took the bus from Nurnburg Train Station to Prague Train Station last October,very clean bus and the fastest way to Prague.You can access this od the DB website.
Mike

The reason the Bahn website shows only the buses is that it tries to show the fastest connections

Well, even if you deselect »prefer fast connections« it will still show busses only. Apparently DB wants to lure travellers into its busses (many of the trains are not operated by DB). To bring up trains, request an intermediate stop of 5 min. either at Schwandorf (for the Nürnberg - Furth im Wald - Plzen leg) or at Cheb (for the Nürnberg - Cheb - Plzen leg; click change other data / intermediate stop; do NOT deselect fast connections) . This will show, inter alia,

-- for the route via Furth im Wald:

Nürnberg Hbf dep 09:43 19 RE 3013
Schwandorf arr 10:48 5
Transfer time 19 min.
Schwandorf dep 11:07 1 ALX 353
EX 353 Alex - Länderbahn und Vogtlandbahn-GmbH Direction: Praha hl.n.
Runs as ALX 353 up to Furth i Wald, then as EX 353
Praha hl.n. arr 14:41

-- for the route via Cheb

Nürnberg Hbf dep 10:37 20 RE 5285 Regional-Express Direction: Cheb
Cheb arr 12:22

Transfer time 12 min.
Cheb dep 12:34 Rx 761 Schnellzug Direction: Praha hl.n.
Praha hl.n. arr 15:41

Nürnberg Hbf dep 12:37 20 RE 5287 Regional-Express Direction: Cheb
Cheb arr 14:22

Transfer time 24 min.
Cheb dep 14:46 SC 515 SuperCity Direction: Bohumin
Praha hl.n. arr 17:16

Regarding travel time, trains take longer, but there is no warranty that the bus will make the trip within scheduled time; it may be stuck in a Stau already east of Nuremberg, where extensive reconstruction of the motorway is under way. Moreover, the Autobahn from Nuremberg to the Czech border is simply boring (mostly it cuts through spruce forests), while the train route via Cheb is lovely (it follows the Pegnitz valley first, then it goes through the hilly Oberpfalz). Thirdly, you could skip a train ore two at Plzn or Cheb (i'd suggest the latter, which is a lovely historical town).

Don't take the prices shown too seriously: that are »flexible fares«, but you can ride most of the trains with the "Bayer-Böhmen" ticket mentioned by Lee, which covers your travel until Plzn. For the Plzen - Praha leg you can buy a supplement online at https://www.cd.cz/en/default.htm (look up ALX 353 to find the first of the trains listed above). Alternatively, you may want to use an »Bayern ticket« to the border (28 E for two) and book the Czech train from Cheb or Furth im Wald, resp. That way you can use any train type in Czechia (e.g., the SC leaving Cheb at 14:46) and you can reserve a seat on the Czech train from the border (certainly, trains will be half full only on the Nürnberg - Plzen leg, but in Plzen usually they fill up).

@Stephanie, yes I have been to the Man in seat 61 site. I will have to look again.
@Fred. I am surprised that there is only bus service from Munich to Prague. I would have thought a train would have been an option considering that they are both major cities.
@sla019. Thank you for the detailed information. It looks like we will have to plan for 1 whole day of travel to Prague, not the few hours that I was thinking.

@ John...I should have been more accurate since one has to transfer in Nürnberg to catch that bus. I put in a dummy date in Oct. which shows train and bus from Munich, depending on the dep time. There is one departure which does the entire route by bus. Maybe it is only by bus in the summer.

Unless you are determined not to take a bus, then you'll have to go to
Dresden to take the train to Prague, which is fine if you're going to
Dresden anyway. If not, your choice is the DB bus.

Not true. There are a lot of train connections between Munich or Nürnberg to Prague that don't go through Dresden, although the connections from Nürnberg are not direct. There are four direct connections daily, at 4:55, 9:01, 12:44, and 17:02, from Munich to Prague via Furth im Wald. Each of those direct train is met at Schwandorf by an RE leaving Nürnberg at 5:36, 9:43, 13:43, or 17:43. There are numerous connections via Cheb, but they require more changes. There is also a border crossing at Bayerisch Eisenstein/Zelezna Ruda. In 2012 I went from Munich to Zwiesel, spent three nights there, then continued on via Bayerisch Eisenstein and Pilsen (three trains) to Prague - all by train.