Transportation from Nuremberg to Prague

The under 4 hr connection you're looking at is a bus, a non-stop, split level intercity bus that leaves from in front of the Nürnberg Hbf. The €19 tickets are advance purchase, non-refundable. When tickets at €19 sell out, they go up to €24, then €29, etc. There are also regional trains, but they take another hour. For the train, you can use a Bayern-Böhmen ticket (€24 single, €34 up to five) to Pilsen and €6 pP Czech Rail tickets to Prague. Bayern-Böhmen tickets are alway the same price from the automats and can be purchased just before travel time.

The bus as described by Lee is the best way to go. Has both first and second class, snacks, and non-stop except for the passport check near the border. The bus is operated by DBbahn which is why Richard thought it was train. Buy the tickets at bahn.de. Advance reservation is helpful since the bus does fill up.

The bus is a double decker, first class down, second class up. Big sign on the bus says Express Praha. Steward sells coffee, tea, snacks etc. First class has it in the price of ticket. Bus is nonstop. No passport check at the border. Schengen zone.

I am sorry, Itja, but we were checked for passports by German police and I can give the name of a couple of other posters on this site that have had the same experience.

I'm not sure I would say that the bus is the "best" option. Those are non-exchangeable, vehicle specific tickets. If you decide to go at a different time, or just miss the bus, you lose the ticket and have to buy new ones at full fare, €96 per person. You have to purchase 3 days in advance to possibly get that fare. Walk up is full fare. The closer you get to your travel date, the higher the prices get. I saw fares for the 10:41 bus this Friday for €49 per person. OTOH, you can purchase the Bayern-Böhmen ticket to Pilsen from an automat right up to train time for €34 (for 2-5 people, €24 single), and you can buy the Pilsen to Praque ticket on the train or in Pilsen for €6 per person. For two people, that's €23 per person, for five, about €13 per person. Even if you book early and get the lowest possible fare, five people on the bus are €95. Five people on the train are about €64, even if you buy your tickets that morning.

Frank,
you had bad luck. German police do random checks now and then. I never heard that Czech police would do that. So if you go Nurnberg Prague it's really nonstop. Prague Nurnberg random check.

If it had been a border check (Czech), it would have been Czech border police. It was obviously a random pass port check by the German police, which even in the free travel Schengen zone they are allowed to do. And, they are allowed to detain you if you don't have your pass port with you, which is why it should always be with you, in your money belt, not back in your room.

It has nothing to do with bad luck nor was it random. When we boarded the attendant told us to have our passport available for checking. I assume she or someone would be checking soon but nothing happened. About an hour and half later just inside the German border we pulled into a rest stop two vans with flashing lights met us. Two officers can on board for first class and two went upstairs. And very politely the passports were checked. That happen on Den 27, 2010. I have exchange emails with a person in Mich who had exactly the same experience. And have had PMs for others with the same experience. When, Ilja, did you ride this bus?

FWIW, I've always had my passport checked at the Czech border - day train, night train...and actually at many other borders, too. Post-Schengen. I wanted to say something about a 'Czech Check', but thought better of it...;-)

We rode the bus from Nurnberg to Prague on Dec 19th 2010. No stop, no check. I cross the borders in Europe since Schengen quite often. Not once we were stopped for passport control. Car, bus, train. So I still believe that in your case it was bad luck and just random control.