I have been trying dummy dates (the same day of the week that we will be travelling) to find fares for this leg of our trip until my booking window opens up. However, it appears that dbBahn seems to have the best option (the 13:35 afternoon train with only 1 stop), even though on the man in seat 61's website it says if I am starting in Italy I should book on an Italian site. It also says to book Venice to Verona separately, then Verona to either Salzburg or Innsbruck. Am I missing something? Is the afternoon train on dbBahn a bad train or something? Also, the booking link through RS site comes up as more $ than dbBahn, even though it's the same day & train.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19240 posts
Rick's prices are usually "worst" case. You can get better prices from the Bahn, particularly with advance purchase, non-refundable fares.
At one time, I'm not sure if it is still true, you could book Venice to Salzburg with a change in Rosenhein, online from the Bahn website.
The 13:35 train is the only Bahn EC train that starts in Venice. There are four others to Munich per day that start in Verona and taking an Italian train to Verona is necessary.
Posted by
Green Bay
20980 posts
First question, seat61 recommendation is based on the general case that you need to change trains in Verona, but the train you are looking at is the once/day EC direct train to Munich. Since it passes through Germany. you can buy it off the DB site including the connection to Salzburg at Rosenheim.
Second question, the link on the RS site is to Raileurope, a travel agent that sells in dollars after adding their commission into the price. DB is the way to go.
Posted by
OP
Land of 10,000 lakes
84 posts
Thanks! What are the "EC" and "IC" trains like? It doesn't say "ICE" on the booking, but are those the same as IC? The Seat61 site has photos of ICE trains, but I can't find anything on EC trains. Is it worth it with a family of 5 to book first class for this 7.5 hour trip? If prices hold out the same, I think it would be about $100 more.
Posted by
Green Bay
20980 posts
EC refers to Euro City trains that make international runs between major European cities during daytime. ie Venice to Munich, or Munich to Rome. They have very good quality equipment and include both first class and second class carriages as well as a bar/snack/restaurant car. They generally have reserved seating. IC refers to Inter City trains which do long hauls within a country and are a bit less up-to-date than ICE trains (Inter City Express trains in Germany designed for high speed operation up to 200 mph if the tracks are suitable). They also have first and second class compartments as well as a bar/snack car. In Italy, the Freccia series trains do the high speed runs.
On a Euro City train, second class is very nice, seating is 2-aisle-2 and perfectly acceptable. First class is 1-aisle-2 seating, so obviously wider seats. First class is usually made up of 1) Business people on expense account that need/want extra space to work on their speadsheets, 2) People traveling with a railpass that allows them to use first class. 3) People that found a deal that allowed the to upgrade to first class.
Posted by
Temora, NSW, Australia
337 posts
Try this site http://www.oebb.at/en/
The train while starting in Italy is operated by OBB, Austrian Railways
there is a morning departure from Verona, regards