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166
« on: January 30, 2015, 08:31:06 pm »
Regarding Como S.G. To Murren - Any opinion regarding which if Option A or Option B may be more scenic ? Well, cross-border sections in both cases are very scenic, while sections in the middle of the routes are least interesting, imho. Main difference is in the final section: with A it's two hours of great scenery from Luzern to Interlaken, with option B it is as well nice views from around Spiez till Interlaken, however here it's 20-25 min. journey. But option B wins in terms of travel time, because it's shorter I was not sure if either route covers part of the "Golden Pass" route. I would be happy to spend more time and $$ if there was a significant difference in scenery between the two options. Thing is that both options cover parts of the "Golden Pass" route (which goes Montreux-Spiez-Interlaken-Luzern). With A you'll travel the eastern section of it (from Luzern till Interlaken), while with option B you'll cover short section from the middle (Spiez-Interlaken). Difference... well, it is difficult question. Probably for somebody who traveled in southern Switzerland before it will be not that much, but for a first timer Luzern to Interlaken can be quite memorable. Also you should keep in mind that with Murren to Dijon you'll probably travel Interlaken-Spiez section anyways (it will be on route from Murren to Bern/Basel) p.s. see our Switzerland page http://europetrainsguide.com/Countries/Switzerland/Switzerland-SBB/CFF/FFS/VFS.html , there you'll find Swiss rail network map to help you visualize those both options
167
« on: January 30, 2015, 01:00:29 pm »
Most likely buying point to point - as far in advance - will be most economical. You are right here, when the itinerary is fixed and you are sure about travel dates, then smartly bought in advance point-to-point tickets is an obvious choice. Several point to points are too far to advance to book at this time. In Europe railway companies for the most part start ticket sale 60-90 days in advance, however with some countries/connections this can be 120-180, but we definitely don't remember any case when it was >180 days. So in case you plan to travel all the way in September/October, you'll have to wait with ticket purchase. But meanwhile we advise you to try out earlier dates, look at the options we have in mind (see below), thus when the time comes you will already know what, where and how. Let's just go leg by leg: September 14th - Venice to Como S. Giovanni - 4 nights Main idea here is to get discounted ticket for the part Venice-Milan (since you anyway will have to change trains in Milan). Discounted so-called "Super Economy" tickets for high-speed trains on this relation start from only 9 euro and can be easily purchased via TrenItalia (Italian Railways) website. With part Milan to Como everything is very easy, because the route is served by regional (depart from Milan Central station) & suburban (depart from Milan Garibaldi station), 4,6 euro without any need to buy in advance and you there. But in case you want, TrenItalia website can also sell you through ticket Venice-Milan-Como, but watch out so that price for such ticket won't exceed 9+4,6=13,6 euro September 18th - Como SG to Murren, Switzerland - 5 nights Here it gets more complicated, both in travel matters (multiple train changes required) and in tariff nuances. Option A is to travel from Como S. Giovanni via Chiasso-Lugano-Luzern to Interlaken and then to Murren (takes around 6:30-7 hours and at best roughly 65 euro per person) or option B is to travel via western route, thus Domodossola-Brig-Spiez (this way is about an hour-30 minutes faster and you can count on 50 euro per person at best). Let us know which one is preferable and we'll try to explain in detail how to get the best price for it September 23rd -Murren to Dijon Ville (Gare Sncf de Dijon Ville), France - 4 nights Again quite a number of train changes will be required here. Cheaper option appears to be to travel via Basel (from Swiss Railways website we were able to get tickets for as low as 65 CHF for the entire route), but also you can use route via Bern-Neuchatel, geographically it's a bit more straight forward, however it seems to be more expensive September 27th - Dijon Ville to Paris - 7 nights Here everything is relatively easy - multiple direct trains and tickets starting from only 15 euro. French Railways ticket sale period is 90 days (SNCF also has low-fare calendar, so you can see distribution of discounted tickets depending on how in advance you purchase) October 4th - Paris to Ghent - 3 nights From Paris to Belgium best option is to start from Thalys website. Tickets for direct high-speed train start from 29 euro, but if the schedule of this direct train doesn't suit your needs, then you can always travel by one of the many Thalyses (see same website) to Brussels (from 22 euro) and then catch local train to Ghent from there. October 7th - Ghent to Amsterdam - 5 nights No direct connection here, but you can easily reach Amsterdam with one change in Antwerpen. In terms of tickets everything is also relatively simple - with two tickets (Ghent-border (Roosendal) and Roosendal-Amsterdam you can get to Dutch capital for 35 euro and no in advance ticket purchase is needed. However you can also get discounted ticket for high-speed Thalys on leg fro Antwerpen to Amsterdam, it will be slightly more expensive, but about an hour faster in total travel time
168
« on: January 12, 2015, 02:24:08 pm »
I will just look at the actual companies sites to get an idea of what they offer and times (and travel times as well). As a rule, resellers (or just other non actual bus companies websites) can show the schedule fairly accurately, so for the informational purposes such websites can be used, but in order to get 100% true info it's always better to address website of the company that runs the bus. Think the only time I booked in advance was Luxexpress onceand that was it. Well, it all depends on the region. In some regions of Europe it is very easy to buy tickets online via bus company website + companies offer a number of promo discounts for passengers buying their tickets in advance. In other regions bus companies isn't that advance, thus they hardly offer online ticket sale or any discounts for buying your ticket earlier. Thanks again and hopefully the flight prices are good when I book in Feb No problem, always glad to help. If prices for the flights won't be that good, we can always find a way to reorganize your itinerary and have different destination as starting point or finish 
169
« on: January 07, 2015, 11:38:40 pm »
So with that I assume most these would have to be done by bus rather than train for time? Yep, in most cases either rail connection is not possible at all (no rail line), or it is quite inconvenient. Dubrovnik -> Mostar using (http://www.buscroatia.com/dubrovnik-mostar/)
Mostar -> Dubrovnik using (http://www.buscroatia.com/dubrovnik-mostar/)? Or is there another option? Well, this byscroatia seems to be just website which has some schedules and redirects to reseller, it's not an actual bus company. So probably it doesn't worth it feed ticket resellers. At the bus station you would be able to get your tickets cheaper + it will be totally legit and "recognizable". In case you want to see websites of the actual bus companies that run the connection, then you should look at Croatian Eurolines, Globtour, Centrotrans, etc. Dubrovnik -> Kotor using ? Buscroatia again? Same story as above. Imho, it just makes sense to check with Dubrovnik bus station schedule ( here) and leave ticket purchase to the time you will be in Dubrovnik. In this part of the world almost nobody buys tickets in advance (in many cases ticket sale in advance is not even available), so no worries about sold out connections Kotor -> Ulcinj using ? (would I have to take a bus to Podgorica and then another bus to Ulcinj? No, absolutely no need to go up to the mountains (obviously unless you want to travel old scenic Kotor-Njegusi-Cetinje road). You can stay by seaside and travel along the cost either by direct bus from Kotor to Ulcinj, or with change in Bar (buses from Kotor to Bar and from Bar to Ulcinj are more frequent, so you'll have more options) Ulcinj -> Tirana using (http://www.busstation-ulcinj-montenegro.com/index.php/departure-timetable-bus-lines-in-ulcinj-central-coach-station.html) Again, it's not really a bus company, but just Ulcinj bus station schedule.
170
« on: January 07, 2015, 12:52:05 pm »
Is there fairly easy transportation options from Bar to any interesting cities between there and Tirana? And then to Tirana as my final destination? Bar probably not, at least I don't know any regular bus connection from there to Albania, but it is fairly easy to reach Albania from Ulcinj. Buses depart few times per day, this seems to be the most official website for Ulcinj bus station Or even skipping Bar and going from Kotor to a beach place like Shëngjin or something similar? Never been to Shëngjin, but from my personal experience Bar isn't very interesting place to visit (obviously unless you want to take a look at final destination of Belgrade-Bar railway line or see leftovers of Jugoslavian naval fleet). While Ulcinj on the other hand happened to be a good place to stay for a day or two, at least couple years ago it was way less touristy and visibly cheaper ...and just was curious how transportation is on the Albanian side. Using rail transport in Albania is more rail fans thing, while locals mainly rely on frequent (mini)bus (furgons) connections, which are also really cheap for any westerner. In Albania it won't be a big problem to travel around using these bus/furgons
171
« on: December 11, 2014, 10:11:10 pm »
Direct train from Split to Budapest runs only during summer season (June-August) and takes around 15 hours, while the rest of the year it is necessary to change trains in Zagreb. Thus travel first from Split to Zagreb (from 6 hours) and then from Zagreb to Budapest (twice a day, 6:30-6:45 journey depending on connection)
172
« on: December 11, 2014, 09:20:43 pm »
Is bus the best option? Depends on your preferences, because if you have plenty of time and want to travel cheap, then probably bus is your best option. But if you have limited time and ok paying a bit more for the journey, then you can always fly (e.g. Kayseri-Denizli via Istanbul with Pegasus Airlines or Turkish Airlines) Will we need to book in advance? It is not just one bus company running between Cappadocia and Denizli (Metro Turizm, Suha Turizm etc.), so buying in advance isn't a necessary measure. Is there anywhere midway to stop over for the night? If you look purely geographically, then obvious choice here is Konya, it is roughly half way between your destinations + historic and relatively interesting place. But in case you prefer seaside stop, then you can always take a minor detour and make a stopover somewhere around Antalya Is it possible to do the trip by train? Yes, you can travel by train, but it will be very time consuming, since you have to travel first from Kayseri to Ankara (roughly 7 hours), then board Ankara-Izmir overnight train and get off in the morning at Alasehir, which is roughly 90 km from Pamukkale
173
« on: December 04, 2014, 03:47:42 pm »
Making a journey from Vienna/Vienna Airport to Heviz unfortunately are not among the easiest trips, but we'll try to explain all the option you have:
a) get private/group transfer. It won't be cheap + reliability of such charter type transfers aren't great (in pm we sent you couple links for the companies that might help you out, but also we would really recommend emailing your hotel/guest house in Heviz and asking administrators about private transfer possibilities, it might be the best option)
b) most reliable way to travel using public transport is going via Budapest. Hungarian Eurolines bus company offers direct buses from Vienna Airport to Budapest for as low as 5900 HUF per person on Dec.27 (for instance departure 11:15am with arr. to Budapest at 13:55), then from the same bus station you can catch direct Hungarian domestic bus to Heviz (for instance 14:15-17:05, from 3700 HUF per person), tickets for both legs can be bought at eurolines.hu website. The convenient thing about such an itinerary is that you reach Heviz with only one change. The big minus here is that you travel all the way by bus. As an alternative the same route (Vienna-Budapest-Heviz) can be done mostly by train, but in this case it will be necessary to travel first from Vienna Airport to Vienna train station, then from there to Budapest, from Budapest to Keszthely (nearest to Heviz train station) and finally last 8 km from Keszthely to Heviz by local bus, which means 3 changes.
c) if you are up for an adventure and exploring rural areas, then it's possible to plan a trip without going via Budapest at all (if you look at the map Budapest is quite a detour from the most direct route). Instead the trip to Heviz can be done via Sopron-Szombathely or via Gyor-Keszthely, but in these cases you have to make a number of changes + not always ticket purchase in advance will be possible, thus you have to buy your ticket as you go. In case you interested - let us know and we can help out with exact schedules and fare info.
174
« on: November 19, 2014, 12:25:52 pm »
situation already more or less clear. It's not yet December, but MAV already started listing new timetable  Direct car Kyiv - Budapest will operate but with other trains in absolutely other departure/arrival hours Weird decision from MAV and UZ, they basically reorient the connection from being favorable to Ukrainians (primary passengers for those carriages). Way to go for Wizzair... With new timetable it's quite senseless for usage between Hungary and Lviv With this new schedule it's kind of strange to see direct sleeping carriages Budapest-Lviv at all, pure inertia I guess. If UZ had any RIC seating carriages, then maybe it made some sense to have this sort of daytime European style connection, but do so with WLABm 
175
« on: November 17, 2014, 01:28:20 pm »
i'm planning to travel overnight in a 2 sleeper car, from budapest to prague on the 22nd of dec 2014. tried to book on mav-start.hu but there are no offers available. are the tickets all booked up? The reason here is quite trivial - second weekend of December is the time when almost all the European railways (including Hungarian Railways (MAV) change train schedule. Some companies are a bit lazy and enter new timetable into the system late, that is why for dates after Dec.13 MAV ticket shop doesn't sell train tickets yet. It's a bit difficult to guess when those guys in Hungary will do their job and ticket sale for dates after Dec.13 will be available (it can be tomorrow, but might be even in early December), but you can just visit MAV website time to time and check yourself. Although you should consider the fact that those preholidays period is very busy travel time, so discounted tickets that MAV sell online will be sold out pretty quickly. i've also tested a few dummy dates and it seems like all the sleeper options are not available but the day rides are. Hmm... for some dates discounted tickets for sleepers are sold out, but for many other they are still available and can be booked. It should look like this -->  would buying it off bahn.de be the same? Not really, because a) buying via German Railways (DB) website is more expensive and b) Germans will sell you tickets only for Budapest-Prague-Berlin carriages which arrive to Prague at 4am, so it might be a bit too early for many travelers (MAV website on the other hand sell tickets for Budapest-Prague carriages, which depart from Budapest with the same Budapest-Berlin train, but in the middle of the night get reattached to the other train insuring later arrival to Prague)
176
« on: November 08, 2014, 11:31:18 am »
How much is the ticket debrecen-lvov and return International return ticket Debrecen-Lviv (2nd class) will cost you 47 euro (or half that for one-way), obviously only when bought in Hungary or Ukraine. with sleeping cariagge of 3 places? As of now, 3 bed sleeper reservation Debrecen-Lviv is 12 euro (UZ carriage), but there is information that Russia will cancel (after schedule change in December) their #15 train with which Ukrainian and Russian carriages to Budapest run. Thus situation isn't clear yet what will happen with direct carriages running from Hungary to Ukraine and Russia. Canay I buy the ticket on line? No, MAV (Hungarian Railways) doesn't sell tickets to Ukraine online. However in case you really want to have your tickets in advance, you can always purchase online two domestic tickets: a) from Debrecen to Zahony (last station before the border), from 2200 HUF and b) from Chop (first Ukrainian station after the border) to Lviv, here prices start from roughly 2 euro. For the short (15 min.) trip across the border from Zahony to Chop tickets (2,7 euro one-way) are easily bought on spot before departure. As you can see, buying two domestic tickets and one short cross-border one can save you quite a lot of money compared to international ticket price, so if you ok with train changes it might be a good solution
177
« on: October 13, 2014, 01:02:31 pm »
so i guess i will buy treitalia ticket from Milan to ZuerichHB ..but i stop at Arth Goldau? right ... that i will buy now... Yep, somehow TrenItalia website doesn't have Arth-Goldau station in the list, but since the promo fare is the same (22 euro) it totally ok to purchase ticket till Zurich, but get off in Arth-Goldau (train definitely stops there, so no worries)
Just for your information (not important for this case, where usage of Zuerich is OK, because SMART fare is the same 22 EUR so possibility to choose Arth-Goldau is not important, but may be it will be useful to whoever in some other case, where it's more imporatnt) - it's possible to make trenitalia website to accept Arth-Goldau as start or destination point. Yes, auto-complete on main page really don't propose it to choose when you starting to type this location name. But in case if you just type in Arth-Goldau - and press CERCA button - it still works, and you'll see result of seach from/to this station.
Yep, you are right, Arth-Goldau is in the system, so apparently it's autocomplete to blame. Although if to get into this issue deeper, it's turns out to be a bit funny - on the Advance Search page autocomplete does find Arth-Goldau, even in two different versions
178
« on: October 13, 2014, 12:56:18 pm »
I'm just wondering should i be getting any eurail pass or any train pass if I'm doing travels milan to rome den rome back to milan .... and travel another day from milan to Zurich? No, especially if you have more or less fixed date and time of the day, what will allow you in advance ticket purchase. In Italy there are plenty of various options to travel cheaply using trains, for instance with TrenItalia you can actually travel from Milan to Rome for as cheap as 9 euro (or 29 euro with daytime high-speed trains) + besides TrenItalia in Italy you have a chance to use private rail company ( Italo), which also offers discounted tickets with in advance purchase. There is no such short term rail pass which will give you better fare then these discounted tickets, but even if there were in Italy besides actual rail pass for all the long-distance trains pass holders have to get seat reservation, which also costs money. So we advise you just to visit again TrenItalia website and Italo website, input Milan-Rome and Roma-Milan for the dates you want and see yourself how cheap you can travel
179
« on: October 03, 2014, 11:43:34 pm »
is Herceg Novi worth it to visit? If compared to Budva, then definitely yes, but making a long stopover probably isn't worth it. Maybe, in case you have time, make a stop for a couple of hours on the way from Dubrovnik or back, it should be enough time to see the town, Herceg-Novi isn't big. Do you think I'd need to book any thing in advance (ferry, bus) for any of the trips? Hvar especially or Mostar? I would think most the buses and trains I can just get the day of or a day or two in advance while I am there... No point to buy anything in advance (actually in many occasions it's not even possible to buy tickets online or in advance), locals usually just buy their tickets before departure. Plus it will be much easier to make some minor itinerary changes. May is a very early start of the season, so there is absolutely no need to worry about anything being sold out
180
« on: October 02, 2014, 12:06:27 pm »
Yes I chose Budva as I was thinking it was one of the better "beach type" atmosphere towns in Montenegro. Well, then you'll need to be ready to see a lot of drunken Russians Anyhow, all the towns there located close to each other, so basically it doesn't matter much where exactly you stay. If you get bored in Budva, then with 10-30 min. bus ride you can reach almost any nearby interesting place (Kotor, Sveti Stefan etc.) Split I decided because it was just kind of central between Dubrovnik and Zagreb. Obviously everybody has there own sightseeing habits, but as with Budva in Monenegro, I'll advise you to have a plan B in case you get bored in Split and decide to make a trip somewhere nearby. So how are the buses between Dubrovnik and Herceg Novi? Are they relatively common? Couple buses per day, Dubrovnik bus station schedule can be found here
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