Hi,
My wife and I are planning a trip that includes Budapest, Prague and Krakow. I have been researching train travel, and have discovered a big price difference that I don’t understand. On the ricksteves and Rail Europe portals, the first class fare for two seniors from Prague to Krakow is about $331 US. On the Czech rail site (cd.cz), it’s about $102 ( I did the conversion from CZK to US$ online). My question is whether the very much lower price on the cd.cz site is reliable. All three queries were for the exact same time, train, cities, fare class. Thanks so much.
Posted by
11569 posts
Rail Europe is usually more expensive even though it doesn’t offer a better product.
Posted by
Wyckoff, NJ, USA
7882 posts
I bought domestic tix for Poland on the real site and was often automatically/silently offered advance purchase discounts. Of course, such tickets can't be changed or refunded. Rail Europe is just a DBA name, there's nothing official or governmental about it. I have never used it in 40 trips to Europe..
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23626 posts
Rail Europe is essentially a travel agency reselling train tickets sometimes with a mark up for a little profit. Stick to the national train site.
Posted by
Chicago, IL
52 posts
We used the Czech rail site extensively on our last trip. We traveled within the Czech republic and back and forth to locations in Germany. We were advised to book through CD as it is always less expensive for the same product. In addition, you can select (reserve) your seats for free, if the route supports reserved seats. Most long distance routes do.
Posted by
Wengen
2488 posts
A good rule of thumb is: Buy tickets from the national railway of the country where the trip starts.
So in this case this is CD.