Need help! Prague to Frankfurt one-way - Cheapest & safest way w/ luggage?

Ryanair flies from Prague to Frankfurt, but so far as I can see do not have aflight oin the day you want, but it is cheap (Under $100 US if my conversion rates are correct) if you can vary your travel day.

If you do take th train and it is a day train, I would not worry about th elack of space for your luggage. There is plenty of room in the overhead racks. We travelled with 26" suitcase, a 24" suitcase a good sized briefcase and a good sized carryon bag and never had trouble putting them in the overhead rack. The Czech trains are not very modern and you may well have a compartment to yourselves with plenty room.

I have never heard of or seen trains with lockers for luggage. There is often a place for luggage at the end of the carriage in more modern trains with racks to store it on. We have used these, but not in the Czech Republic, and never had a problem, though some will recommend you cable lock them to the rack. I would not advise leaing eh briefcase or camera bags there, however.

Some of the intercity trains have an inverted "V" space between back to back seats where you can stow luggage and it would take some of your luggage and you could keep the other items at your feet.

Lindy, I think you can travel 2nd class for around €100 each

I used the Deutschbahn site and found 2nd class trains for €29 but it takes over 8 hours. I also tried whichbudget and skyscanner but the fares were in the hundreds!

Unfortunately you have apparently waited too long to get the best fares.

There is a train leaving Prague at 9:11, crossing the border at Furth im Wald. You change trains in Schwandorf, Germany, then go on to Nürnberg. Up to there it is all regional trains. From Nürnberg you take an ICE to Frankfurt, getting in at 17:05.

You can still get Dauer-Spezial tickets online from the Bahn for Furth im Wald (dep 12:21) to Frankfurt Hbf on those trains for €79 pP plus €3 each for reservations. You pay with a credit card and print your own tickets at home.

Had you booked earlier, you might have been able to get the Dauer-Spezial tickets for €29 pP.

You would still have to pay about $12 pP for Czech Rail tickets from Prague to Furth.

Thats about €91 pP w/o reserv for train specific, non-refundable tickets. The full fare price for Prague to Frankfurt on those trains is only €92, plus €3,50 mailing cost for both tickets if you buy them online from the Bahn.

You might even get a lower price for the tickets in Prague from Czech Rail. Unfortunately, Czech Rail does not give prices outside the CR online, but I think, if it were I, that I would just buy tickets for those trains in Prague.

if it's cheaper to buy round trip than it is one way, why not just buy the one way and just not use the way back?

You could check with eurolines.com, a scheduled bus service. They leave Prague at 5pm and arrive Frankfurt at 11:59pm. Regular one-way is US$ 64.

This is all good info to sort through!

I like the idea of securing a lower price (the "savings fares" pricing) by purchasing a round-trip ticket and then just not using the return ticket. However, and please tell me if I'm wrong, I'm under the impression that you have to actually make the return journey in order to get the discount (the discount is realized with a reduced return ticket that makes a round-trip journey less expensive than doing separate one-way trips)?

From the Deutsche Bahn website:

"Savings Fare 25 and 50: Deutsche Bahn offers discounted fares on long-distance travel in Germany - providing the customer with huge savings that are simple and straightforward to follow. There are two discount fare structures - Savings fare 25 and Savings fare 50, offering 25% and 50% off normal return fares provided
* passengers restrict themselves to a particular day and train and
* make a return journey to and from the same station

To obtain the Savings fare 25 the ticket has to be bought at least three days in advance. It is only available for round trips. For Savings fare 50 additional weekend restricitions apply. The return trip cannot be any sooner than the following Sunday. If you travel on a Sunday you may already return that following Saturday. If you travel on Saturday or Sunday you may return that same day. Savings fare tickets are subject to availability. Of course, normal fare tickets which offer full flexibility on all DB long-distance trains are also available."

Does anyone know how the reduced "Savings fare" actually works? And if you can get it at the ticket window for a one-way trip? I don't know why it's showing up as an option but it only gives me the ability buy the "Standard fare" ticket. And the terms of the "Savings fare" seem to indicate that you only get the discount for a return trip.

It's all confusing to me! Any insights into this is appreciated.

To add to my note above, I would like to get the advertised reduced "Savings fare" ticket for a one-way trip but can't figure out how. Currently on the DB website, I pull up a quote for a one-way trip Prague to Frankfurt May 3 leaving 12:00, I get several options that each display a price for "Savings fare" 29 euro or "Standard fare" 107 euro. How do I get the 29 euro ticket? It has a button underneath it called "Check availability", but that just takes me to a page where I type in my age and it just takes me back to the same page displaying the same fares, with no way to purchase, reserve, or actually see availability for the "Savings fare" option. Why?

You were almost there.

The first time you click on "Check availability" it asks you for your age and then takes you back to the previous page where Check availability is again offered.

Now if you click it a second time, it will show you the fares that are available. You will find that none of the lowest fares are still available for this day. Over on the far right is a link to "Change connection". When you click that, it takes you back to the connections page with the Savings fares that are still available for each connection displayed.

By the way, if you have plenty of time that day, 2 Czech Rail tickets for Prague to Furth im Wald tickets for ~$12 pP, a €28 Bayern-Ticket (2-5 people) for Furth-im-Wald to Kahl am Main, and 2 €6,95 local tickets from Kahl am Main to Frankfurt Bahnhof will work (~€33 pP). The Bayern-Ticket will only be valid on slower regional trains, and you will have to purchase it online from the Bahn. You might also be able to purchase it on the train once you get to Germany, but I wouldn't count on it. You can get the Kahl to Frankfurt Hbf tickets at any Bahn ticket counter (Nürnberg would be good).

The more economical bus option sounds great in theory, but I fight a nasty battle with motion sickness that buses seem to exacerbate. So I will probably have to rule that option out. Great idea though!!

The Ryanair option sounds like it could have been great, too! But as you mentioned, all the flights May 2 and May 3 from Prague to Frankfurt are booked, and unfortunately my husband has to be in Frankfurt Sunday night so we can get to Landstuhl for his early Monday morning meeting in Landstuhl. I figure Frankfurt to Landstuhl will be easy enough. It's just getting from Prague to Frankfurt without breaking the $$ bank or making me vomitous (i.e. a bus ride) that we're having trouble figuring out!

I like Lee's idea to get the Dauer-Spezial ticket for 79 euro from Furth im Wald to Frankfurt. Or, as you also mentioned was an option, we may just wait til we're in Prague (and hope it saves us money instead of costing us more -- a risk we may be willing to take!). Does the Prague ticket window/machine sell DB tickets for the Furth im Wald to Frankfurt leg? Or would we have to wait until we got to Furth im Wald to buy the DB leg of the trip?

I've been hearing that the Czech tickets for Prague to Furth im Wald (and other border towns) is relatively cheap, like 10-20 euro a ticket. Sound about right?

And also, I'm assuming based on the feedback above about the sizes of the train over-head compartments (at least on the DB trains) that we don't have anything to worry about with our luggage. We will have two carry-on suitcases, one large laptop briefcase, and one large backpack (basically four carry-on size pieces). We'll just hold our SLR camera bags in our laps. Should this work just fine for us on both the Czech trains and the DB trains?

I have never been in Praque, so I can't tell you exactly, but I would be surprised if you can't buy a ticket from Prague to Frankfurt at the counter in Prague. However, they would only sell the full fare tickets, no discount fares. However, Prague to Frankfurt from DB is €92; I would be really surprised if Czech Rail charged more. Maybe someone here knows from experience.

As for price, a ticket from Furth im Wald to Praque from Czech Rail costs about half of what it costs from German Rail. The Czech Rail website will not give prices online to anywhere outside of CR, but the price to Ceska Kubice, the last stop before Furth im Wald, is 231 Kc, or €8,76, about $12. Ceska Kubice is about 11 km from Furth im Wald.

If you use the Czech Rail website, use "Praha hl.n." (main station in Prague) as the start. The train from Prague to Furth im Wald stops in Domazlice, but not in Ceska Kubice.

Lindy, if you need to be in Landstuhl Monday morning, why are you not going there Sunday? Landstuhl is not right next door to Frankfurt. It is down in Ramstein. You need to be going there, not Frankfurt. Get out some maps and see what the next big town is to fly to or train to. If your husband needs to be there Monday morning, you will have to leave Frankfurt EARLY. Coming here makes little sense.

I like the idea of taking a cab to the Hbf station in the city center to grab some breakfast, maybe take a look around (we'll have our luggage with us, so we won't wander around too much). Then take the S-bahn to the airport (or another cab I suppose). FYI, for the Prague to Frankfurt trip I found, here are all of the stops (zero transfers for us, just stops along the way):

Praha hl.n.
Praha-Holesovice
Usti nad Labem hl.n.
Decin hl.n.
Bad Schandau
Dresden Hbf
Riesa
Leipzig Hbf
Weimar
Erfurt Hbf
Frankfurt(Main)Süd

Footnote says:
"transfer Frankfurt(Main)Hbf within approx. 10min by S-Bahn, RB and RE"

I can't seem to find a trip direct to the city-center Hauptbahnhof station or to the Flughafen airport station without transfers from the Sud station. Looks like for the CNL train and arrival time we're after (and with zero transfers until getting to Frankfurt), the Sud Station is where we'll be arriving.

We actually just need to be in Frankfurt on Sunday so that my husband's coworker can meet us at the Frankfurt Main airport with the rental car to take us to Landstuhl. We just confirmed that the coworker is arriving at the airport at 9am.

On the Deutsche Bahn website, there is a one-way Prague to Frankfurt fare we just found:

It's called
"Europa-Spezial Tschechien"
2nd class
City Night Line
Day couch, 2 persons in reclining seats, centre-aisle coach
69 euro per person

Praha hl.n.
Sa, 02.05.09
dep 18:29

Frankfurt(Main)Süd
Su, 03.05.09

arr 03:59

duration 9:30 transfers 0 CNL

I think this seems like a good economical option for us because
1) we can just sleep in the reclining seats (I imagine it can't be much worse than trying to sleep on an airplane) and save on hotel fare for that night,
2) we won't have to transfer to another train,
3) maybe we can try to upgrade to a couchette at the Czech ticket counter (if the price is right). If not, I'm pretty sure we'll live for one night in the seats. His coworker will pick us up and get us to Landstuhl early enough on Sunday that we can recover from whatever lack of good sleep we endured from the CNL's reclining seats.

But here are a couple more questions:

1. The fare listed above takes us to the "Frankfurt(Main)Sud" station instead of the Main Hbf station in the city center. Is the Sud station in a safe and interesting neighborhood, if we wanted to stroll around for breakfast close by at dawn on Sunday morning? Or are we better off buying tickets immediately after we get there to the Main Hbf station to get breakfast in the city center? (Or heck, just go straight from Sud to the Flughafen airport station where we'll be meeting his coworker at 9:00 am anyway?)

2. Do the City Night Line (CNL) trains have any food options? Or should we bring our own food and snacks when we get on board in Prague Saturday evening?

Thanks! All the feedback is so helpful.

Hmm, you will be getting off the train around 4 AM and it is still going to be dark outside. The neighborhood is not bad, but nothing is open til about 0600. Can you look to see if the train stops at the airport before it stops at the Sudbahnhof. If not, be assured that there will be taxis waiting as you depart the station. I would hop in one of those and go to the Hauptbahnhof, have breakfast, then take an S-bahn out to the airport.

Or you can wait on an S-bahn there, but I dont think they start running til about 0500. Will have to check and get back to you. Sorry, Jo.