Travel from Budapest-Prague-Berlin-Copenhagen

Would it help if you knew that, with advance purchase, Prague to Berlin and Berlin to Copenhagen might cost you only €136 ($193 for two people in 2nd cl, €146 with seat reservations all the way). You can get these fares by ordering online from the German Rail (Bahn) website, 3 to 92 days in advance. Prague to Berlin on an EC is as low as €29 per person, and, at 4h43m probably takes less time than flying when you consider the entire trip, downtown to downtown. Berlin to Copenhagen takes a little longer, but still less than 7 hours by ICE and costs as little as €39 per person. ETA: As for availability of passholder "reservations" being a problem, it's never a problem, unless it is for a train you want to be on. Before this summer, the only time I had heard of it being a problem was for Thalys trains in/out of Brussels during the summer. Then passholders were having to wait in line for hours, just to get a reservation for several days hence. This summer, someone wrote in about getting passholder reservations on RailEurope for a train in France. I went to the website and, sure enough, RailEurope said the reservation were not available, but on the point-point side, they were selling full fare tickets for that train. However, in this case a lot of the train travel is in Germany. German Rail does not limit reservations to less than the number of seats.

Even without the super low rates quoted by Lee, you may find point-to-point tickets cheaper than a Eurorail pass which will probably require at least some seat reservations. But you need to do your own math and determine if you prefer the convenience of schedule with a pass or buying advance tickets. Also, riding the train is part of the travel experience for many, whereas flying is just a means to get somewhere. Do you prefer watching the scenery or spending as much time as possible in each city? From what I can tell adn my own experience, the issue of pass holders not being able to get reservations is vastly exagerated.

Thank you for your responses. To tell you the truth, I like spending lots of time in the cities and I like looking at the scenery!! We plan to fly into Budapest and spend a few days. Then, we want to spend a few days in Prague and Berlin. I'd also like to go to Cesky Krumlov. Would we do this by train or bus and from Budapest or Prague? I'm open to overnighting in Cesky Krumlov. If we buy a Eurail Pass, can we use it within the Czech Republic---like if we wanted to go to Brno? Obviously, we have never been to Hungary or the Czech Republic before so I am reading up on places to go. I enjoy UNESCO World Heritage sites. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. We have used Eurail twice in the past and never had a problem getting on a train. Of course, back then they didn't charge for reservations either. Our goal is to get to Copenhagen by July 1 to pick up a cruise.

If you buy a Eurail pass (5 country, 5 days, Saver for $960) you can include all the countries you need (HU, Slovenia or Austria, Czech Rep, Germany, Denmark), but that's about €68 per person per day. I think that's a lot more than what your point-point tickets would cost (Brno to Prague, for example, will be €13 in 2nd class). Budapest to Brno via Vienna using purchase ahead tickets from Austrian Rail could be as low as €38, but full fare would only be about €62.

Fanny, to your second question about UNESCO World Heritage sites: check http://whc.unesco.org/en/list I visited most of them in the Czech Republic. They are all worth visit but obviously you won't have time for all. So if I may I would suggest first five (IMHO): Praha (Prague), Cesky Krumlov, Kutna Hora, Lednice-Valtice, Gardens and Castle of Kromeriz.