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316
« on: May 12, 2013, 01:53:58 pm »
Well, regarding the possibility to book - it will be just our guesses about the reasons... at certain moment it might simply make sense to email SNCF and directly ask about the problem. No guarantees about them giving any decent answer, but at least it will be some sort of official reply  Regarding the choice of the seat, it's probably just nuances of sale system, too many options and no way to "combine". But again if you do decide to email SNCF, then why not to ask about this issue as well, who knows maybe we just don't find how to solve the problem, but there is actual solution
317
« on: May 09, 2013, 08:08:34 pm »
Well, journey from Russia to North Korea by train is probably one of the world trickiest rail journeys you can get  We don't have any experience buying such tickets, however have a few comments and suggestions, which hopefully can help you a bit I first contacted DB in the UK who can access and sell tickets across most of Europe. They were able to find both Khabarovsk and Tumangan in their system but it seems they could not find journey timings for non-mainline services (they were able to find these for the Trans-Siberian and Moscow to St Petersburg for example) or perhaps could not find journey timings for international services? It's almost useless to make tries to purchase MPT tickets (Russia to China, N.Korea etc.) in Europe, since DB, CD, SBB etc. all sell tickets using East-West tariff, it "ends" with Russian border, so pretty sure that it wasn't even Tumangan as station, but just Tumangan (gr.), which is a border point. As result even theoretically they won't be able to sell you neither ticket, nor sleeper reservation to North Korea. Non railways company affiliated ticket agencies in Europe, unless they have some kind of connections in Russia (=thus just serve as unnecessary "middle man"), won't help with such tickets as well. Anyway I also contacted Real Russia a Russian travel agency specialising in rail tickets. Would suggest to forget about these guys, since it's nothing else than a rip-off agency specializing on reselling Russian train tickets to the inexperienced foreign travelers, obviously while charging enormous commission MZHA (Moscow Railway Agency) This will be your solution, imho. However MZA, from what we know, is a bit old fashion place, so doubt you'll be able to arrange tickets just via email. Actual visit to the ticket counter in Moscow might be the only option here. Now about our suggestions... Since you already found pics of the tickets to North Korea you probably aware about well-known hero rail traveler Helmut and his famous journey? So we suggest you to contact Helmut (there are contacts on the blog page + he is frequent poster on some European rail forums). First of all he is way more experience particularly in terms of journey to the North Korea. Second, he had (and hopefully still has) some contacts in MZA (it was them who arranged all tickets for him), don't think he would mind sharing his contacts. All that might really simplify your task. p.s. also we would like to remind you that according to Helmut (thus around 2008), travelers shouldn't really count on getting to North Korea by train from Russia, because it's a risky task (not in terms of safety, but just North Korean border/international tourism politics) and that him and his friend were just really lucky that they actually managed to cross the border to North Korea via Khasan-Tumangan
318
« on: May 09, 2013, 05:13:53 pm »
We always glad to help fellow travelers  it does not make any difference when and where I buy the ticket Yep, just buy your ticket at any international ticket counter in Budapest (located at all the major station Keleti, Nyugati, Deli, MAV office at Jozsef Attila street), it will be easier than to deal with MAV website
319
« on: May 09, 2013, 04:21:23 pm »
Hi, Judit It's totally fine to ask any questions Even if something was already asked on forum before, then no guarantees that the situation didn't change with time, better to reask and be sure about current day information Regarding your question about Budapest to Bratislava, then the answer is really simple - in relation between Hungary and Slovakia return tickets cost less than one-way (sounds weird, but such things sometimes happen in Central Europe) and in the light of these Hungarian Railways (MAV) doesn't sell one-way tickets to Slovakia, but on the contrary sells return one (=cheaper). So if you search for return ticket, then you'll see something like  And can easily buy this ticket any moment, the return part of the ticket just won't be used by you However, do you really need to buy Budapest-Bratislava ticket in advance? The point is that none of the trains on this route required seat reservation, thus can't sold out, and the price of the ticket is always the same no matter when you buy your ticket (it's not like in Germany when in advance purchase can get you much lower price), as result most of the passengers just buy tickets like Budapest to Bratislava before departure and don't bother with not very friendly MAV eShop interface & further printing of the ticket via MAV ticket machine
320
« on: May 07, 2013, 12:58:49 pm »
I am hoping that they can sort out the issue of the direct train from Paris to Barcelona, but I am preparing myself if they are not able to do this. Well, doubt anybody (besides actual people from SNCF/Renfe involved in the "direct train" project) can really give you a certain answer here, so we, as potential passengers, just need to wait and see what happens, obviously it's not very convenient that all these is going on during peak season and many people kind of left with open plans, but that is how it is One thing I also note, if I try and choose a seat on the en.voyages-sncf.com website, I keep getting an error. I had hoped to get a seat upstairs for the view. I dont know if I will be able to make a choice here or not when the time comes to buy a ticket. Fully functional English version of sncf website is rather new thing, before we had to use tgv-europe website, there it was not a problem, various seating options were offered (we even discussed it recently here). Just a moment ago we tried en.voyages-sncf.com (random date in June) for both domestic and international (Paris to Figueres) TGV trains, in both cases seat choices were offered and we could select a seat & proceed, so maybe at the time when you've tried it was temporary problem (or not yet possible). So we suggest you to retry, and if it doesn't work this time, then give us an exact date and try you looking at, we'll try to take a look what might be the problem there
321
« on: May 05, 2013, 01:50:31 pm »
I'm still having problems with booking on SNFC Finally English version of French SNCF website got fixed ( http://en.voyages-sncf.com/en), so you can try booking via this one (however again remember to mark "France" as ticket collection country, that way you won't be redirected to Rail Europe website) What is the actual name of the Sorrento train station?Is it Sorrento Porto? Well, from our knowledge there is only one station in Sorrento. TrenItalia website for some reason calls it Sorrento Porto, while on Circumvesuviana website (eavcampania.it), which is the place to look for the schedule, it's just Sorrento How long does it take to get from Naples station to Sorrento station? And also from Rome station to Sorrento station? From Naples (Central Station) to Sorrento by Circumvesuviana (local company operator in Naples metropolitan area) it takes from 50 min. to 1:06 minutes (depending on connection). While fastest trains from Rome to Naples take 1:08 (Italo) or 1:10 (TrenItalia), so basically with change in Naples you can travel from Rome to Sorrento in less than 2:30 hours If i want to travel from Reggio Calabria to Sorrento what would be the best way? You can again take direct high-speed or intercity train to Naples, but in order not to make circles it's actually possible to get off in Salerno, catch local train to Pompei and there already mentioned Circumvesuviana train to Sorrento. Reggio di Calabria to Pompei with change in Salerno takes roughly 5 hours and then another 30 min. from Pompei to Sorrento My understanding is that there is no direct route so is it best to go from Reggio to Naples then Sorrento or Reggio to Rome then Sorrento? Rome is way to far, so it's very illogic to go all that way. And even change in Naples will be already a bit of going there and back, however with Reggio-Naples-Sorrento you'll need only one train change compared to two with Reggio-Salerno-Pompei-Sorrento
322
« on: May 05, 2013, 12:56:07 am »
It looks like it wont be changing to a one train service any time soon. Well, actually high-speed line is already constructed and Spanish trains are already serving Figueres, while French & Spanish authorities even kind of announced direct service already in April 2013. However there where some delays and judging from the fact that sale for July is not yet open (although it suppose to be already), it might be our guess that it is due to introduction of direct high-speed trains. Obviously it's not a 100% sure thing (at least scarce search didn't find any exact date for direct service launch), but good chance that in July you would be able to take direct train to Barcelona Is that correct, or has a mistake been made? I have never heard of a child's ticket being more expensive than an adult's ticket before, ever. With some railway companies indeed happens the situation that discounted adult ticket is actually cheaper than ticket for a child, plus in favor of railway also works the fact that when most passengers enter children passengers real discounted tickets (like 'Economica' in your case) just won't show up If that really is the case, can I just buy an adult's ticket for the child? Yes, it is not a problem to buy two adult tickets for adult+child traveling, nobody or nothing forbids you do to so. Actually it's the only reasonable way to proceed in cases like these, no need to overpay for a children's ticket when it is more expensive Also, the second leg of the journey goes from Figueres to Barcelona. On the SNCF website there is no way in which you can choose which class of ticket to choose as far as I can see. Is that correct, or is there something else that I need to do? Apparently the trick here is that 95 euro tickets presuppose 2nd class journey on AVE from Figueres to Barcelona, while 113 euro option (also called 'Economica') lists 1st class in Spanish AVE train. On SNCF website both are shown and can be bought. However saying honestly not sure that there is a reason to pay almost 20 extra euro for less than an hour trip in 1st class Is another option to go to the RENFE site? I can see that they have some ability to choose Preferente tickets rather than Turista tickets on that site. Has anyone ever done this before or is there another thing I need to do on the SNCF site? Just tried to buy Paris to Barcelona ticket via Renfe website (random dates in June) and pop up the problem that second leg trains from Figueres Vilafant (high-speed trains station) to Barcelona always shown as "Full Train", thus the whole journey is not bookable, while when entering just Figueres-Vilafant-Barcelona for the same date it magically shows up and can be booked, even discounted tickets. Don't know whether you'll get the same thing with Renfe website, but at least for us it seems like intentional obstacle in order not to allow booking of tickets like Paris-Barcelona via Renfe website
323
« on: April 29, 2013, 01:03:36 pm »
I am also thinking about option to travel Galati (Iassy) - Bucuresti - Craiova - Calafat with cheapest trains and then to find some other options in Serbia (I am going to Uzica really, not to Belgrade). Does it make sense in your opinion? Well, sounds interesting, but from Calafat you actually cross the border (by ferry) to Bulgaria (Vidin) and not to Serbia. You want to include Bulgaria? If not, than you probably will have to opt for Craiova-Drobetu-Turnu-Severin and try to cross Danube & the border there, however it is again might be not the simplest task May be there are some cheap buses/minibuses in Romania to save some penny? Haven't heard about any particular big low-cost bus companies in Romania, but usually we just check CFR options and then compare with ones found on autogari.ro (sometimes different companies give rather different price for the same route)
324
« on: April 28, 2013, 11:41:18 pm »
Logically thinking I see I can use both of them as they simply don't require reservation (at least between Salzburg and Budapest), but all this aufpreis/globalpreis/supplement information looks scary :-) Sorry, just went into a lot of unnecessary details about variable nuances of tariffication And yes, your logic seems right - use of both without any supplements or reservations is possible EN463 says "Global price or ticket plus supplement" so it seems I need some sort of supplement... Most likely it refers to tickets Germany-Hungary, for which on top of regular SCIC-NRT ticket special 5 euro extra charge/reservation (tariff code 44) required, with Austria-Hungary journeys it's not required
325
« on: April 28, 2013, 02:19:46 pm »
1. "Salzbur 7:02 RJ49" - that means even in Austria I am 'binded' to the morning Railjet? I've never seen it before for connections abroad... It's a first time I see it !! (nothing like that on the return ticket) Well, apparently the problem pope-up because for DB website Salzburg is a DB station, thus in a situation like yours system simply interpreted Salzburg as DB and "assigned" particular train. At least it seems like an explanation. Anyway, from my knowledge nothing really changed in terms of "zugbindung" and it's still about DB (+ gr. point) only. Btw, a bit similar problem was already discussed in one of the ice-treff topics here, so maybe it would be helpful to read through that as well (if my German doesn't deceit me, then colleagues ended up with the same opinion that any train can be used for Austrian part) 2. If for some reasons I am not binded in Austria, can I use any of the EN trains to arrive in Budapest earlier? Not an OeBB conductor, but don't see why you can't I don't see reservation obligation for both EN trains... (at least not in Austria and Hungary). No, it's not required It's only the one at 2am which is globally priced. Well, de-facto "Wiener Walzer" is priced globalpreis in terms of SBB-OeBB/MAV, while "Imre Kalman" not listed just as globapreis, it's a "mix" with fares given both as "Aufpreiszug MAV - DB" and "Globalpreis Erwachsene"
326
« on: April 27, 2013, 11:06:17 pm »
Option a) takes 27h 30m 27? Probably you meant 37? With Option c) it looks reasonable to catch train from Iassy to Timisoara (35 EUR for C6 in the night train), but it is not very clear how to be in Iassy on time and make it in convenient way. Well, train #12765 dep. Iasi 15:16 almost impossible to catch with start from Odesa in the morning, while #12837 dep. Iasi 19:30 can be caught if you start from Odesa with the first morning bus to Chisinau (should arrive to Moldova capital at 12:00), then, if you lucky, bus Chisinau-Iasi 12:00-16:00 or bus departing Chisinau 13:00 (arr. to Iasi 17:00). Also from Chisinau it is possible to travel by domestic bus to Ungheni and cross the border by local marshrytka or even train (although it's rather risky in terms of time) How to get from Timisoara to Belgrade is also not very clear, when it is not right time for trains. Not sure if there are buses on the route. Situation with local cross-border transport is traditionally bad here, so basically morning and evening train options to Vrsac are the only decent options in order to get to Serbia from Timisoara (from our knowledge there is no cross-border buses from Timisoara to Belgrade exist)
327
« on: April 27, 2013, 10:57:12 am »
Traveling from Warsaw to Grajewo isn't a problem, you can manage it easily without any knowledge of Polish Regarding train schedules there is a few direct trains per day and a couple of options involving one change (in Białystok):  As you can see trains departing 10:55am & 17:22 are direct ones, while with departures 7:30am & 13:55 short change in Białystok will be required, however you can purchase one through ticket, so you won't have hassle with buying two different ones Return journey timetable from Grajewo to Warsaw as follows:  What concerns tickets, then fares are 49,9 PLN for direct IR train or 56 PLN for direct TLK train (and for both direct trains you can actually purchase tickets online via official PKP PR and PKP IC websites), while with changing trains REG+TLK options will cost you 65,6 PLN or 43,1 PLN when using REG+IR trains. If you plan to purchase your tickets at Warsaw station, then it might be a good idea simply to write down the route, train numbers (or schedule) and travel date you need on a piece of paper and hand it to the cashier, this way you'll avoid any possible misunderstanding
328
« on: April 23, 2013, 02:08:54 pm »
I have spoken to TGV customer service and they said that their site does not accept Australian credit cards.  Imho, very dumb decision from them, they basically refusing many potential customers, weird tactics (obviously unless they intentionally want to promote rip-off agencies) Not sure what we can do to get the cheapest fare. Well, as a final measure (and if nothing works out with official French website), then I guess you'll be forced to address agencies like raileurope and see what they have to offer
329
« on: April 23, 2013, 01:51:46 pm »
Hi Zero Xenith, First of all sorry about delayed reply from us, sometimes we also travel and during such travel not always we have a chance to access internet in order to answer questions right away, we apologize Regarding your itinerary, then just let's have a look at each leg and see what we end up with: Krakow to Bratislava: for a full fare ticket you'll pay roughly 60 euro per person + another 9,4 euro (6 berth couchette) or 14 euro (3 bed sleeper). And yes, on route from Krakow to Bratislava/Budapest Polish Railways (PKP) offer special discounted SparNight offer (ticket+reservation for 6 berth couchette is 39 euro, for 4 berth - 43 euro and for 3 bed sleeper is 45 euro). However, as you already noticed yourself, PKP doesn't sell such tickets online via their website (although promised to do so long time ago, so shame on PKP). Now the only chance to buy SparNight tickets is either buy it directly via PKP ticket counter in Poland or use an agency, which obviously will charge some commission, but at the end the sum will be cheaper than full fare price mentioned above. Also if you not particularly in to a night train, ready for train changes/some ticket tricks or just can substitute train by bus, then obviously it won't be a problem to travel from Krakow to Bratislava much cheaper than 60 euro + sleeper reservation fare (9,4-14 euro) Bratislava to Budapest: here everything is easy, relatively cheap and totally doesn't require any booking in advance, since you can just show up at the station and buy you ticket, will be 17,5 euro per person Budapest to Belgrade: same as above, no need to book anything in advance (however you can do that), since one-way ticket bought in Budapest at the Hungarian Railways (MAV) ticket counter will cost you just 15 euro (or 23 euro with reservation in 6 berth couchette, 25 in 4 berth couchette or 27 euro for the ticket+ 3 bed sleeper reservation) Belgrade to Sofia: again it doesn't really make sense to book anything in advance (and anyway it's not possible with Serbian Railways and such trip), so buy the ticket (roughly 20 euro) and reservation (6 euro for 6 berth couchette or 10 euro for 3 bed sleeper) already in Belgrade Sofia to Istanbul: if you don't want to have a hassle with train to bus change at night, then obviously direct bus is your choice. Buses are numerous, run often and cost just like 50 BGN (app. 25 euro) As you can see, even with all the tickets bought at the stations before departures you will end up spending (just tickets) roughly 140 euro per person for the whole trip Krakow-Bratislava-Budapest-Belgrade-Sofia-Istanbul or plus extra 15 to 25 euro with sleeper reservations for two overnight journeys We're also slightly worried about trains selling out - is this likely to be an issue? Well, tickets won't sold out, however some problems might await you with sleeper reservations, especially since it's kind of high-season. So there is a chance to expect that 3 or 2 bed sleepers for Krakow-Bratislava-Budapest carriages can be sold out a few days in advance. However if such situation does happen, then you can always go with couchette or, as final measure, just travel in a seating carriage, at the end you hardly will be stuck in Krakow even if some reservations aren't available
330
« on: April 23, 2013, 01:09:16 pm »
Ruttweiler, we are really sorry for a late answer, were traveling, so had no possibility to answer your question earlier, we apologize
Regarding Italy to Athens, then obviously you have more or less three options to consider: a) catch a direct/with change flight from Rome to Athens by Aegean or EasyJet, as of now ticket fares aren't extremely good, but it's hard to wait much better one for the peak season; b) it is as well possible to fly only part of the route, like Rome to Thessaloniki with cheaper low-cost RyanAir, while from Thessaloniki simply to take a train to Athens (from 9 euro if purchased in advance) or from Rome to Corfu by Aegean (for Aug. 5 they have an ok price) and then ferry to the mainland and train/bus from there to Athens; c) and probably most fun, however time consuming option, is to get by train from Rome to Bari or Brindisi and from there use the ferry to Greek Patras. If the weather is good (should be during August), then the journey is really nice. Going from Patras to Athens is rather easy and cheap by train or bus
If neither of the above seems much appealing to you, then it is also possible to consider going all the way by land via Balkans, but it's long and at the end not very cheap journey, so makes sense only if you have time and want to see something interesting on the way
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