Hello Everyone! I am planning a trip in June for Germany and the Czech Republic. Specifically, Berlin to Prague and then Prague to Munich. I have a train ticket booked from Berlin HBF to Prague HLN and then the bus from Prague HLN to the train station in Nurnberg, where I get on an ICE train to Munich HBF. I did this using the bahn.com website. I was able to purchase the tickets just fine (got the savers tickets for 29 Euros as I am on a budget), however I was unable to purchase reservations (and the 2nd leg of the journey, from Prague to Munich states that a reservation is required). I am pretty sure the reservation for the bus is included in the ticket, but I think I may need a separate reservation for the ICE train.. I am getting conflicting information regarding this. The Bahn website states that you can reserve seats for ANY train even if you don't have a ticket (straight from the website: Reservations are possible in all long-distance trains.), but you must wait until 2 months before an international trip to book the ticket. I found that information here: http://www.bahn.com/i/view/USA/en/prices/germany/seat-reservations.shtml However, I wanted to just see how this worked, so I searched for the same train that I booked that goes from Berlin to Prague in May (so less than 2 months from now) and when I ed the "Reserve Seat Only" box, it came up with this message: "It is not possible to make a reservation for international connections at www.bahn.de without the purchase of a ticket. Please remove the check mark from the field "Reservation for seat only", if you would like to buy a ticket for this connection." What do I do? I really would just like to reserve seats!! Am I going to be able to do this in the train station when I get there? Of course, I am worried to death about this.. Thanks!!
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19092 posts
You could have purchased a reservation for the train from Berlin to Prague when you bought the ticket, but the Bahn doesn't seem to be able to handle reservations-only online for route starting or ending outside of Germany. You could reserve a seat online for Berlin to Bad Schandau (last stop in Germany) and hope someone hasn't reserved the same seat from Bad Schandau to Prague. You could also wait until you are in Berlin to reserve a seat. It is highly unlikely that all seats on the train will be reserved, even if it is SRO. I rode the EC from Prague to Bad Schandau in May, and there were unreserved seats available. For the Prague to Munich connection, a seat reservation on the bus from Prague to Nürnberg is mandatory, and should be included on your ticket. It is possible to reserve just a seat online from the Bahn for the ICE from Nürnberg to Munich because that is not an international connection. You also could have reserved for the direct bus from Prague to Munich.
Posted by
Bern, Switzerland
977 posts
Is there some special reason why you need to take the bus? I see at least Three direct trains that do not require reservations...
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
32740 posts
Jim, without checking my memory is the the trains are considerably more round about and slower.
Posted by
OP
Rochester, NY, 14526
3 posts
Yes, I chose the bus because it is much faster than the train. I also chose the bus to the ICE train because it would drop me off at the main station in Munich. The direct bus would have dropped me off at a different train station (or U-Bahn station - can't remember) which I couldn't find on a map anywhere and I just didn't want the added hassle of trying to use the subway. The bus does have a reservation included so that is ok. Last night I tried to make a separate seat reservation for just the ICE train portion from Nurnburg to Munich and it said that "seat reservations were temporarily unavailable" so I'm not sure if the site was just down, or what. When I booked the ticket from Berlin to Prague, I was unable to do the seat reservation at the same time. I was under the impression that I could only do it 2 months out, not 3, so I planned to go back in and reserve the seat in a month. But now it seems that I will not be able to do it online at all!
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19092 posts
German Rail (and most, if not all, European train companies) run their schedules in 6 month blocks, ending the 2nd weekend in June and in December. They are not yet reserving seats for later than Saturday, June 8. I think they start reserving seats the beginning of the month before (May/Nov). Unless something unusually (construction?) was going on for the date you tried to book a Prague to Munich bus, the stop in Munich should have been "München Hauptbahnhof Nord", which is the bus stop in Arnulfstrasse, on the north side of the Hauptbahnhof. I think there are some private bus companies (Eurolines) that use one of the S-Bahn stations west of the Hbf (Hackerbrücke) for their Munich terminal, but the Bahn bus from Prague normally goes to the Hbf.
Posted by
OP
Rochester, NY, 14526
3 posts
My trips are June 5th and June 9th. So maybe that explains why I can't reserve the German leg of the trip on the 9th!
Posted by
Bern, Switzerland
977 posts
@Nigel "Jim, without checking my memory is the the trains are considerably more round about and slower." The train takes about 40 minutes longer in the morning and the midday one takes about 50 minutes longer. And the reservation is actually required for the bus and not the train!
Posted by
Bern, Switzerland
977 posts
@Nigel "Jim, without checking my memory is the the trains are considerably more round about and slower." The train takes about 40 minutes longer in the morning and the midday one takes about 50 minutes longer. And the reservation is actually required for the bus and not the train!