Night Train from Prague to Budapest

I can't give you any guidance for price. The railroads in that area only give fares within their country, not across borders. Euraide (www.euraide.com) might be able to give you some help. They'll sell you night train reservations at European counter prices, but add $50 per order to print the tickets in Munich and send them here. Waiting until you get to Europe is not often a good strategy. The best accommodations sell out in advance.

We did this trip about 3 years ago. The Prague Stations is a little seedy but ok. You will go down stairs. I would not get down there to early because there are not a lot of seats. Births were small and the toilet was down the hall. There will be a conductor for your car and will check your ticket and PP There will be some stops on the way to pick up or leave cars but ok. I would take RS advice when you get to Budapest and avoid taxis at the terminal. Also I used Euraid for tickets if these are the only ones you will be using. Prague is more tourist oriented so it may be easier to buy a ticket.

I have been trying to access price info on Euraide's website for about 3 or 4 months now. Every time I click the link "Prices for sleepers, couchettes and seats on overnight trains", I get this message: "We are sorry for the inconvenience we are currently updating our site." So Euraide is no help unless you want to call I guess...

Yeah, Euraide changed web hosts a"few" months ago, and lost all of those fare pages. They've been saying they are updating the info for a long time now. Pity. You'll have to call them. For the most part, I think you can expect the price for accommodations to be that shown on the City Night Line website. If you have a rail pass, look in the column "Aufpreis".

Lee, unfortunately the City Nightline website doesn't include the cities Budapest and Krakow. Hence why myself and Jennie have to ask questions like this. It's too bad. But at least we can see what the schedules are....

All those missing pages from Euraide had was the Aufpreis, or supplement, that you had to pay for the overnight accommodations on top of the rail component, ie, for a 6 person couchette, you had to pay €20 on top of your rail pass. Many people in Europe have some kind of an annual pass , or something to cover their rail usage, and for night trains only have to pay an accommodation supplement, just like someone with a rail pass. Are you using a rail pass, or are you looking for compete, "global" tickets. To calculate the price, look at the standard fare for Prague to Vienna and Vienna to Budapest on that train. Add the Aufpreis from the CNL page. That should get you pretty close. but if you want actual tickets or reservations, you'll still have to go to Euraide.

You may find the following thread from TripAdvisor.com helpful in determining approximate prices for the night train between Prague and Budapest (particularly the advice of Tilly41 and GCEK): http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g274707-i96-k3698501-Ticket_price_for_night_train_from_Prague_to_Budapest-Prague_Bohemia.html For train schedules departing from the Czech Republic, I always use this site: http://www.idos.cz (English option on right side about halfway down the page).

In Budapest the only thing you can be sure of is that the taxi driver will cheat you. Even if you insist on using the meter, the driver will fiddle with it during the ride so you still pay 3 times too much. Plan to take the metro or tram from the train station to your hotel. It's only about a 6 hour trip, by bus or train. I think I'd just do a day ride and enjoy the scenery, rather than try to sleep on a train that is starting and stopping all night. When I went to Budapest and Prague this year, I added a city in-between and rode the train in the evenings. I stopped in Vienna for 3 nights (not enough) and others have stopped in Brno and enjoyed it very much.

about five years ago i went from budapest to prague. my train left around 7:00 in the morning. the budapest station was full of homeless people sleeping and was creepy. i went to my train, which seemed open and it was also full of homeless people trying to stay warm. what a trip. the views to prague were amazing. it was february and snowing, just awesome. i only took the metro because i was afraid of getting ripped off by taxi drivers. the station in prague and the metro was much more european and less third world. budapest reminds me of romania at times. rough but mostly safe. have fun, be safe.