Transportation report on Budapest, Vienna, Salzburg and Munich: Trains

Trains: We booked first class tickets on Austrian Railways, OBB. Many posters said that first class, and reservations in general are not necessary on the European trains but I really wanted to have everything ahead of time since we had never used trains there before. We were glad that we did. All of our trains were Railjet and we were in the Business class car on all of them. We had the last or next to last seats in the car right by the doors going between cars. We had space behind the seats when we were in the very end of the car so we were able to put our luggage right behind us instead of above, making it a very easy exit from the train. The train attendants came around offering tic-tacs at the beginning of the trip, then a little later the ticket agent came around to scan our tickets. There were menus in the seat pockets and we did order food and drinks on one of the trips which were very good. There was a charging station between seats and seats were very comfortable and roomy. The free wifi worked very well except for when we were still in Hungary. I kept trying to figure out why it wasn’t working when we left Keleti Station in Budapest for Vienna. Finally, the guy across the isle told us that it wouldn’t work until we crossed the Austrian border. Sure enough, it worked great after that and on the other two trips from Vienna to Salzburg and Salzburg to Munich. Each time we had a train, we got to the station an hour in advance, checked where our platform was and went there to get a look, then we got to go to the first class lounge and wait until the train was about to arrive. The first class ticket was great for that reason. We had comfortable seating in the lounge, quiet, WC facilities right there, and all kinds of coffee, tea, juices, soft drinks, and snacks. So we were able to have a continental breakfast of sorts each day we traveled from city to city. This was especially nice since we didn’t have to worry about taking the time to get breakfast when we were in more of a hurry and just wanting to get where we needed to be in plenty of time. The train stations in Austria and Germany were large with a lot of places to get food and other items you might need. Keleti in Budapest is much older and worn, but it did have some places for a drink and snack and the first class lounge was nice.