Linking the following cities by train.....

celtic,

To begin with, I'd probably re-arrange the order slightly to Paris > Salzburg > Vienna > Budapest > Krakow > Warsaw. Are you committed to travel only by train, or would you consider a few budget air trips? If you don't mind long rail journeys, that's also an option.

A few examples......

• Paris to Salzburg - depart Paris Est at 07:25, arrive Salzburg at 15:59 (time 8H:34M, one change at Stuttgart).
• Salzburg to Vienna - numerous trains on that route, most arriving at Wien Westbahnhof. Travel time 2H:52M direct. Pick your departure time.
• Vienna to Budapest - again, numerous trains on that route. Some are direct and some have 1 or 2 changes, and shortest travel time is 2H:37M. Again, just pick your departure time.
• Budapest to Krakow - You could use a night train on that route as it's about the only direct train. Depart at 20:05 and arrive at 06:56 (time 10H:51M, reservations compulsory). I don't know what the sleeping arrangements are like, but you might find that information on the excellent Man In Seat 61 website.
• Krakow to Warsaw - numerous departures, with a travel time of about 2.5 hours direct.

Note that Rail passes usually do not include reservations, so you'll have to pay out-of-pocket for those.

You didn't say where you were travelling from, but it should be easy to get a flight from Warsaw back to a gateway airport for the flight home.

I'd suggest your flying into Paris to begin your odyssey.
Then take Lot Polish Airlines from Charles de Gaulle Airport to Warsaw, as it's too difficult to get there by train.
The new very fast train may be going Warsaw to Krakaw by now, or in the very new future.
Getting from Krakaw to Vienna may take some train transfers and might be the bottleneck of your trip.
From Vienna to Salzburg is easy.
And you can get from Salzburg to Budapest with no problem.
You can fly home from Budapest. Good luck in your travels.

To see the train map of Europe, see: http://www.eurail.com/sites/eurail.com/files/documents/eurail_map_2015.pdf You can magnify this map and slide it from country to country. The green and purple lines are the faster trains where the red lines are regular train lines (slow.)

Thank you Ken and David for your suggestions, very helpful.

The suggested itineraries make sense. I will check out the inter-active map to visualize that. That flight from Paris to Warsaw is a good idea, but this time we want to avoid air travel in Europe - I've only done that from Scotland to Ireland and then Ireland to Paris (about 10-15 years ago), but do not like the 'getting to/from the airports' - it's going to be rail all the way. I've used sleepers several times in Britain on Scotrail (London to Skye, Edinburgh to London-connect with Eurostar to Paris, etc) - and love them.

I guess 'Seat 61' can give me a picture of the routes where a sleeper would make sense. thanks much for all of your ideas.

Hi,

Your itinerary as listed above minus Paris and Salzburg lends itself to taking the night train option. If the Global Pass is valid in Poland (it wasn't before), taking the night train is extra, ie the sleeper or couchette. If you want to sit in a compartment sleeping upright, then you only need to book the mandatory seat reservation showing the Global Pass.

Do visit Gdansk, see the towns in the lower Vistula if you have the time, well worth your time. On skipping Warsaw: do you have to ? If you do, your train could still go through Warsaw, say if going from Gdansk to Krakow. On the flying option: Wizzair goes to Gdansk and Krakow. Check if the departure times are agreeable to you. Going to Gdansk was for me a 9 plus hour train ride with two transfers, going to Warsaw took over six hours.

The Eurail Global pass does cover Poland, as of this January. Faster Polish day trains require seat reservations, but they should be free at train stations there. If you'll take a TGV train departing Paris, that's the most important leg to reserve ahead, since places for pass holders are limited.

Thanks for that information Laura. We were considering a Global pass but now something else has come to our attention.
Has anyone had any experience with the new Moscow Express? (Paris-Moscow)? Apparently you can purchase a ticket for just the Paris-Warsaw portion. In a first class sleeper (double) both beds are lower bunks (amen) and they give a decent discount for folks over 60. Based on that, we want to stick with all of our original destination choices (we have chosen these places for specific reasons) ...except Budapest, and get point to point tickets. Further research is needed but I'm trying to be more creative for this trip and try something different, and as I mentioned, not interested in flying. Any advice on the Russian train will be appreciated. Thanks again.

Ps.. Found out about the Russian train on 'seat 61'... Plethora of information.