- Can anyone give me an idea of the cost of a second class rail ticket for the day trai from Krakow to Budapest? rozklad-pkp.pl will not calculate a price , I think because 3 countries are involved.
- We have reasons for not wanting to do this as a night trip. One of these is reading older postings about the number of disturbances for border crossings . I am not a good sleeper and fear that with that added on I'd be up all night and this would make the next day worse than the jet lag day after lying. But these were older posts, both here and other sites. My question is - with Schengen agreements in place, do they now still stop and check everything as the train crosses the borders? Thanks in advance.
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
Go to this page on the Polish Rail site to request a fare quote: http://www.polrail.com/sections/store/quoteprice.html. I have no personal experience crossing a border on a night train, but I've read that it usually works like this: The conductor may keep your passport overnight and return it to you in the morning. Doing so will allow you to get an uninterrupted night's sleep if there is a check at the border. With Schengen in place, border checks, while possible, are very infrequent.
Posted by
winston salem, nc, usa
1078 posts
The previous posters' polrail site is the place to go for the quote. In regard to crossing borders, we did the night train from Amsterdam through Germany to Poznan, didn't give our passports to anyone and no one bothered because all countries are in the zone, so I wouldn't be concerned about that. However, if you are a light sleeper, suggest you totally forget using a night train as I doubt you would get any sleep. Finally suggest you go first class as my experience in Poland is that 2nd is pretty dodgy.
Posted by
Winnipeg
590 posts
I took that train last year and I was not woken at all throughout the night. I used a rail pass so I can't comment on the price. i thought that the train was very comfortable (I slept in a 3 bed sleeper), but then again I can sleep just about anywhere!
Posted by
Virginia, USA
5527 posts
Larry, given that all three countries involved are part of Schengen, there should not be any checks at the border. Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia did not enter Schengen until 2007/2008 timeframe, so if you see posts prior to that period, that could be the reason for border checks. I traveled from Prague to Budapest (via Slovakia) on a night train pre-Schengen and there were 5 passport checks en-route (leaving Czech, entering Slovakia, leaving Slovakia, entering Hungary, and to this day I have no idea what the 5th check was for).
However, if you are a light sleeper, you may have difficulty sleeping on a night train anyway. I'm a light sleeper and I've never been able to sleep on night trains. I've taken at least a dozen (most when I was younger and traveling on railpass) and am usually pretty tired the following day. For me, it is the starting and stopping at the stations that keeps me awake.
Posted by
OP
PA
2744 posts
Thank you all.
My problem is getting to sleep, particularly in unfamiliar places. I have just tried Ambien and do not like it. I've also noted that as crummy as we feel at 6 PM local when dragging through the jet lag day after flying overnight, that would be nothing compared with that feeling coming at noon. So overnight is probably out. I have a request in as suggested above to get the railfare for this.
The plan is Krakow and Budapest over about 12 days. We did Prague and day trips last summer and loved it.
Unfortunately in terms of this trip, we live outside Philadelphia, which is not the best nor cheapest routes to put this together.