Vienna Travel Answers

You can buy the tickets to Vienna in Budapest and then to Prague when you arrive in the Vienna train station. No real need to book ahead. But do check the prices on line so you know how much they should cost before you are in Budapest.

I am in Hungary, so a little idea. 1) None of the trains involved has mandatory reservation and it is rarely needed. So booking ahead is unnecessary. 2) Hungary and Slovakia are among the cheapest places you can buy train tickets. The entire Budapest-Vienna->Prague venture should be done properly the following way: a) Buy in Budapest the Budapest->Bratislava round-trip. It costs 16 Euro, much less, than the one-way. b) Bratislava is on the outskirts of Vienna. No joke. The 4-day Bratislava-Vienna-Bratislava round-trip, local transportation in Vienna included costs under 15 Euro. It's a good deal, but you can buy it in Slovakia (Bratislava) only. c) Back to Bratislava: the Bratislava-Prague train costs in 25 Euro range, one-way. That price is only in Bratislava, in Vienna or Budapest it is much more. As a result you will also have opportunity to see Bratislava (worth half day or more). As you see, buying the tickets "smart" way you will land up spending less, that 60 Euro for the whole undertaking. More about the tickets: the tickets in this part of the world are essentially two things: - ticket itself (valid for 30 days, unlimited stopovers and days) - train reservation Some special tickets have shorter validity time or may include the reservation. But normally we do not worry much and since it is silently assumed, people in Hungary or Slovakia do not like purchase things over the Internet or book ahead - there are plenty of cheap deal "as you go".

One more thing, very important. The train tickets in general involve at least some route planing and some head-scratching, in particular that the railways in Europe do everything to make the international tariff as least transparent as possible. Part of this is that all agencies overseas you can "book" the trains are set up to achieve a maximal profit. So avoid companies like "RailEurope" as much as you can - they do not use the proper (real) tariff and in most cases significantly inflate the price of the tickets, just to switch people to the railpasses (and the railpasses are often the worst rip-off). Also tell your WHOLE itinerary, please. You may have some good deals you just know and these are rarely publicized.

i ( obviously ) do not have gyuri's local knowledge and expertise, but i can tell you that stopping by the train station on or one day before you are travelling will save you a lot of money over anything avaliable on the internet in advance. and, even though you may have as we did a language barrier, the ticket sellers are helpful and knowledgeable and suggested alternative ticketing which was more economic. the one thing not frequently offered, if it applies to you, is a senior discount. you must request it if you qualify.

Thanks guys, I will definitely wait until I get to Budapest before buying tickets then. I'm afraid I don't qualify for senior discounts yet, but thanks for the advice Nicolaitan! GyuriFT, I was already thinking about spending a day in Bratislava, do you know if is there a place at the train station where I could store my luggage? Also, I probably won't have time to go through Slovakia twice, so which do you think is best: stopping on my way over from Budapest to Vienna, or when I travel from Vienna to Prague? Thanks again, everyone!

There is not much diversion to stop in BA twice. The train from Vienna to Prague goes via Breclav, so does the train from BA to Prague. Some trains are even joined n Breclav and continue as one long trainset. It is a good idea to take the Bratislava-Prague night train, it is - by the way - the same as the Vienna-Prague night train after Breclav. The scenery is OK but not much of loss if you miss it. You save on hotel, too. The sleeper surcharge is 10 Euro. If you plan it well, you would buy the Bratislava->Prague sleeper in Bratislava as you are there the first time. Again, as said, Bratislava is practically on the outskirts of Vienna. It takes about one hour for the train between the two stations. Buying Vienna->Prague without internet connection on the short notice in Vienna is pretty expensive. I would avoid to buy ANY ticket in Vienna if you visit Budapest, Bratislava and Prague. That's the most expensive place out of the four to do so, except if you buy through internet.

You can store the luggage almost at any station in the area. Bratislava is no exemption.

OK, thanks again for your help!

Most major train stations operate a locker 24 hour storage space.. However with eastern europe station, its seems doubtful. Eastern Europe can back-dated when it comes to modern faciliates. So dont hold your breath.