Train from Vienna to Paris

In most cases, I'd suggest you fly to Paris on a budget European air carrier, but none are running Vienna-Paris. Your trip is almost 800 miles. Have you considered breaking your trip up and spending the night somewhere in the middle of your odyssey? You don't want to cut transfers down to a few minutes in a train station. And Western Austria has breathtaking scenery.

From my experience ICE trains are much more comfortable for long journeys (if compared with Railjet), although agree that route through western Austria is marvelous and obviously wins in comparison with the one via Germany Regarding 7 minute change in Zurich - imho, too risky, especially when you don't have a through ticket guaranteeing the change. The thing with discounted tickets (assume you intend to buy those) is that they issued for specific train and specific date, so you aren't able to use them for any other train. And even with standard full ticket you need a compulsory reservation for TGV trains to France (whether it will be the one from Zurich or Frankfurt), so I'm afraid trick with boarding earlier train won't work in any case You can buy tickets for TGV trains either from http://tgv-europe.com, DB website (Munich or Frankfurt to Paris) or Swiss rail website (Zurich to Paris)

If you choose to go by train, I suggest that you take RJ 160 from Vienna to Zuerich, departing at 07:36. During your long layover stretch your legs by exploring the area around the train station on foot. Take TGV 9230 to Paris, departing at 17:27. If you book now on the Austrian Rail site you may stlll be able to get a SparSchiene discount fare as low as €39 for Vienna-Zurich. If you book now on the Swiss Rail site, you still may be able to get a discount fare as low as 50 CHF for Zurich-Paris.

Hi, I've done this route a number of times, in both directions and once by night. You can tailor your route. All of them take pretty much the whole day on the train and involve an early dep; it's a matter of timing as to which train you ride. The following are day suggestions. The most direct: 1. Wien Westbahnhof-Frankfurt Hbf on the ICE that gets you in at noon so that you change to the ICE dep 1301 to Paris Est. 2. Wien Westbahnhof-Munich Hbf by Railjet, Take ICE direct to Frankfurt Hbf., then the TGV to Paris Est. arr. ca 2100. Each of the two suggestions gives you ample to transfer and some lunch time at the station. No need at all to go through Zürich, unless you want to. I wouldn't.

I want to thank you all for your many helpful replies. We are train lovers and view lovers, so we think we'll go through Zurich, but with a 2+ hour layover. We're looking forward to it. We've survived the Amtrak Coast Starlight from CA Central Coast to Seattle. How bad can this trip be in one day?

I, too, am a train lover. I've survived a 36-hour trip on Amtrak in a reclining seat between Minneapolis and Wenatchee. Personally, I would pick the most scenic route and sit back and enjoy the all-day ride.

Hi, With this 2 hour layover in Zürich, when do you arrive in Paris?

We leave Vienna at 7:36 AM and arrive at Gare de Lyon at 9:37 PM. At the risk of restarting the Air vs. Train debate, I will say that the 2nd class non-refundable train fares were surprisingly low. In the same range as Air Berlin with a 6+ hour stopover in Berlin and much cheaper than the flights with plane changes in Oslo,Dublin, or Heathrow. We are retired and time spent having interesting experiences is a plus.