Amsterdam to Prague - night train or airline?

Seat61.com is really helpful for getting detailed train routing and ticket purchase options for any sort of train travel in Europe. From Amsterdam Centraal station to Prague, one can either do it all in one day by connecting through Berlin, or connect through Cologne in the evening and take the Cologne to Prague sleeper train.

These options are explained in detail at the web address below. Click the dropdown arrow at the top of the page (where it says, "I want to travel by train from Amsterdam to...") and select Prague.

http://seat61.com/international-trains/trains-from-Amsterdam.htm#.VcrgNfmPNyU

Easyjet will get you there in an hour and a half for less than $120 - a very cost-effective alternative to the train in this particular case...not to mention the comfort, convenience, and time saved enroute.

Train is not direct. Flying is. I traveled between Amsterdam and Prague many times. Always flew. It is simply too far to go by train. Fly.

And the airports used are the main airports. Metro and bus 30 minutes from center of Prague to airport, 20 minutes by train from Schiphol to Centraal Station. Depending on how fare ahead this is, which day, and which direction, your tickets could be as little as $55 each.

If your budget allows- FLY.

KLM has several direct flights a day for about $200
EasyJets has 1 direct flight a day for about $100
Smart Wings has a few for around $150

I'm not a big fan of the budget airlines in Europe- although they can be just fine- I'd go with KLM.

"My exploration of Eurail and related sites yields goofy info, probably because I haven't figured out the algorithm for searching those sites. "

I agree that flying sounds better on this route. But to find train routes, forget "Eurail and related sights." Eurail does not list all routes and they mark up the tickets they do sell (sometimes substantially). Instead, use the Bahn (German Rail) website http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en, following Rick's tutorial: http://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/online-schedules.

Note that while this will have schedules for most (although not all) European trains, it will only have prices for trains that start or end in Germany. To get prices and actually book tickets, you usually want to go directly to the website of the train operator. Here's a handy list, from the great rail guru The Man In Seat 61: http://tinyurl.com/bo8x6o6

Our family took the City Night Line train round trip from Amsterdam to Prague a few years ago. We booked a T4- (a couchette room with 6 bunks used by 4 persons) one summer. It was not "bad" but it was not that comfortable as most trains; the airconditioning was limited so the windows down were quite noisy.This was not a nice German or Spanish train..I woke up when we stopped in Cologne, for example and when the train slowed or stopped I woke again. I like trains in Europe, but we all had to crash when we checked into our hotel in Prague for a few hours. If you ride Amtrak in the US, then you have the idea. In spite of that, I still look at CIty Night Line for fun, hope you enjoy!