Munich Travel Forum

I am traveling from Munich to Prague and want to take the overnight train. I have heard it is cheap to take a Bayern train to the border and then continue on to Prague. Is this true? Should I buy my ticket in advance or can I wait till I am there?

We are traveling the other direction (i.e., from Prague to Munich). What we plan to do is buy tickets from Prague to Plsen. From there' we'll use a Bayern-Böhmen-Ticket to get to Munich. Cost is EUR 22 for a "single" ticket, or EUR 32 for a standard ticket (valid for 2-5 people traveling together). We bought ours in advance because we are coming FROM Prague. However, if you're traveling TO Prague, just buy a Bayern-Böhmen-Ticket from a ticket machine at Munich train station. If you can't navigate it (though it's fairly straightforward -- touch-screen with an English language option), you can go to a ticket counter and buy one for a EUR 2 surcharge.

As for buying your ticket from Plsen to Prague, either get off the train and buy it in Plsen, or buy one from the train conductor for a small extra fee (both options will be considerably cheaper than buying a similar ticket in Germany).

Two final notes: first, the Bayern-Böhmen-Ticket is only valid after 9AM on weekdays (it is valid all day on weekends). Second, look through the Munich forum for a number of other threads about this very same topic.

Enjoy your trip!

Mark

There is no overnight train from München to Praha. There are two direct day trains, and a few other connections. See www.bahn.de
You can indeed buy a "Bayern - Böhmen" ticket, but be warned that this ticket is only valid after 9 AM, and the frist direct train to Praha leaves before that.

One quick correction to my post. The B-B ticket is valid on weekends all day in Bavaria only. In the Czech area of the ticket's validity, it is not valid until 9AM, even on weekends.

One more note since I wrote another reply: Be sure you have some Czech currency to pay for your ticket. I think the fare from Plzen to Prague is CZK 109 one-way (no guarantee!), but bring at least CZK 300 per person to be safe.

How long is the trip from Munich to Plzen and the Plzen to Praha? Are there sleeping trains available?

Fastest travel time from Munich to Praha is 6 hours 1 minute. There are two departures per day with this travel time:

The earliest option is a direct train that departs Munich at 8:44 AM and arrives Praha at 2:45 PM. If you plan to travel on a weekday, the Bayern-Boehmen Ticket is not valid until 9AM, so you couldn't take that from Munich. You could still take this train using that ticket if you got on at Freising (departure 9:07 AM), or if you travel on a Saturday or Sunday.

The second option is a train that departs Munich for Schwandorf at 12:44 PM. After a quick change at Schwandorf, you can board a train to Praha, arriving in Praha at 6:45 PM. Bayern-Boehmen Ticket should be valid on this option through Plzen.

Both of these trains are scheduled to depart Munich Hbf from Track 26. Both the above connections arrrive in Plzen about 1 hour 45 minutes before they arrive in Praha.

It appears the overnight train from Munich to Praha has been discontinued. Thus, there are no viable overnight connections that will involve a sleeping train. I suppose you could take a EuroNight for the 2-hour ride to Salzburg, sit in the Salzburg train station for 3 1/2 hours, and take the 4:41 AM express train to Praha, but I strongly recommend against it.

For further details, you can look up your specific desired itinerary at http://bahn.hafas.de/bin/query.exe/en .