For our honeymoon, we will be renting a car to drive from Frankfurt to Munich, but would like to take trains from Munich through Austria and end up in Prague... unfortunately, the Eurail pass does not accomodate this route (service does not extend to Bratislava or the Czech Rep). Does anyone have any suggestions for how to proceed out of Austria and into the Czech Republic by train? We also wanted to stop for a day in Bratislava... Thank you!!
Posted by
Redding, CA, USA
1568 posts
Eurail Pass covers Germany and Austria. It does not cover Czech Republic when the train travel is VERY inexpensive anyway.....Munich to Salzburg is only 23,80 Euros....Calculate how much a Rail Pass day is and don't waste a Rail Pass day.
Posted by
Redding, CA, USA
1568 posts
What city in Austria to what city in the CZ?
This is the link for the OBB - Austrian Rail system.
http://www.oebb.at/vip8/oebb/en/
Here is the link for the Czech Republic Rail and Bus systems.
http://www.idos.cz/JRCis.asp?tt=c&cl=E5
Just for practice enter a date a few days from now and set the time for 06:00.
When you click later and show details it will give you lots of info.
Hope this helps.
Posted by
Clarksville, TN, USA
956 posts
Megan, check out the Prague Excursion Pass which is $75.00 for 2nd class and $100 for 1st class. It provides a round trip ticket to Prague from any Czech border within a 7 day period. This may or may not be cost effective depending on which city you are coming from. For some reason, Rick's website doesn't have it on there, but I found it here: http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/passes/prague_excursion_pass.htm
Posted by
Redding, CA, USA
1568 posts
According to todays exchange rate - $1 USD - 20.8540 CZK which would make the fare from Prague to the Czech border - Domazlic = to $9.77 or 204 CZK. The Czech pass would not be wise to buy.
From the German border - Furth Im Wald the fare is 33,90 Euros.
If there are 2 or more traveling together...check into the Barvarian Pass which for 2 people is less than the 33,90 euros.
Posted by
OP
Baltimore, MD, USA
70 posts
Our route will be the following: 1) fly into Frankfurt & rent a car. 2) drive the Romantic Road to Munich (and also to the Neuschwanstein area). 3) ditch the rental car in Munich and take the train from there to Salzburg, then on to Vienna (stopping at small towns inbetween). So my question pertains to the final leg of the trip, from Vienna to Bratislava and Prague... Thanks to all who've responded!!
Posted by
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
2779 posts
Unfortunately the Czech rail website www.cd.cz seems to be in Czech only. But I checked the Austrian rail website www.oebb.at. They offer EuRegio specials from Vienna to several cities in Moravia and Bohemia, e.g. a 4 day return ticket to Pilsen for €29 p.p., a 4 day return to Budweis (now Ceske Budejovice) for €15 etc.
Posted by
Phoenix, AZ, USA
31 posts
Don't bother with the pass. Book on the train when you get there, but be ready to change trains and pay attention. You don't get a lot of help when you do this. We went from Germany to Prague on the overnight and almost missed our connection. It was fun though and quite an adventure.
Posted by
Redding, CA, USA
1568 posts
Engish link for the Czech Rail Connection in English - http://www.jizdnirady.cz/connform.asp?tt=a&cl=E5
Posted by
ft lauderdale, FL
1 posts
we just returned from a 3 week trip. rented a car in munich drove to munich, salzburg, cesky krumlov and finally droped the car in vienna. we did make some incredible side trips along the way. we then trained to budapest and then finally to prague. I purchased my tickets on line and also reserved first class from budapest to prague. well worth the cost since it is 8 hour trip. easy to make reservations on line and the tickets arrive at your home address before you depart. make sure if you drive into the czek republic you let your rental car know....our company only allowed certain make cars to be taken in.
Posted by
Dallas, TX, USA
147 posts
We had a car in CZ and went to Karlovy Vary and Cesky Krumlov too. They were both wonderful!
Posted by
dallas, tx, usa
1358 posts
When I traveled that area a few years ago I gave up trying to train. I rented a car and was glad it did. Doing so provides you with greater flexibility.
Public transportation is convenient in W Europe, but not East of Austria. Renting a car is expensive, but well worth it. I have been to Europe 10 times and rented a car every time.
Be sure your rental agency provides a car which can be taken into the East. Not all makes can be driven there. Be sure to buy a good highway map for each country.
Posted by
Baltimore, MD, USA
1 posts
A couple of years ago we booked with Die Bahn for Munich to Salzburg to Vienna to Budapest. This summer we booked Budapest - Sturovo (Estergom, HU) - Bratislava - Munich plus a RT Munich-Bamberg-Munich (this last leg we did via "note" in the comments block!). We booked 1st Class reservations.
The English link: http://www.bahn.de/p/view/international/englisch/international_guests.shtml
Also used a couple of planners:
http://www.railpassdirect.co.uk/tickets/pass-interrail.asp?AFF=RPD
http://www.railpass.com/
http://plannerint.b-rail.be/bin/query.exe/en?L=profi&
http://plannerint.b-rail.be/bin//query.exe/en?L=b-rail&en=++++English++++